Finding success as a photographer requires a complex multitude of factors, but regardless of your ultimate goal in the craft or the specific genre in which you are interested, there are some universal truths every budding creative should be aware of. This helpful video essay discusses three common reasons why budding photographers fail to find success.
Coming to you from The School of Photography, this insightful video essay discusses some of the most common reasons up-and-coming photographers fail to achieve success. I found the points about excuses and underestimating how much effort goes into a successful shot particularly salient. There is a ton of marketing done on different shortcuts to success — things like Lightroom presets, AI editing, and more. And to be fair, many of these do offer improved efficiency in some cases, but there is a difference between someone with established skill improving their workflow versus substituting shortcuts for lack of experience and creative initiative. At some point, we simply have to get out there with our cameras and practice, practice, and practice some more. After all, isn't that why we were all interested in photography in the first place? No matter how advanced technology gets, there is no substitute for creative experience. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
Is this just an extended advertorial? 😉
Seriously though, I’ve met people over the years who clearly don’t know much about photography but refuse to admit they are a beginner and try to claim they are much better than they really are. Sadly, with digital cameras, people can cut a lot of corners and not really truly learn anything. At least back in the day when I used a secondhand manual film camera (mid 90’s onwards) I had no choice but to admit I didn’t have a clue what I was doing because everything was manual and it helped me to want to find out how to properly expose, and when to use exposure creatively. That was just getting to know how to use the camera let alone all the knowledge needed to create great photographs.