Instagram is dead. Since they replaced ‘recent posts’ with ‘top recent posts’ on hashtags your content will only be seen by your followers if you’re lucky. Unless of course you pay meta to promote your content.

It can be tough to stay inspired when you’re restricted to one location however, like any restriction, you can use it to force yourself to be more creative with what you do have. Try new styles, b&w, portraits, macro, abstract, long exposure, see your small town in a new way.

Find a local photography group. Discuss the craft and share your work with real people in a real room. I guarantee you’ll find that more fulfilling than a month of doom scrolling on insta.

Shoot other stuff. Learn macro, or product, or general still life.

If you want to shoot beautiful countryside, you either have to live near it, or be okay with travelling a lot.

I’m privileged to live in the Peak District, where beautiful countryside abounds, but if it’s dark by the time I finish work for 4 months of the year, that’s doesn’t help me much. So I shoot macro, because the weather and natural light doesn’t matter for that much. I also shoot product.

There’s stuff to shoot all around you, just look for it.

Hey mate, I’ve just moved to the UK from Australia and looking for places to shoot. Hit me up on Instagram _classic.cam . Currently living in Manchester.

I’ve made a few prints of a photo I was really happy with which I’ve tried selling on Etsy, all of which remain to be unsold.

Supply and demand. Photography is an art form that has very little demand for “artistic” works. Most people who want to buy things like prints, do so out of self interest… i.e. they commissioned a photographer to take pictures of themselves or something they care about. People, generally, arent just getting online and searching for high res prints of trees or lakes or parks or anything for the matter.

Also any advice on growing my audience would be amazing, because as much as I love doing it for my own pleasure, I still want

Reality is, photographs are a dime a million. People scroll by literally hundreds or even thousands of photographs daily on their IG or Facebook and dont even notice or give them a second thought. So who cares what other people think or how many likes you get? Truth is, nobody really cares.

Pictures of my kids I took in the yard get twice as much social media response as pictures of a grizzly bear I tracked for 2 days and waited hours to photograph. Or a herd of bison I drove a dozen hours just on the hope that id catch them during their migration. Nobody cares… out of the thousands upon thousands of people that had laid eyes on those shots, of which are some of my favorite… one person said “these are some of the best photos ive ever seen”. Again, not to be cynical, but nobody cares lol. A like doesnt constitute a good photograph anymore than the excessive cost a food at a 5 star resturant constitutes increased nutritional values. The two are unrelated.

The reality is, if pictures arent directly related to the viewer… then nobody cares about your pictures for more than a few seconds. Very rarely history have pictures surfaced that render a massive amout of people awestruck. Ansel Adams, arguably the most renowned photographers ever, and I cant accurately recall a single one of his puctures in my head right now. Very vaguely, yes. But the truth ive seen so many photographs of landscapes that they all just kind of blend together.

Ultimately, nobody truly cares about your photography even remotely close to how much you do. Nobody thinks about it, looks at it, wants it on their wall, etc… as much as you. People are motivated by their own self interests. So if you want people to hold your photography to a higher regard, youll have to start taking clients and doing paid photoshoots for people. If you just want to gain popularity for your hobby… then start s youtube channel and focus more on the lifestyle aspect of it.

Ive been a photographer for like 15 years, and now moreso than ever photographs are a dime a million. Most people (in developed countries) are walking around with an excellent camera in their pocket in their smart phone. Of which they can also use to share any photograph they take with all of their friends/family/followers in literally a few seconds after capturing it. Theyll snap a shot, having it uploaded in 30 seconds, hundreds or thousands of people will scroll by it within the next few hours, some liking it some not but all completely forgetting about it within a matter of mintues or less, and the cycle repeats. Thats is the reality of modern day photography. People generally dont care, and they almost always forget about it.

Take photographs and upload them because you love it. Screw what everyone else things about it or how many likes it gets.

The only solution other than traveling to amazing locations would be shooting intimate and small scenes. So forget your wide angle and try to isolate subjects with a telephoto.

These will be even harder to “sell” though, because of the more abstract nature. But you can do this just for your own sake, so you’re at least shooting something.

I know how unispiring it can be when I’m stuck in my hometown and not traveling. It feels like there’s not even a point in going out with your camera…

I think it’s the same wherever you live. I live in Brighton and have started going to London as there’s nothing much here that interests me. As for Instagram likes and selling photos. I guess that’s just the way of things at the moment. No one really cares about still images anymore.