Today, I just want to recount some of the lessons I’ve learned during my long career as a professional photographer. Hopefully some of these concepts will also help you.
At this point, in most of my writing, I will be making clear disclaimers about how we all differ, my opinion based on my own experience. body and a few other things should be obvious but not always obvious to all readers. But, I’ll skip that part this time, as many of my standard disclaimers will be addressed in the points below. Yes, these are my personal opinions. But, I believe these are dilemmas that every artist will encounter at some point in their career, regardless of your shooting style or expertise. So get your hands on it right away.
Don’t confuse Gear For Skill
Okay, I guess I need to make a disclaimer. The camera is great. Wonderful. If you don’t feel the same way, then you will most likely follow a different career path. And, we, as photographers, form a special bond with the camera we have chosen, defying all logic and possible borders on the realm of emotional attachment. After all, they are just a collection of metal, plastic, glass and rubber. They are not human. But, like the sad lamp in the IKEA ad, we seem to be squeezing these tools with the same degree of affection that some of us have sadly turned away our older children.
Because this emotional bond can be so strong, we tend to put too much emphasis on which camera we’re using to track our trades. Every time we see a great image, we wonder, what kind of camera did he use? Or, I wonder what lens she shot it with? We get into completely absurd arguments in internet comment sections where we question each other’s qualifications to survive simply because someone chose to shoot with a Nikon over a Sony. Somehow, we seem to have bought into the marketing hype and internalized the idea that it is the camera that will take the picture, not the human operating it.
But the simple fact of the matter is that you most likely already have all the equipment you need to be a great photographer. Sure, you can fall into a particular genre of photography that requires a certain type of lens or a certain specification inside the camera body. However, when it comes to being a great photographer, there is no physical product you can buy to replace a lack of practice.
An average photographer with a $20,000 medium format system won’t produce better images than a good photographer with a $300 used DSLR 15 years has taken the time to learn. how to use it. Sure, a $20,000 camera will give you a certain amount of pixel density and/or let you capture so many frames per second that objectively cheaper cameras can’t deliver. But people don’t look at a great image and say, “oh, look at all those megapixels!” They look at a great image and say, “oh, look at the way he uses light.” “Well, I can’t believe she was able to capture that exact moment.” “My God, I don’t know how they got that shot. I never thought about that.”
Those are the reactions you only get when you’ve taken the time to really practice your skills. Talent is just the starting point. Taking time out of the limelight to develop that talent into a reproducible skill is something that may not always come with acclaim, but is the key to truly reaching the top. high in photography that we all aspire to.
Buying new equipment is a lot of fun. Too much fun, according to my own bank account. But you can’t buy skills and talents. If you could, everyone with a big bank account would be a great artist. Real skill only comes from working hard behind the scenes to become better. And that is not something that can be noted.
Understand that there is no one way to be an artist
I remember one of my early forays as a photographer coming from a very difficult source for advice. It was an early stage in my photography journey, and I was still in a state of trying to learn the very basics. In fact, I’d be more accurate to say that I’ve been on my journey, have had some success, but am actually flying thanks to the seat of my pants and my natural talent than have the technical knowledge to back up some of my stuff. just follow instinct.
In an effort to let my craft keep pace with my creativity, I began devouring every rudimentary photography book I could get my hands on. Some of this I already know. But going through ABC again was a great refresher course that got me more content after what I was doing. I still repeat this practice of reinforcing the basics today, almost twenty years ago, because I find that you are never too wise to humble yourself and try to learn a little more. That goes with everything in life. I just happened to be a photographer.
So there I was reading this guidebook on how to properly expose a photograph, and the author left out a sentence that stuck with me more than anything else in the book. While explaining how to achieve the correct exposure, he points out that the term “correct exposure” is a bit misleading. Yes, there is a mathematically correct exposure for a particular photo. If you measure the light, the surroundings, the subject, and everything else, you can use the exact combination of settings that will show a medium gray. Knowing how to do that is step one of photography, so it’s important not to overlook that.
But who can say that the exposure is “correct”? It may be mathematically correct. But that doesn’t mean that’s the right exposure for the image you’re trying to create. Perhaps you want a dark image to signal something ominous in the murky details. Perhaps you want an image that feels overexposed to convey the idea of electricity or gravity. Whatever the reason, being technically right is not always the same as being true in practice. There are a million and one ways you can choose to take a photo and only you can decide which is right for you.
Of course, this subjectivity extends beyond simple exposure. If you’re pursuing your path in the world of photography, chances are you’ll be tempted to try modeling yourself after another photographer who may have experienced the kind of success you envision for yourself. own career. It’s never a bad idea to look to our predecessors as their own journeys can help illuminate our potential path to success. But it is important to remember that you reach the top of the mountain in any field of art, not the copy, but the original. And there is no one right way to succeed.
I absolutely love Annie Leibovitz’s work. But the world doesn’t need another Annie Leibovitz. It had one. I could try to spend my career trying to do what she does. But, if I did, the best I could expect in return would be to have some less sophisticated clients hire me once during the blue moon for a meager salary because they can’t afford the expenses. pay her. What fun is that? Clients pay photographers big sums because they have a unique perspective that no one else can duplicate. If you could learn that from watching YouTube tutorials or reverse engineering someone else’s work, we’d all be millionaires.
Just like finding your own “correct” exposure, you must find the career path and aesthetic approach that works for you. You have to decide what you want to capture. You must determine what you are good at shooting. You have to figure out your place in the market and figure out how you fit in. All of those questions will be answered differently for each photographer. So your goal shouldn’t be to try to figure out how to be a better version of someone else. Your goal is to try and learn to become the best version of yourself.
Keep moving your target columns
“Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back!” Al Pacino may have mentioned the mafia in his famous quote from the Godfather trilogy, but the sentiment applies very well outside of the world of organized crime. Usually, even in the earlier part of this article, I would emphasize to photographers the importance of developing your own voice. Finding your unique aesthetic and your place in the world is a lot harder than you are. More often than not, it’s photo exploration and deep psychoanalysis. The photography part is much more interesting. But self-analysis is vitally important in finding meaningful work in any profession.
Even worse is knowing that, at some point, you’ll really need to figure out what makes you tick below the surface in order to really cultivate the best version of yourself as an artist, It is known that once you have finally come up with the elusive answer, you may just find that the person of a few years ago is no longer the person of today.
As gray hairs continue to grow, so do the hopes and expectations we have for our lives. When we first started, we envisioned that one day we would reach a point in our professional and personal lives when we felt as though we had arrived. We will feel that we are finally “there,” wherever “there” may be.
And, if you’re lucky enough, there’s an honest chance that one day you might actually find yourself standing on top of a mountain overlooking the crashing waves of the ocean below and confidently asserting that you really accomplished all you set out to do. . If life is a movie, this is where the image begins to fade in the clips, which are tied to Bruce Springsteen’s Oscar-nominated song that will bring audiences to tears of happiness.
But life is not a movie. And, more than likely, your time at the top of the mountain will be almost immediately followed by a single burning question. What’s next?
With each achievement you achieve, another new goal will simply sprout in its place. That is life. You can stare at the prospect of endlessly changing goals as an excuse to never try in the first place, or you can see this as an endless opportunity to grow and improve.
I will not lie to you. I was depressed more than once after I had finally achieved a big career goal, only to be surprised at how fleeting the joy would be and how even achieving those goals would seem. The most unattainable seems to not have resulted in me feeling any more fulfilled than I had at any time when I had woken up the morning before.
If you are an ambitious person, you will always want more. It’s just a fact of life that comes with territory. If you can learn to accept this constant pursuit instead of resisting it, you will not only become a better photographer, but in return you will be a happier person.
Okay, that’s enough rambling for the day. Ironically, I was scheduled to review the device for today’s post. But, as point one suggests, those are only really important in the overall equation. It’s much more important to embrace your own journey and push yourself to be the best artist you can be. These are things that money can’t buy.
