Finding Motivation, Photography in Small Towns, Finding Voice -- Office Hours with Reuben Radding 

Reuben needs his own channel, I could listen to this dude talk for hours. Such a calm, welcoming person, he’s like our film photography dad.

These videos are going to age really well over time

This guy is like the Rick rubin of street photography. Absolute gold, thanks Paulie!

Wow! Reuben is wise. He's sharing wisdom for life, not just photography. He is so tight about motivation and inspiration.

Love his answer on small town street photography. I've said to a few new photographers that street doesn't have to be the hustle and bustle of NYC. Street can be a dirt road in the country. Its about shooting a moment versus a scene.

In all aspects of life, determination is far more important than motivation. Motivation is cruise control on the empty autobahn. Determination gets us from the garage to the highway through rush hour bumper to bumper traffic.

"if you challenge yourself to stay out in the difficult times I think you'll gain a certain strength and awareness of who you are" I love this

Thank you for this! I spent two weeks in NYC at the end of February-begining of March 2020. I took a lot of photos and came home to my small town full of excitement and inspiration, ready and hopeful for more travel and photography. Of course, we all know what happened just weeks later, and I didn't leave my town for a year. But I used that excitement and went out with my camera every day. The streets were empty, except for auto traffic, so there are few people in the work I did then. But I discovered light, shadow and color in a way I hadn't seen it before. Since then I have taken some of my favorite photos here in this small town, and have learned to see in a whole new way than I saw before.

I live in Nevada, in a small town, without much going on. From your last video on street photography with him, it encouraged me to make it part of my routine to go for walks with my camera on my days off. Even if I don't get a picture every day, at least I give myself the opportunity and have gotten some of my favorite pictures as a result. Thank you for these videos!

Reuben is the Gandalf of street photography

So glad to see a spotlight being shown on him, I wasn't aware of his work/perspective until his walkie talkie and his insight is so important. This is gonna help a lot of people! (including me)

Everything he said here is so true. I used to try following the trends then I discovered that “everything” can be a photograph and “everyday” there is a photo to be taken. Once I understood that, it didn’t matter time or day, I can go out and shoot and alway come back with something because in the end im always taking pics of things im curious about and as long as i keep that approach all my photos will be authentic to me and my perspective. No need to worry about good or bad photos just like what Rueben is saying.

I can’t think of many things better than this.

I can listen to Reuben all day!

glad to see rueben back he’s such an inspiration to me

„Bad weather makes for good photography.“ - Ansel Adams

could listen to good ole reuben talk for hours and hours

I was listening to a podcast that said, “it’s important to live life by design rather than emotion. Basically, sticking to a routine is what allows us to be the healthiest version of ourselves. I made the most changes in my life when I began practising mediocre consistency. Now I try to put in consistent 40-60% effort into my habits (ex. journaling/working out now photography and other creative pursuits) - to make sure I do it I began recording it and posting it on my youtube channel. Because historically I have a habit of going too hard, not being able to sustain the Herculean effort, giving up and hating myself. So now I’m trying to give a small-ish, consistent mediocre effort everyday. And its crazy how it adds up.

I needed that encouragement about photographing what’s in my town and not worrying about whether I’ve got access to NYC street environments.

Legit feel like I start my mornings with Paulie B videos every morning these days

Had the pleasure of running into Reuben on Thursday. Extremely nice guy, took time out of his day to let me pick his brain, and provided great explanations. Glad to see this as a series and hear more from Reuben

This is utter brilliance. It’s like he read how I feel and put it into words

I'm a small town street photographer true photography is my therapy it keeps me grounded an happy

Is office hours new? I love it. Esp with the last walkie talkie episode where you sat for a drink and just talked about photography, it’s nice to listen to

I was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, PA and never heard of Mark Cohen. Now I have some research to do and possibly/ hopefully find something in print to buy. Thanks for the info Reuben! Looking forward to more of these videos.

that bit about "choosing" was GOLD!

Every time I watch something with Reuben talking, he always says something that resonates with me!

Reuben absolutely preaching

I could watch an hour long episode of this.

But why isn’t anyone talking about Paul doing a whole interview handholding the camera with ONE HAND and yet it’s still smoooth hahaha but seriously great chat learned a lot from Reuben 🙏🏽

Damn. Every time I hear this guy speak I come away more motivated. He's just amazing.

This guy is a wealth of knowledge for all creative art mediums. This is absolutely profound. He articulated many truths that I’ve experience in music and diving into photography.

I loved the OG video with him. And I’m so glad you are getting him back. 🙌🙌🙌

i’ve been craving new paulie content glad we getting fed

Was glad to hear the question and answers on finding inspiration in a small town…

Thank you.

Definitely resonated with the discussion on "Deciding" vs "Discovering." Found myself really trying to define what I wanted to pursue and only recently let go of that and just let that come to me in a more organic way. Take the photos of the ideas that come to you and reflect on what your body of work becomes!

I needed to hear some of Reuben's comments. Just hearing someone mention thoughts I've had about these subjects makes me feel like like I'm not on the wrong track.

Excellent! Thanks! This episode is notably applicable to my situation. We live in Bellaire, Texas, which is about two miles across, with a population of ~17K, and though surrounded by Houston’s sprawl, maintains a small-town culture and feel. Houston, itself, though huge in population, is quite decentralized, rather than concentrated into a dominant central business district, and local folks tend to have a larger zone of personal space, so, going into Houston is nothing like going into NYC. The population is tremendously diverse, ethnically, however, so each neighborhood’s openness to, acceptance of, street photographers will vary. The aspects of finding motivation, and finding voice, are also wonderfully helpful, but this post is getting long, so, I will not elaborate further, for now.

Love Reuben videos

Love this guy. Only discovered him recently from his Walkie Talkie appearance. You can tell he’s experienced all the emotional swings and questions anybody practicing street photography might experience. Then he speaks to the proper constructive perspective of working through them in such a simple but very direct and knowledgeable answer.

i'm so glad to see he came back to the show, doing well recently. thank you Paulie!

I love listening to people talking about their craft with passion.

Great guy to listen to.

yes!

Perfect timing. Thank you

Oooh can't wait to get into this. Reuben is one of my biggest inspirations right now. His philosophies are just universal. I often hear him in my head when I'm painting too.

I love waking up to these videos. You’re crushing it

Mad inspiring

Amazing !

Thank you guys for your hard work

awesome stuff you're creating here. thanks!

Oh, the wisdom from this man. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions🙏🏾👌🏾

Thank you, I was hoping to see more of Reuben

Thank you for this, Prof Radding gave a great talk!

really resonated with not just going after 'easy time' pictures . Another great chat and happy to see that Reuben will be a regular here, looking forward to more!

thanks for sharing.

That was a great video. Thank you for creating and sharing that.

A lot of good info in this video, thank you!

I need this. Thanks

Talking about photographers who only go out in perfect weather is very true and I'm guilty of that. Living in London (UK), lately, it isn't that I can go out in bad weather to get a different perspective and feeling from my photography but the fact that for a good while now the weather has just been very dull, with grey skies which is quite possibly the worst lighting conditions to shoot in. I've at least attempted to take some shots but none of them are keepers.

Great stuff! The bottom line is that motivation is useless. Commitment = discipline….doing something even when you don’t have any motivation.

Loved this

thank you paulie and reuben. i really needed to hear this ❤

Excellent video in this series. Invaluable for seasoned photographers, pro and new starters. ❤❤❤

Another brilliant video Paul with excellent advice from Reuben. Keep 'em coming!

Love this. 🖤💯🙏

This a a great, new series you’ve created!

This was lovely. I'm so glad I found your channel recently. The convos are fantastic!

Excellent video Pauli. So glad I found your channel. Also Reuben, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Enjoyed his insight!

Loved this! So much good insight

fav photo channel

Ruben you are amazing and a sweetheart honest and kindly spotted away the these questions. talk

Really needed to hear this! Sometimes you just need to remind yourself of your commitment. Cant rely on motivation and inspiration...

Really interesting, it’s great to hear someone like Reuben explain his ideas and opinions.

Thanks Paulie and Reuben for a nice chat....

Great video, thanks

I thought at first it was Benj Haisch with a beard. Fantastic wisdom from Reuben and great video!

It's a disease to replicate art. Wise words 💯

Yeah! We talked about this a couple of days ago and you actually followed up and made a video on the topic! I'm ready to devour it

Paul, this is great. These type of videos is what feeds our mind as photographers. Really interesting keep it going :)

love your videos. Cant wait for my zine to arrive!

Yo Paulie, love the content. The documentation of street photographers will undoubtably be a dope thing the future gets to look back on. And as well, an insightful look for those currently living!

THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT 📸🙌❤️🙌

Solid guru vibes

Great video! Love hearing all the insight and knowledge. :]

I missed out by moving from my hometown to LA. Love the weather here, but feel like I could grow more and make unique work in Cincinnati.

Profound - he says, focus on the process and not really the end process!!!

Oh, man... I thought it was just brief chit chat before going shooting and just like that Ruben is saying goodbye after 12min talk... I'm surprised how smooth he is to consume!

Enjoyable talk

I work in the public. I can’t take photos there, BUT I use my time at work to notice moments and pretend I’m taking photos (mentally not physically lol). It’s a good exercise to help be in tune with your surroundings.

I was nicely surprised by this content. Well done.

Trying to find my street photography groove in FL this video helps

This channel among the best contemporary photo channels. Real people doing real work. Not a lot of gear talk. Well done. Looking forward to more.

this was a good one. Would love to see more Office Hours....and more women...on your channel

Love this stuff. Side note when I was 15 I worked at a nearby movie rental shop, I was passing out flyers and was robbed at these exact benches

so funny how he mentioned Richmond Va as a small place, but I live 2 hours away in a one stop light town and have always considered it "the big city" lmao perspective is wild

😊

The big advantage of doing street photography in NYC is the population density. In a given area, there might be 20 interesting things going on in a day while in my boring suburb, you'd be lucky to find more than one for the same area and time period.