Good photography ain’t easy.

Good photography ain’t easy. If you think it is, you’re not doing it right. I’ve been involved in photography in some form or another for 40 years. Taking a photograph is easy and has gotten easier with modern cameras. You don’t even have to think, just point and push the button. The camera can focus, set the exposure, and have an instant photograph. This ease of taking a photograph doesn’t make it good by any stretch.

One of my favorite photography masters, Ansel Adams, has some very good quotes on the act of taking photographs, “You don’t take a photograph you make it”, “twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop”, and “there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Today, we can literally, with ease, take thousands of photographs in a day, and we may get lucky and find several “good” photographs. Or we can plan, set up, and execute a few shots to get a good photograph. We have lots of modern tools at our disposal. We have apps for our smartphones that give us the position of the sun, moon, and any number of other atmospheric conditions. We have advanced weather forecasting that we can access instantly through our smartphones. We have mapping programs with satellite images allowing us to see and often scout areas before we even get to them.

Even with all these tools and planning we sometimes come away empty-handed. We may have photographs but we may not have anything good, especially if you are like me. Every time I get a good photograph I set my bar a bit higher and my expectations for the next set. Challenging yourself like this, for me, is a good thing. I don’t strive to be better than anyone else. I strive to be better than I was yesterday.