Isn’t it great to have a crystal ball to tell us about our future and what’s around the next corner? Unfortunately, there is no such thing, and we must live life, make mistakes, and move on. I wish I had one, especially when I started my photography journey. Here are five things I had to learn the hard way.
It’s not about the gear
We’ve all been there before: a new camera or lens has been announced, dangling like a carrot on a string. We are urged to take our wallets and wait for FedEx to deliver them to our door.
Don’t get me wrong; Gear is essential, and you need it to get specific results. The main focus should not be on the gear. As photographers, we have a mindset, and I also started with gear, which is the main purpose of photography. The purpose of photography should be to capture a story, create powerful images, and find joy in your work. We sometimes find we’re chasing the wrong thing, and photography can be the same way. We chase gear, thinking it will make us a better photographer. As the sales manager at our local camera store, I often encountered this problem – especially when a gentleman came in wanting to sell two Canon 1D EF 400mm f/2.8EF 300mm f/2.8, EF 24-70mm f/2.8, EF 16-35mm f/2.8and one EF 70-200mm f/2.8I asked why he was selling them, and he suggested it was because his son no longer plays high school football, and he never got good enough pictures; They were either blurry or out of focus most of the time. He had no gear issues; It was an education problem and a misconception that better gear equals better photos. Remember that gear is part of the equation, not the answer to the problem.
sh*t’s gonna be hard
I see people do photography for one of two reasons: financial gain or creative fulfillment. If you are into photography for financial reasons, it is a proven fact that things get tough. Customers don’t call and you start feeling stressed about money. Let’s say you’re on the creative side. It is not different; You’ll have times when you’ll be fired up, driving, and you’ll feel like your photos are absolute crap.
I wish I had known sooner that things would get difficult—well, I eventually did. You can simply think more strategically and find a solution to the problem. Sometimes, you have to force yourself to do something.
stop comparing yourself
Imposter syndrome, anyone? I’ve heard it a million times in advice to students and at camera store counters: “I want to be like X photographer.” No, you don’t do that. The world already has this person, so why do we need another one? We all bring a different perspective to the world as creatives.
Sometimes, we think that a particular photographer is doing so well, so we want to be like him, but we don’t see behind the curtain. I went there and finally got a chance to talk to someone who I thought was coming out of the park. Don’t get me wrong; They were doing fantastic work. What I didn’t see was that the shoots they were posting were free to the client. That fancy gear? It was all on credit cards. It was a much different perspective than I had imagined. I didn’t want to be exactly like them anymore. Remember, there are two sides to every story, and sometimes, there are skeletons in the closet. Comparing your work or success with others will harm you in the long run and put you into negative thinking after some time.
It’s okay not to be a technical photographer
You may disagree, but it’s a good thing to not be technical in the beginning. When we become too technical, we put ourselves in a box, and our image-making process is no longer open to ideas. We think we must do things a certain way to get the results we want.
Think about it: you may have felt more creative when you first started photography. Why so? That’s because we didn’t know what we didn’t know. We weren’t concerned about the technical aspects of photography—shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. We were just picking up cameras and making pictures.
At some point, you have to become a technical photographer. What I mean to say is that you have to add a technical side to your photography equation and learn to balance creativity with technical expertise.
it’s okay to fail
Failure is a word that often brings a feeling of doubt: Am I good enough? Why did I do this? and more. Failure can be equal to success – not immediately, but later. Whether you realize it or not, failure teaches you a lesson if you let it.
When you try something you realize what went wrong and it doesn’t work. It shows you that you need to find a different path or readjust your current one. How many times have you missed the perfect shot? Did you notice that the next time you were given the opportunity to take a similar shot, you got it? If you did, it is a failure to teach you a lesson – and a valuable lesson it is. Life is full of failures, and we can’t be perfect. Remind yourself to learn from them and don’t suppress them, no matter how strongly you feel.
After all, these are some things I wish I knew sooner. It wouldn’t have made the journey any easier, but I would have been wiser about what would happen next. Photography is like life: there are many failures, and the journey is long, but it is what you choose. We can focus on images of others, worry about difficult times, focus on the wrong things, and try to be someone we are not.
