An artist’s life is a never-ending series of peaks and valleys, filled with joy and inevitable disappointment. But adding a little habit to your life without it can make you both a better photographer and a happier human being.
I remember a few years ago, before I became a full-time professional photographer and was still dividing my time between soul-nourishing art and soul-crushing day-to-day tasks, I saw I was sitting at the big wooden table in the back where I spent most of my time. day. My company-supplied computer monitor should have displayed the largest spreadsheet or computer interface that would allow me to do whatever work they paid me for that day. But by this point, I’ve finished finishing my daily tasks early to spend time building my way out of this drudgery through photography, my monitor being instead extremely detailed processing that I am preparing for this upcoming weekend’s photo shoot.
My colleague, well aware of my double life, walked past my desk and saw the futile planning process that was about to make the shoot a success and stopped to watch with a slightly stunned expression on his face. . When I asked him about the look on his face, he said he was always surprised by the amount of work that went into each of my study sessions. When he thinks of a photo session, he thinks a photographer would just show up at a certain location with the camera, snap a few things there, then spend the rest of the day sipping Mojitos on the beach with models. He was oblivious to the level of production that went into it.
That moment was too long for me to remember it was the scene I was preparing for. I’m not even 100% sure if the shoot was a success. But I start today’s essay with that story as a simple reminder that being an artist, especially a commercial artist, is hard work. It’s not easy to live your life in an extremely competitive world, with no guarantees, and in a job that requires you to give your best every day.
So here are just some daily practices that can help you see your way forward.
Improve your craft
Being a photographer, perhaps more than most careers, is greatly enhanced by some natural talent. Anyone can teach themselves the techniques for making proper exposure, but some people are simply more creative than others. There’s no shame in it. Some people are taller than others. Some people are faster. We all have our gifts. And at least having a little flex to the creative side of life is probably a pretty good premise for success as a photographer.
With that said, talent isn’t everything. The world is full of talented people. What the world often lacks, however, is whether people are willing to work hard to become better. Being six feet tall in middle school gave me an edge when playing basketball at recess. But as time went on and my classmates caught up with me and often exceeded my size, I realized that my skills, not my size, were what made me different. And those skills require practice.
Same with photography. We’ve determined that having some natural talent in the arts is a good place to start. But if you have a plan to build a career and, more importantly, maintain it, you’ll also need tangible skills to support it. You need to expand your creativity. But you also need to broaden your understanding of the craft nuts and bolts needed to turn your creativity into real results.
Luckily, you don’t have to learn it all in one day. Knowledge is something that you gain over time and through repetition. But to gain as much knowledge as possible, you must make a concerted effort every day to improve your skill set. Even if it’s as simple as learning a basic new tool in your camera menu, daily practice of purposefully getting better at your skill will help you get the most out of your natural abilities. mine.
Spend more time thinking about how to make money than spend
I have spilled countless papers over the years, all seem to have the same opinion. But that’s simply because it seems to be an age-old problem. Even with me.
But let’s repeat it here again. Gear is simply a tool to help you create art. The device itself is not your art. It doesn’t matter an iota which camera you have in hand. The only important thing is that you can turn the vision in your head into a picture. It doesn’t matter what device you use. What matters is what unique creativity you bring.
So why do most of us spend endless hours every month obsessing about camera gear instead of spending that time trying to figure out how to grow our businesses?
Like I said, I blame myself. I am well aware of every new tool hitting the market and spend too much time debating whether each new iteration of a camera will make me more or less productive. In practice, however, what would work best for me would be to turn off that YouTube video and reopen my list of leads to start reaching out. Instead of worrying about autofocus speed, I should take the time to revise my business plan to make sure my business is up to speed.
You should never be in a position where you spend more time thinking about what you can buy than you earn the money to pay for it. Obviously, if you’re a hobbyist (thankfully), you’re welcome to spend more on photography than you bring in. an equation won’t add up.
Grateful
Here’s the thing about careers in the arts: when things go well, it’s as high as most people will never know. When you make a reservation for a new client, have a great photo shoot, or win some awards, it can be a rush that is difficult to explain to others who may not be from our world. ta.
But amid those successes, we are likely to face many, if not more, disappointments. Regardless of your level of success, the artists will deliver more than our fair share of failures. Even for the most active people, this can start to haunt you over time. If it sticks with you long enough, you may find yourself inclined to give up the fight.
So how do you fight back in the face of insurmountable odds? How do you maintain your positive outlook? Well, a good place to start is to remember that no matter what happens, you always have loads of things to be grateful for. Maybe it’s your family. Maybe it’s your pet. Maybe it’s the fact that you’ve found an outlet that really gives your life meaning. Maybe it’s the fact that you’ve been given another day in your life. Another dawn to wake up and try again.
We can fool ourselves into thinking that the only “good” things that happen to us are headline goals. We can fool ourselves into thinking that if something doesn’t deserve to be posted on Instagram, it simply doesn’t matter. But being lucky enough to be on this Earth matters. Giving gifts to those who love us is important. And having the freedom to follow our dreams, even when they don’t go as we planned, is something to be truly grateful for every day.
When you remind yourself every day of the good things in life, it helps you fill the bank of positivity. And that positive bank will be needed to give you the strength to get through the day.
Put your camera away
Of all the things I mentioned, this was the hardest for me to practice. I’m a bit OCD When my mind gets locked into something, it’s hard for me to let go and think about anything else. This really helped me in my career because it forced me to work hard. Even if I don’t want to work hard, I will still do it because my mind won’t let me focus on anything else until I finish the task ahead.
But the flip side of this is that it’s easy to think that your career is your life. I know that for professionally motivated people, like myself, success seems to be a matter of life and death. However, unless you’re a soldier, the likelihood is that whatever happens to you at work today is less important in the big picture than you are documenting it.
As I mentioned earlier, you should work hard to improve your skills and creativity to advance your career. Equally important, however, you should take the time to step away from your art for a moment and simply live your life to the fullest. Every event in your life doesn’t have to be a prelude to a photo session. Not everyone you meet needs to be considered for their photographic potential as a subject. It is possible to travel without taking photos of the experience. Sometimes, just having experience is enough. Appreciate your art. But, don’t forget to cherish your life.
