The MOOD Podcast

How I’d Learn Photography in 2025 (If I Were Starting from Scratch) - Moments of Mood, 2.6

• Matt Jacob

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Welcome back to another episode of Moments of Mood, and this week I break down how I would actually learn photography if I were starting over today. Not from theory — from experience. I reflect on my own path, critique the broken systems of education, and offer a mindset-first, meaning-driven approach to building your photography from the ground up.

You won’t find a checklist of gear. You’ll find an invitation to slow down, tune in, and start making images that reflect something honest.

***Want to watch the 6-hour FREE photography course video that follows this episode? Yes, that's right, I have given away the first 6 hours of my photography course FREE for you to watch on YouTube!***

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/PZ-ePEf26vA

Some things I touch upon:

  • Why traditional education fails most creatives
  • How to build your artistic identity, not just technical skill
  • The importance of books, long-form learning, and mentorship
  • What to ignore (gear hype, comparison, validation traps)
  • What to lean into (honesty, curiosity, community)

If this resonates, I guide photographers through this process every day. Not with a blueprint, a practice. Not a course, a path. If you want to find more, click on the link below under 'Learn With Me' to find out more about my highly tailored and individualized mentorship program.

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Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!

Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can also watch this episode on my YouTube channel (link below) where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as my social media, so make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Threads and TikTok or check out my website for my complete portfolio of work.

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www.mattjacobphotography.com

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Speaker 1:

So you want to learn photography. Maybe it's a quiet curiosity, maybe it's a full-blown obsession. Either way, the pull is real, that desire to make images that don't just look good but feel like something. But where do you even start? Do you go to photography school? Do you try to teach yourself? Do you just go down a rabbit hole on YouTube? How much gear do you actually need? How much will it cost? How much do you need to save? How much do you need to spend? How do you know you're even doing it right? Well, let me offer you a slightly different lens on this. Yes, pun intended. Let me tell you how I would learn photography today if I was actually starting from a blank canvas, starting from scratch. And I won't tell you just the answer yet. I mean, it's not a simple, quick answer, but it will tell you this it wouldn't start with a syllabus and it wouldn't start with a purchase. Yes, I will need to buy my course and join my mentorship and join our community, but it would actually start with a deceptively simple question why do you want to learn photography? Because your answer to that question, your real answer, will shape everything else that follows, and that that is something I cannot answer for you. All I'd say is this the reasons need to be genuine and aligned with the authentic version of yourself, not for what you think you want to be, look like or achieve in life.

Speaker 1:

When I look back at how I actually learned photography not the story I tell on stage or the bio version that sounds good I see it clearly. It was shaped by mistakes and by time. A lot of time I didn't take a course, I didn't sit in a classroom, I didn't really have a roadmap. I said yes to weird and wonderful opportunities. I made terrible images and just kind of figured it out by doing just fumbling along. And if I had to do it all again, knowing what I know now, I really would not seek out formal education. Not because I want to make the same mistakes again and not because I don't believe in education Quite the opposite, actually.

Speaker 1:

I think education is everything, but I think it's broken. Most of us are educated in just the wrong things. We memorize facts we'll never use. We perform to pass tests, not to actually understand. We're sorted, graded, filtered, but not prepared not prepared for life. Nobody teaches us how to deal with failure or even respects it as a part of the learning process. Nobody teaches us how to trust our instincts or how to think freely and see deeply.

Speaker 1:

And in photography it's really no different. Traditional education tells you how to light a scene, but not necessarily how to see one. It tells you how to compose, but not actually how to feel and how you come out, knowing how to follow instructions but not actually how to originate, and in the end, you become more obedient than, let's say, curious, more polished and performative than personal. Your work becomes really technically sound, even impressive, of course, but it doesn't necessarily haunt, it doesn't question, it doesn't say anything, because you were never encouraged to say anything just to get it right. So don't try to be the best, just be the only. And in today's world where AI is evolving by the minute and the photography space is just so saturated, more than ever, being that kind of clinical technician doesn't make you stand out. All it does is make you replaceable. The only thing that makes your work powerful is you. So how do you become that kind of photographer, if you even want to? You know the kind that creates from instinct, not imitation.

Speaker 1:

Well, here's how I would do it. I begin by listening, and not in the shallow scrolling type of way, but deeper listening to long form conversations with artists, thinkers, photographers, people who have been creating for decades and still ask questions. And I'd hone the skill of listening. You know podcasts like the Candid Frame that's been around for so long, or a small voice by Ben Smith and, of course, my own show, the Mood Podcast. These tend to not be just interviews, they're more like mirrors. They remind you that even the most seasoned artists still wrestle with doubt, that the path is never linear, that what matters is actually just showing up and practicing and doing it again and again. And from there I would study the greats with reverence, not by swiping Pinterest boards but by buying books. There's something sacred about holding a photo book sitting with one image on a page for minutes, not scrolling past it in seconds.

Speaker 1:

I remember getting lost in the poetic quiet of Alex Soth, the cinematic weight of Joey L, the vibrant humanity of Steve McCurry. I studied the scale and theatre in Annie Leibovitz's portraits and the painterly abstraction of Sal Leiter's reflections. And even now I find myself drawn to the dust and distance in Matthew Jenin Tempo's West Texas or the weathered truth in Brian Skutemat's American Landscapes. There is always something to be found and an inspiration waiting around the corner. And these aren't just images, of course. They're voices, they're philosophies. They show the world and how the artist sees it. And if you sit long enough, you begin to feel their rhythm. Not to mimic, but to tune your own, your own rhythm. Be careful though Inspiration is great, envy is corrosive. When you measure your journey by someone else's highlight reel, it completely distorts everything, if not implodes it. Healthy inspiration stretches you. Envy shrinks you. So protect your lens, take what helps and leave the rest.

Speaker 1:

Next, I'd go to more galleries and museums, and not just ones dedicated to photography. More galleries and museums and not just ones dedicated to photography. I'd stand in front of a Rothko and feel what silence looks like. I'd study the geometry in architectural drawings. I'd observe how tension is created in sculpture or how light shapes meaning in a Caravaggio, because visual literacy is not confined to one medium. The more you expand your visual inputs, of course, the richer your photographic vocabulary becomes. You begin to see light, shape and story everywhere, and your images change even before you press the shutter.

Speaker 1:

I never did that. I always assumed photography was confined to well, cameras. And it's not. Of course, and don't be small-minded like I was I'd also find other photographers not to compare with but to grow alongside. I'd join photo walks, group critiques, a community, a weekend project. I'd message someone whose work I admire, maybe, and ask if they just want to meet for coffee. Real learning is relational. You grow so much faster when you're seen by others, when you're challenged, when you're encouraged, and often these types of conversations over coffee or late night DMs or whatever your kind of methodology is are where you start to hear your own thoughts out loud for the first time.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a club kind of guy, but if that's you, then lean into photography clubs. Community is key to growth and at some point I'd look for a mentor, a real person, someone who's a few years ahead of me, not to idolize but to help me see my blind spots. They don't have to be an expert, but they do have to be someone whose photography I of course, like and of whom I respect, someone who will ask hard questions, who will offer honest critique, who will take my work and my goals seriously, because constructive feedback, especially on, say, your portfolio, is actually one of the most important ingredients of getting better. It's one of the most difficult, one of the most important Online platforms like 1xcom or 100ASA can help with this as well. They allow you to curate others, receive feedback for yourselves and sharpen your eye, not just by making, but by editing and reviewing work critically. That kind of curational practice really trains you in a way few other things do.

Speaker 1:

Of course, I'd still use YouTube. Oh, my goodness, I really didn't have it at the time. But yes, don't shy away from it at all. Find the educator on here that resonates with you the most and just binge. It's brilliant for understanding tools, editing gear, but don't mistake it for transformation. No one has ever found their voice through tutorials online alone. That happens when you apply what you've learned again and again and again and reflect honestly. Youtube can teach you settings right, gear editing, how to dodge and purn, how to do all of your tricks and stuff, but it can't tell you why you want to keep your shadows, your highlights, your frame, your vision. That's your job. And as for gear, well, I'd keep it minimal One camera, two lenses, maximum, preferably prime lenses.

Speaker 1:

Don't listen to people who rave about their 24 to 70s. It's just nonsense. It's laziness. Learn to shoot with a fixed box. It'll challenge you more and you'll learn a lot faster. Resist from buying new stuff until you're proficient, because I've been there and done it. Every time I've chased gear thinking it would maybe unlock something new in my photography, I've ended up circling back to just the same truths Tools are only as good as your relationship with them. Familiarity breeds fluency, fluency then creates freedom, and the more you simplify, the more you see.

Speaker 1:

And finally, let's talk about competitions. I don't really get them. I don't really enter them. I know that they're tempting, it's just status chasing, though it's some kind of external validation we can pin to our story, to our profile or even use to try and get jobs. And I get that. We all want vehicles to monetize and we all want some external validation. But competitions are a narrow funnel. They're judged subjectively, often within a closed circle of taste. They can be bloody, expensive, exclusionary and sometimes more about industry alignment than actually artistic merit. I'm not saying don't enter at all, I'll just maybe be careful, test the waters, be mindful, because competitions might push you to refine a project, to edit tightly, to articulate your vision, but don't let a win or a rejection define your worth. In the end.

Speaker 1:

Photography isn't about accolades, right. It's not about how many people follow your work or how many awards sit next to your name. I know it's easily conflated with that these days, but at its heart it's about resonance, that quiet moment when something you made speaks first to you and then to someone else. There's nothing, it's almost indescribable. You don't find your voice by waiting. You find it by making. Noise and taste is built by seeing slowly, not by scrolling fast. The more personal your work, the more universal it becomes. So don't ask permission, just make what only you can Remember. Don't try to be the best, be the only.

Speaker 1:

So what's the point? Why am I saying all this? Well, I want you to treat photography education not like a system, but like a version of self. It's almost a way of seeing in and amongst itself, of trusting your perspective, of validating your curiosity and of letting your mistakes, your obsessions, your truth be the work itself, because you're not behind, you're not too late, you're not unqualified just because you haven't done a degree or a certain course. If you're paying attention to what moves you, you're already on the right path. So just begin. Begin awkwardly, boldly, imperfectly, but just begin, because everything changes once you do.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're watching the video version of this rant, then just continue watching and you'll see my take on how to take incredible portraits with what gear you already have, preferably gear worth less than $500. But if you're just listening to this episode, then go to the link in the description to see the course. But please remember, this is my take on it, my methodology. It's not the universal truth on how to do photography. Right? You get what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, if this kind of message resonated with you, if you're looking for a more intentional, more human way to learn photography, I hold people's hands exactly through that. Not a blueprint, a practice, not a course, a path. You'll also find the link below to find out more. But whether you click on it or not, just please keep showing up. We need your art, we need your creativity, because this craft doesn't belong to the most technical or the most trained. It belongs to those who keep paying attention and who keep trying, who keep creating, and that that can be you. So best of luck, see you on the other side. Happy shooting.

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Matt Jacob

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