Utah Road Trip

Today I made the trek from SoCal to southern Utah. Hoping to visit a variety of National Parks in the area as well as other sights. Unfortunately, two of my top places are not going to happen. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed for the winter and will not be open until May. Booo. I also wanted to visit Vermillion Cliffs, but apparently it you have the ability to go off-roading, so that is no longer an option either. Oh well. Hopefully I ‘ll add some new photos soon!

First RAW Artist Show!!

I guess its a bit late, but I’m showcasing at my first RAW Artist show tomorrow! It’s been quite a journey, but it’s finally happening! I’ve spent a lot of time and money preparing for this show and hopefully it shows. I’ll do another blog afterwards, but I just wanted to do this quick post. Also, if it goes well, I may be doing a show in LA!!!!! Stayed tuned!

Happy Pride Month!

As an ally to LGBTQ+ people, I just wanted say a quick Happy Pride Month! Here’s hoping that one day everyone will be given equal rights and everyone will be love whoever they want. #loveislove #proudally

Welcome to the New New

Just wanted to write a quick note to welcome everyone to my freshly renewed website. I’ll probably be still making some tweaks, but I’ve added lots of photos and some format changes. Let me know what you think!!

It's Been Awhile...

Greetings! It’s been a minute. I haven’t posted in a while or updated this site in general. The last several months have been brutal. Work has been ridiculously busy and I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to take photos up update this page. I did do some photography in Laguna Beach, Death Valley and Monterey/Big Sur. I haven’t had much time to edit, As I get get more time to edit, I’ll add more. In the meantime, please follow my Instagram @jeffgacadphotography to see some more recent images. As always, thank you for your continued support.

Love/Hate...Social Media

How to use social media as a creative is something I’ve struggled with since I started taking my photography seriously. It’s been very much of a love/hate relationship. Social media is essential for creatives, but I feel like it’s been something that I have just not been able to make click for me.

Facebook was the first foray into social media for my photography. When I first started using it for my photography, I created a page for it. It started off ok. I used to post many of my photos there and I had a pretty decent following and interactions. I soon learned that many people didn’t enjoy the photos I liked taking the most and pivoted to create seperate pages for those (I still do them, but I rarely post/share). At some point, Facebook change the algorithms for their pages. Images views dropped like a rock. I got very few new members. Interactions (likes/comments) essentially evaporated. That is when Facebook started sending me messages that I could PAY to get more views from my page SUBSCRIBERS!!! Sorry, but that is complete B.S. I took a poll and 90% of my page subscribers NEVER saw anything I posted. I decided to transition to a group instead. This started doing well and I believe I actually had more members than I did on my page. I encourages members to participate in photo challenges and it was fun. At some point, Facebook again nerfed the algorithm so that I suddenly started to have very few views and interactions. I grew extremely frustrated with Facebook and ended up shutting everything down. The only presence I have there now is if I post anything on my personal page.

Next is Vero. This was supposed to be the next great social media hub for creatives. I really loved the format and user interface. It was my favorite social media platform I’ve used to date. Unfortunately, it never caught on with, well, pretty much anyone. Another fail.

Instagram has probably been my most consistent platform to use. Although I have somewhat recently scrubbed it and restarted it, it’s what I’ve put the most time and effort into. I currently have my main page as well as seperate ones for my surf photography and aviation photography. I don’t use the latter two much, but I have a lot of backlogged images for those two. Instagram, however, has been a source of frustration as well. I realize it’s not supposed to be about the likes or followers, but it’s a little about the likes or followers. You can’t build a brand or reputation without either. Getting new followers has been a struggle. I’ve been stuck at around 350 for about the last year. In February or March, I decided to make it a goal to get to 500. I’m still at the same number. I see other photographer’s page who I believe have vastly inferior content who have 3-5 times the number of followers that I do. For the life of me, I have no idea how to get more followers and get my content in front of new eyes. I use quite a number of hashtags, way more than I care to, and I get a couple new followers with every few posts. I usually lose a few as well which I why the numbers stay stagnant. I am really at a loss here, but I guess I’ll keep trudging along.

Finally, we have Twitter. Earlier this year, I really made and effort to create and maintain a Twitter page for my photography. In many podcasts, I’ve heard this has been a great place for photographers. I have not found that to be the case. I rarely use it now.

So there we have it. I really don’t know where to go withy this, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to give me suggestions.

New Blog Format

Welcome to my new blog format. I’ll keep this part short and sweet before the actual blog. I wanted to use this in a different way. I’ll probably do some news and updates occasionally, but I think I’d like to do more telling stories…maybe about things I like or maybe about a particular image I’ve taken. I’m going to try and post a new one every Friday..at least I’ll try my best to!