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I'm here today with Dustin Abbott of Thousand Word Images. We're going to learn a little bit
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about Dustin's journey in photography. Every journey has the beginning. So how and when did
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you start your adventure with photography and what were your first steps? Well there's really
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there's kind of two things that I would point to and the first of those was growing up my dad was
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into photography to some extent. We traveled a fair bit. And as a part of that, he, it was back
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in the days of slides. And so one of our kind of family's main pastimes is that we would watch
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slides, we would watch photos. And so I think there was kind of a, kind of an osmosis process
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where I absorbed photography, at least in the way that, you know, he did it at that point. And so it
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was an important part of that. Then going back about 12, 13 years ago, I got a position with our
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religious organization. And, um, and part of that was, was media oriented. And so I started taking
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pictures, just kind of documenting events and, you know, the bug caught me. And so took off from
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there. Did you know from the moment you've taken your first picture, what kind of photography
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that you like best and what's right for you and what you like to capture the most and why
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and what inspires you the most? I wouldn't say that there's any one type of photography that
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really, really drives me. I'm more invested in what I'm doing at the moment. So if I'm
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if I'm out shooting landscapes, I love doing that. If I'm shooting macro photography
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I'm into that. If I'm shooting portraits or weddings, it's, it's more about being in the
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moment. And because I am a gear person and I'm constantly dealing with, you know, doing the
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reviews of different pieces of gear. I think part of the challenge that I like to accept is to get
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the best out of whatever I happen to be doing at the moment. So obviously if I'm testing a macro
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oriented lens, then I'm very focused on macro photography and I want to, you know, to really
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test the gear, but also to challenge myself to see if I can get the best out of a piece of gear
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whether it's extraordinarily expensive or if it's a cheaper product. I want to, you know
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I want to say that I've gotten something that I can be proud of with every piece of gear. And so
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whatever I'm happy to do at the moment, that's what I'm into. I'm oriented on
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What's your most memorable and the most exciting experience related to photography
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that helped you in understanding what photography is to you personally? Well, as far as the way that my photography has kind of evolved into becoming a gear reviewer
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my wife and I will remember times when I kind of would express a dream of doing basically what I do today
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and so I think that where that breakthrough really came is that initially I did some reviews of things that I owned myself
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and it's pretty easy to get the product when you've spent the money to buy it yourself so I just reviewed things that I personally owned
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and then based on that little portfolio I got one of the distributors here in Canada to take a shot on me
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and to send me a loaner lens now at this point this was a loaner of a lens
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that had been on the market already for seven or eight months And so it wasn necessarily a new thing But based on the strength of that and the fact that I applied myself and I think did a good job with it when the next piece of gear was coming to market in fact in this case before it was even released to the general population they extended an invitation for me to spend some time with it
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And so I worked on that and it was really, really exciting to be able to have in my hands something that people maybe knew existed but had never actually used
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And so then when I got permission to even kind of release it a little bit early before it even hit the market and they kind of fudged the release day a little bit and let me go to market early
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and Canon Rumors website, I had been talking to them and so they featured that actual review
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Well, I mean, for the first time I had a breakthrough in terms of traffic. In fact, so much traffic that I discovered that my website wasn't ready to handle it. And I basically broke
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my website. I lost a lot of sleep over it. But I realized at that point that I had the potential
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to really expand this and to be successful at it. And from that point, it kind of really began to
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to build. And, you know, I may not have as much excitement over every piece of gear
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that comes through my hands, but every now and then there is something that I'm really personally excited about. And I get some of that same kind of feeling of, you know
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it's fantastic to do what I do. Can you remember any moment when you noticed the biggest change or
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improvement in your photos? Like what helped you with that? It wasn't really any, I wouldn't say a
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particular moment, but the one thing that I did that I've, I've recommended to a lot of photographers
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sense. And that is to look at a lot of photos, particularly those from people whose work you
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admire. And I am a firm believer that as you look at good work, it subconsciously influences you
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yourself. Not that you should become an imitator of someone else, but I think that if you start to
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understand what works in photography and what doesn't, there's a big difference between what
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your eye sees and what a camera sees. And, you know, there's, there's obviously huge strengths
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to what we see visually, but there are also techniques you can use in photography that can
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produce something that is really visually interesting that your eye cannot do. And it was
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it's really kind of learning what worked in a photo, both of my own work, but also by looking
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at the work of people that I admire and seeing, you know, they've done something that's really
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really fantastic. Now, what can I learn from that? What can I absorb from that? And I would say that
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that and understanding how photography gear actually works. And on that note, I always
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encourage people also to actually learn things like aperture and the relationship between that
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and depth of field and things like that. Because when you start to understand what photography
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what actually takes place when you take a photograph, it really helps you to be able to visualize how to create, or maybe gives you the expertise to create what you can visualize in
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your mind and so I think those two things really helped me a lot
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Speaking of techniques, can you give us some advice of something that worked for
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you to help you track your progress and to keep you on going forward in your
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photography journey Well I have tracked obviously I mean I mostly came to become a photographer in the age in which we have you know all in the internet age basically And so all along the way there metrics through a lot of basically all the different places you might share your work
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And so while I have tracked that, you know, those metrics, and I think it does give you some feedback as to what works and what doesn't
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I also have learned to kind of value my own inner voice in that because I've shared some exceptional photos that weren't all that critically successful
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And then I've shared some mediocre photos that were very, very successful
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And so at the end of the day, I still know which is which. And so I'm not really moved by that
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I don't want to do photography based on an algorithm. I mean, I've noticed that there are some people who are very successful on photo sharing sites that basically share variations of the same theme every time
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They just do the same thing over and over again because they've determined that it's popular. I don't ever want to do that
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I want to do the kind of photography that actually motivates me and not boil this down to some kind of algorithm that says, you know, if I do this and I demonstrate it this way, I'm going to get a lot of critical success for it
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So in a sense, I would say that I value my own opinion more so than what I value the opinion of the crowd
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And I think in many ways, that's more of what being an artist is about
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They say that you can't grow without being challenged or without challenging yourself
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So what is the most challenging part of photography for you and how do you challenge yourself in that
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Well, one of the things I think I've personally, just maybe because of my personality type
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is that I had to learn how to properly process criticism. And to learn what is actually constructive criticism
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things that I can grow from, and that which is just someone being small
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And out on the internet, people are anonymous. And so they say and they do things there
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that they wouldn't necessarily do in person. And so you really do have to learn to kind of parse out
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what is someone just being a troll, as we call them on the internet, and what is actually
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constructive in terms of criticism, something that I should have done better, you know
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was that horizon actually crooked? And so for me, it's not becoming, you know
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wounded by words that are just said by some person that's either jealous or, you know, just
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being abusive, but also to be open, you know, so growing more thick skin, and I've had to do that
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more and more as I've become increasingly a public figure and I have just access to a lot more people
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who can criticize me. And so, you know, you do have to develop thicker skin, but also I don't
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ever want to get to a place where, you know, you're kind of entitled or arrogant to where you think
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that you're above criticism because a lot of what I've learned along the way, either on gear or in
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photography has come from being challenged, doing research and, you know, either reinforcing my
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position and articulating it better or recognizing that I got something wrong and that I needed to
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grow from that And so that my takeaway I think it about how to properly handle criticism and to actually use it to become better Right Last but not least Dustin if you could turn back time restart your journey what do you think you do differently And think of it as advice from yourself now to when you first started in your journey in photography Sure
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Well, I would say that the biggest thing that I would, I would say for myself and I would say to
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others is that I would be quicker to sever ties or sever relationships with either companies or
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individuals that I didn't actually enjoy working with. When you started off, you know, you're really
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hungry. You're really desperate for every opportunity that comes your way. And so as a
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result, in some of the early years, I persisted in relationships that made me miserable. I mean
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I felt like people were kind of taking advantage of me or they were poor communicators. And so I
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would be frustrated because I would follow up on something they had asked for and then I'd hear
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nothing from them. And, and so, uh, and it was really liberating when I recognized one day
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you know what, I can walk away from this relationship. I don't have to be in this
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relationship, you know, and got over that fear that if I wasn't in these, you know
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either poor or abusive really relationships that, um, you know, that I could have no success
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And so I think if I could go back, I would, I would prioritize doing business with, you know
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interacting with people that I actually enjoy. And I'm really thankful. There's tons of people
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in the photography industry all around the world that I really, really enjoy doing business with
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people that I have great relationships with, that I enjoy communicating with, that I
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you know, learn from and grow with. And, um, and I'm very thankful that I'm, I'm not doing business
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with anybody at the moment that I don't enjoy doing business with them. And, uh, and I think
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that if I could go back and redo it, I would, I'd make that my policy faster. Thank you for your
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time today, Dustin, and sharing your photography journey. So now on the next interview, who would
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you like to see and learn about? Which photographer inspires you and you want to learn more about
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Well, there is, there's another Canadian photography, photographer by the name of Megan
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Lorenz. And, um, and you can find her at, at MLorenz Photography on Instagram or www.MLorenzPhotography.com
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and what she does is she is a fantastic wildlife photographer, and here in Canada
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which means that she's often out in harsh winter conditions. She gets fantastic wildlife shots
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and she goes into a provincial park that's actually not far from where I live, and the
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reason why I really admire what she does is I could never do it. I do not have the patience to
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sit out in the blind and the cold for hours after hours just to nail that perfect shot. And she gets
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fantastic shots. And I say more power to her because I have like, I would love to get the
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shot she does. I have zero interest in the process that I know it has to take for her to get that
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And so I really admire what she does because it is so different from what I do. You know
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I talked about, you know, shooting in the moment. Well, her moment, she has to wait a long time for
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them to arrive and I think that's pretty awesome. Thank you for sharing with us
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today Dustin Abbott. Thank you
