Tag: Photographer

First of all, I want to say motivational speakers are often full of crap, and yet this is somewhat of a motivational post. As with most of my blog posts, this is primarily aimed at me but if you get something from it, it is all the better.

Without challenges there is no growth

We often look at challenges as roadblocks preventing us from our destination. Let’s look at the featured image above. Look at the challenge the seed and subsequently the tree has in survival and yet it lives on and grows. It survives storms and good weather.

As photographers, we often get to a point and tell ourselves we are good enough. We stop challenging ourselves to do different things or experiment with different subjects or styles. We convince ourselves we like where we are and we like our style without challenging ourselves to move forward or perhaps venture down a new trail. Unlike the tree in the featured photograph we are not trapped with our roots embedded in the rocks. We can move about, explore different areas, different styles, different subjects, and differnt techniques.

To stay the same is easy. We are less likely to fail because we do only what we know. Even if there are techniques and styles we have tried in the past we are not the same person or artist we were in the past. Maybe it is time to revisit styles and techniques. Maybe it is time to practice some basics and refresh our beliefs.

The challenges of a photographic artist

One of the greatest challenges I find for myself is the ability to envision what I want when working to create a piece, but often struggle to bring it to life in the actual piece. Then will anyone other than me understand it? Does it matter if no one else understands?

For now, I’ll just keep pushing forward.

For me, my photographs are never “good enough”. I am constantly working to improve my technique. I often go back and rework older photos or reshoot an older theme in another way hoping to improve on it. I’ve reworked and reshot more photographs of mine than I can count. It is all about improving, not just snapping and posting.

Some would say we all have our own style or “hey I am making money”. If you’re not growing and improving as a photographer, you are destined to fail in my opinion.

I read an article that had an embedded video which featured two photographers discussing social media viewers of their work. The title of the article was “No one cares about your photography. (And that is okay), find the article here . What I thought was interesting was I didn’t get that thought watching the video. Just because you may not get the comments or “likes” on photographs which you share on social media as you do others does not mean that “no one cares”.

To me, art is meant to be shared and viewed by others. If we go to an art museum there, for the most part, isn’t a spot or location where we can post our “likes” or comments but that doesn’t mean we don’t care.

If we don’t share our work outside of our “circle of friends” we continue to live in a closed environment and may never grow or progress as artists. It isn’t that we are interested in producing work to please others but rather may gather information that helps us produce better work and grow.

So, are we wasting our time sharing our work when seemingly no one comments or gives us likes? I don’t think so. I do my photography for me to share with others. If only a handful of people like it that is fine, whether or not they say they like it or not is also fine.