As a starter or enthusiast photographer, there are a wealth or 'inspirational' people leading the way.
From 'famous' photographers from the past like Ansel Adams, Hernri Cartier-Bresson or Dorothea Lange, or contemporary greats like Annie Leibovitz, Chris McCaw or Cindy Sherman, to the YouTube famous - Pete McKinnon, Matt Granger or Thomas Heaton et al, there are a depressingly large number of 'great photographers' out there that we can aspire to emulate, or more likely frustrate - that we'll never match up to the greats.
So how do you define photographic success?
Instead of measuring yourself against externals - the photographers that 'inspire', or other photographers around you that can, lets face it, be a little gate keepy and judgmental at times, why not measure success on internals, things like:
1. Setting you own measures of success:
Instead of letting 'success' define you i.e. that you're not, why not flip the conversion in your head to where you set your metrics for success.
As an enthusiast photographer I have 2 performance metrics as to whether I'm succeeding in the craft:
Getting out and shooting at least once a month - be that actually out, or in the studio. For me this is about putting in the work to grow and become 'better' at the images I'm creating while allowing time to do the other metrics of success below. It's also about valuing what's important to me in a world where the every day often subsumes the things we value in service of 'every day life'.
When I'm out get 1 (yes ONE) image that I like. Often I'll get more, sometimes even 5 or 6, but the metric for success is 1, just 1. And it's not that that image is a banger, a portfolio or master piece. It's just one image that I'm happy with makes the session worth while.
2. Trying new things
If you are allowing the time you can try now things:
if people terrify you try street photography,
or if your not a morning person try photographing in golden hour (at dawn)
There are literally hundreds of photographic genres and trillions of photographs that haven't yet been taken. Trying new things helps build breadth to your photographic skill set, and can revitalize creativity, keeping the fun in photography.
3. Experimenting
Even if you're in your comfort zone, in places where you've been a hundred times, there are new things to see and images to be created.
By experimenting you get results like the image below where dragging the shutter (1/8th second) bought motion blur to the bus in an otherwise quite plain street scene.
And whether you are trying new things or experimenting it's important not to be attached to the results - it's not about 'getting it right', it's about seeing what happens.
The bus shot was not a 'happy accident', but rather a couple of weeks of experimenting - hundreds of images for the one that I like.
4. Projects
Rather than struggling to come up with ideas and 'inspiration' on the spot and creating by your own measure sub-standard images, why not create a series of projects that challenge you and help build your skills - making you by default a better photographer.
That's why I'm working on my INK and Tiny projects.
5. Master what you have
Contrary to what a gear manufacturer will tell you, having the latest and greatest will not make you a better photographer.
Instead master the gear you have, whether that's a smart phone, a point and shoot, or some second hand gear off of Facebook Marketplace.
Gear is just a tool, a conduit for the creativity within, but nothing has changed really with cameras in the 200ish years since photography was invented - they're still light proof boxes that capture an image. A Kodak box brownie from 1910 will still take 'better' pictures than the latest Nikon Z9 or Phase One, if that's what the creator intends.
6. Working with like minded people
By it's very nature a lot of photography genres are somewhat solitary pursuits, particularly in non-professional settings.
So it can be important to get together with other people, or do courses and training sessions, so that you can learn from and contribute to others. It's often a much better investment in time and money to come together with like minded people than to give in to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).
Whether it's one of our programmes (see below) or any of a hundred others doesn't really matter, what's important is getting together to share ideas and build yourself and the photographic community.
And most importantly - don't judge - yourself or others.
As an amateur or enthusiast photographer we have one huge advantage over the professionals out there. For us photography is fun, it's about the journey, not just the result.
With creativity one of the keys to creativity is that the less the result 'matters' the better the result can be.
留言