My response to Andy Adams of FlakPhoto. IF you are a photographer or love photography, please check out Andy Adams, THE coolest man covering photography, photographers, social and more. He asked us about using social. Wanted to know our responses about a talk he gave this week [His post 9/4/2025]. My long response:

I started a Substack because there’s a lot of things I want to share that are beyond early Punk Rock history. I was very encouraged by his talk when people said 1920×1080 images display fine.

BUT I gotta say this: NO ONE has ever reached out to me about any photos that ppl post on social OTHER than Facebook!!

I get no traction from people posting my photos on IG, Bluesky, X, tumblr, etc, although they have tens of thousands of followers.

I get FAR more action when I send out rare email newsletters. FACEBOOK is my best platform cos that’s where my punk photo fans hang out. So many are IN my photos. So when they share, my photos mean something to their fans.

And I can reach out to rock writers, some I know, others who love my work, and ask them to share info. THAT works out better than posting on all the social sites.

Word of mouth is the key for my photos. Hmm …

I frankly dunno how people know my work. I once had a Black Friday sale. Sold ALL over Europe! Norway! Scotland! Italy! France!

BUT the downside now are HIGH postal rates. They can pay as much for a print as postage! OR if I don’t offer signed prints, I can print in Europe and save lots of postage costs.

Another reason I’m also working on my membership club. Costs money to do what I’m doing! Even if just for all the many apps and hardware needed. Plus the time, decades of time.

I just found and installed “Send by Elementor,” the easiest, coolest email newsletter service for WordPress users.

MY POSTS HERE WILL ALWAYS BE FREE!

I haven’t and dunno if/when I will make a Substack header image or any of the other varied sized images. THAT IS WHY I HATE IG AND FB!!! And Thinkific and Teachable and Ghost and so on. [Written before I left Substack.}

They ALL expect US to merely crop our photos to fit certain sizes and proportions. OH yeah? NOT happening to my photos!!

I keep reminding myself to put my images in THE MIDDLE of the 1920×1080. This trained fine artist and graphic artist thinks of basic design principles. Balancing where the copy goes vs the image.

CHUCK BERRY IS A ROCK ICONIC GOD!!! I was so thrilled to see him do his legendary duck walk I almost forgot to take the photo!! [HOW TO CENTER THIS TEXT???? NO ALIGNMENT OPTION?? Another reason I left Substack.]

I add copy cos I AM BEYOND PISSED OFF AND FED UP that people misidentify WHO, what, where, when of my HISTORICAL photos!!! And of course, not bothering to mention my name or putting it in the text only.

I even created images with text on the sides(s) to be easily downloaded via Google Drive or my site. NO excuses to post CRAPPY versions of my published work all over the net. LAZY POS!

A week ago I sent DMCAs cos of Punk Rock History on bluesky, X and tumblr cos they REFUSE to use my approved photos. I talked to them for YEARS!!

So now they know not to post my pix. Ok, so their following is 80K!!! BUT NO ONE has ever reached out to me about any photos they posted!! They tended to be rather snarky for the sake of being snarky.

So yeah, I have more work to create and think like arrogant programmers who don’t care about artful compositions. They rather we jump around redesigning images JUST for their headers, their social media images, one for within a post and one as a post preview, and on and on.

I am doing minimal work on that!

I want to share my journey. Dealing with tech. Plus some things about photography. Esp facts like we DO color correct “black and white” photos because they really are not b/w. They are grayscale.

(People really do question me when I say I need to color correct images they claim are black/white. Hmm … even those are colors. We get black/white paints, crayons, pencils, right??)

A lot of thoughts that arise from dealing with people and my photos that I’d love to share. From color correction to pricing when licensing photos. The importance of being very clear about our costs and fees. And holding firm when people want to license photos for books, docs, mags, etc but refuse to provide specs.

Mostly just about my journey. Plus misconceptions about what went on behind my photos. Like life in mid to late 70s. VERY different than now. Not so divisive politically and racially. LOW LOW cost of living. Affordable housing. Plentiful jobs. Cheap gas and airline tickets.

And many joyful memories. Plus some scary, sad times. But I wanna focus on the good stuff. Like my adventures with Iggy. Hanging with Dee Dee Ramone, while taking my first ever photos of real people and live rock bands! Flying to England to shoot THE CLASH!

AND share Before and After photos of crap slides and the magic of LIGHTROOM. No auto features. No overt AI. AI IN the tools, not prompts or expecting AI to do the work! NOT MY ART!

I like color correcting by using my skills and software doing what I’ve wanted it to do since 1980! Bringing life back into my images that I know I captured. Magical times!

Time to share the Magic!

The many things going on in my head will result in what people see and read.

I don’t expect a lot of readers. But quality is always more vital to me than quantity.

Dunno if any of this resonates with anyone here. Just one LA woman’s journey into the darkness of tech, social and early punk rock, when punk was fun!

MY BLOG POSTS HERE WILL ALWAYS BE FREE!

So many on Substack making big bucks with subscribers. I just wanna share thoughts.

And I am ramping up my membership site as soon as I move my blog post s from Substack here. Cleaning a lot of code, finding and uploading the photos, inserting into the posts, adding links and formatting. Lots of fun. Oy.