
PhotoBotos was founded by two brothers, Charlie and Tom, and is their special way of sharing their love for both photography and travel. Over the time, PhotoBotos has become quite a sensation among photographers and photography lovers. The best feature of PhotoBotos that I personally enjoy is the submit a new image everyday with a detailed description about it, like what the image is about, what techniques were used, the camera details etc. So you as a photographer not only post the image you clicked but you even write the story behind that click, the techniques you used and other details. On the other had a person who is not into photography gets to learn so much about it by looking at that image. Isn't it an amazing feature?
Apart from the submit a photo feature, PhotoBotos also reviews cameras and other related accessories, photography tutorials and recommends photography- related eBooks and softwares. PhotoBotos has everything for both photographers and non photographer folks. Read on to know more about PhotoBotos in our exclusive interview with both Charlie and Tom.
1. Hi Tom, please introduce yourself and Charlie to our readers.
2. What is PhotoBotos all about? What inspired you to come up with it?
PhotoBotos has morphed into a place where photographers and non-photographers alike visit our community to be inspired by amazing photography. It has been described as a 3 minute “staycation” to start your day. It started as a site where I just posted some images along with their background stories and technical data. Now we get photographers from around the world sharing their techniques as well as experiences.
3. How is PhotoBotos different from other photography related websites like ViewBug and 500px?
We love both of those sites and check them out regularly. They are a spectacular place to post your galleries and enter contests. At our site, we prefer to dig deeper into each image. I give a short commentary about why I like the photo then the photographer really puts the 1,000 words behind the image. Finally they give the technical details for all of us photo nerds.
4. I love the Submit A Photo feature on your blog, it really helps and motivates aspiring photographers. The description of some photographs is so realistic that you start picturing the scene as if you, yourself are the photographer. Are the descriptions solely provided by the posters/photographers or do you edit them?
That is really what we strive for. We want the viewer to feel that photos are not just “lucky shots”. They get to see the tools used and effort that goes into every one of our featured shots. We only edit the photographer’s write up if the photographers ask us to do it because their English could use some help. If they don’t ask us, we usually don’t touch their backstory.

5. What prompted you to add the Recommendation and Tutorial feature to the website?
Half of our audience only comes for the eye candy. That is fine by us. The other half of our audience is photographers (beginners- Professionals) that come to learn something as well. We know this because we get tons of emails on what camera to buy, software to use, and other photo related issues. Because of this we plan on expanding both of these features exponentially to help our community.
6. This question is especially for Charlie- Who is your favorite photographer? If you could peek into the studio/toolbox of one other photographer, whose would it be and why? What sort of hardware and software equipment do you use?
I would say Andrew Rouse out of the UK. I love wildlife photography and how he gets really close to the action. I found his book Life in the Wild: A Photographer’s Year very inspiring. Maybe one day he will agree to be on http://www.photobotos.com/.
I use mainly Canon gear for hardware. I use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and Photomatix to name some of the software in my arsenal.
7. If both of you are given the option to be some superhero (or be given a magical power), who/what would it be and why?
Charlie- I would love to be “Never have to Sleep Guy” I know it is kind of silly, but think of all that you could accomplish with an extra third of your life. Although right now I wouldn’t mind being “Appreciates a Nice Breeze Man” . It is pretty hot here in Encinitas, CA.
Tom – If I could be a superhero I would be “Eye for Detail Man”. Charlie and I could have the same camera and take a photo of the same landscape, but, his would turn out to be a PhotoBotos picture and mine would end up simply as a great reminder of a beautiful place that I visited. There are tons of things that go into creating an amazing “wow” image and I simply don’t see them the same way that a professional does. I feel that the aforementioned does add to PhotoBotos though because we truly represent both sides of the spectrum – from professional to novice.
8. What are your future plans with PhotoBotos? Planning to add any new features to the website?
We continue to grow at a steady pace and every change that we have made has been a direct result of what our viewers have asked for. Some features of PhotoBotos have been removed completely while others have been added out of necessity – the Product Review section is a good example of this. As far as planned future additions to PhotoBotos, we anticipate a newsletter in the not so distant future in addition to more in-depth tutorials written by our Featured Photographers.
9. What advice would you like to give to budding and aspiring photographers?
Carry your camera with you wherever you go because you never know when or where inspiration will occur. Oh yeah, and check out http://www.photobotos.com/ of course!
we anticipate a newsletter in the not so distant future in addition to
more in-depth tutorials written by our Featured Photographers.
http://www.signatureautoworld.com/
Great shout out, to a terrific and inspiring website. I, too, love the backstories as much as the actual image. It's what breathes life into each new post. Keep up the great work, guys!