One9Design

Nearly every respectable photographer that I follow online advocates shooting a lot to improve your photography. That idea was actually the original impetus of this blog. Much of this advice to shoot a lot comes from the experience of these photographers, but some have invoked the “10,000 hour rule.”

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell stated that to be great one has to put in 10,000 hours of practice. There is actually some scientific research behind this that goes a bit further. The research shows that greatness comes from accumulating “deliberate practice”. You need to practice with specific, measurable goals and on a regular basis. You also need to review your practice to see if you met your goals. If you walk around simply clicking the shutter without any specific goals in mind you are wasting your time. You cannot just keep shooting to get better; you need to shoot with intention.

What I did not realize is that with photography you need to shoot first in order to discover your intention or your photographic vision. I did not realize it until I took a ton of shots at a triathlon recently. As I was reviewing the shots I found that I was taking a photojournalistic approach to the race as opposed to trying to catch great moments. I started with the preparation in the transition area and followed the racers through the different phases of the race. I also was most fascinated by the determination, joy, and introspection apparent on the faces of the participants. I did not consciously make this my goal but in looking at the images it is easily a recurring theme in the images.

What I believe is the most neglected and elusive element of good photography is composition. There are easily thousand of photoshop tutorials and tons of information on lighting, but not a lot of good stuff on composition. I recently finished Michael Freeman’s The Photographer’s Eye. Great book on composition and design for photography. How do you have a specific goal to practice composition? I think that going through a good book or resource on composition and focusing on one element at a time may be a good way to structure practice. The elements and principles of design as outlined by Freeman in The Photographer’s Eye seem as good a place as any. Another may be to take David duChemin’s TEN or TEN more and work through one of those principles for a few sessions and see what comes of it.

The feedback part is a little tricky. You can of course compare your work to the concept and see where you fell short. The best feedback will probably come from external sources. The internet is a great tool but unless you can find credible folks to actually critique your work it may do more harm than good.

So the next race I shoot I will take that with me and hopefully have a lot more keepers.

In the Marine Corps (at least when I was in) there are three levels of marksmanship: marksman, sharpshooter, and expert. When I first enlisted I was a marksman and for years I could not get over that hump to expert. It was not until I had a very different marksmanship instructor once I became an officer that I was able to get over the hump. I cannot remember this guys name but he was a character. The quote I remember from him most vividly: “This morning I gave myself a check up from the neck up and found myself OUTSTANDING!” He refused to call us “marksmen” and “sharpshooters” and instead told us to refer to ourselves as “frustrated experts.” How we talked about ourselves would influence our performance on qualification day. I have decided to apply this to my photography. I am going to refer to myself not as an amateur or hobbyist but instead as a “frustrated artisan.” I am not yet sure if I want to make a living with photography but I definitely want to become an artisan. Let me define what I am talking about: The ability to consistently and deliberately produce photographic images that have emotional impact beyond their own context. There are three elements to this definition:

1. Consistent & deliberate. Now when I get a great image it is usually rare. Most often it is accidental. Often I don’t even have a vision in my mind I am just hoping to get the exposure right and maybe apply the rule of thirds. Once I can get a great image on purpose and without 100 bad images along with it, I will be on my way.

2. Emotional impact. Does the picture make you feel something? How powerful is it? Does it take you somewhere you are not exactly comfortable being? Your kids school photos or maybe your wedding photos will have emotional impact for you. They may not have impact for me which leads me to…

3. Cross contextual. If I can look at your wedding photos and feel that impact, the image is cross contextual. When I look at the work of Avendon or Ansel Adams I feel that. The photos are powerful even though I have no direct attachment to the people or places in the images.

As I unpack “frustrated artisan”, my goal is to remember where I am on my photographic journey and keep myself motivated to keep improving.

Now stop reading this and go shoot something. That’s where I am going.

Okay. So I just finished watching Chase Jarvis at the Art Director’s Club of Denver. The talk was titled Consequences of Creativity. It’s a decent talk. Some folks are raving about it but I am not. And yes I will tell you why. First off I am a big fan of Chase Jarvis. He is one of the most talented photographers on the web. I really enjoy his work and he proves every day that it’s about the vision of the photographer and not about the gear (see his gallery of iphone photos). In fact this blog would not exist if I hadn’t read his great post on Shaking the Tree.

To sum up what Chase said:
1 – Anyone can publish now that the internet is in more and more places
2 – If you are at all creative do the stuff that brings you life and cool things will happen. You will gain and audience.
3 – You need to find a way to sustain yourself (make a living) while you create the cool stuff.

Chase sums this up with the mantra “create-share-sustain.”

With that said here’s my issues with Chase’s talk.

The first point is not news. Blogs and self publishing have been around for a while. The advent of tools like GarageBand and iTunes means you can cut an album in your basement and sell it all over the world without meeting a single record executive. Similarly you can write and produce your own short film and distribute it online. iMovie and a Podcast. It has been called the democratization of film. This was all the rage a few years ago when I was in grad school. The challenge (as I have found here) is maintaining the discipline to keep publishing and keep working. Arguably if it truly is your passion you should be able to keep publishing fairly easily. (And yes I am checking my passion.) Admittedly the democratization of publishing may have just reached a tipping point because of twitter. I will give Chase that much on this one.

The second point is one that many people instinctively know but have not really internalized. It’s one of those things you always hope is true but rarely see it come to fruition. “If you do what you love, good things will happen.” People believe that we are supposed to suffer through our “9 to 5” jobs and do what we love on the side.

(On the third point) It seems as if we are supposed to somehow feel guilty when our passions line up with our working lives. I disagree. I have spent far too long making good money doing things I cannot stand in environments that drain my spirit. Life is too short to live like this. Granted, I lived in LA and ran into tons of servers with headshots and I wish them the best of luck, but George Clooney and Glenn Close don’t wait tables (at least not anymore). My point is that what Chase refers to as “sustain” should really be a temporary state, until you have enough momentum. You should be able to survive through simply creating and sharing.

A great friend of ours did just this (create-share-sustain) until she had enough momentum to quit her day job and do wedding photography full time (create-share). My wife does what she loves almost every day and is the most fulfilled I have ever seen her. AND it helps pay the bills. Just because somebody will pay good money for something does not make it any less creative, artsy, or cool. It just makes it an occupation instead of a hobby. Being a starving artist is not a function of being an artist.

If people are loving the things that give you life and fuel your spirit, why not monetize it and make a living at it? Why do I have to do other things that subtract from my soul, if the core of my being is being fed and people will compensate me for it? What this says is that society does not value my best contributions. The person I am destined to become is not valued or appreciated. Admittedly it will take time to build that momentum and develop an audience but it’s worth it.

If you need more motivation check out this piece from Doug Menuez about how to have longevity as a pro photography. I think this applies to any creative vocation.