Watch enough YouTube or scroll through Instagram enough, and you might begin to believe that pro photographers do nothing but bring home keeper after keeper. As this great video discusses, though, it's not all perfect skies and epic images.
Coming to you from Thomas Heaton, this video follows him on a recent photo trip where things don't go as well as he had hoped they would. Heaton is quite the accomplished photographer and YouTuber, and so I appreciate that he's so candid about his experience on this trip and what went wrong, as it can be a bit demoralizing when you're trying to learn and grow as a photographer and you see the filtered version of a successful professional's life and career. It's important to remember that yes, while they're highly talented and successful, no photographer produces magic 100 percent of the time they press the shutter button. Rather, it's a combination of talent, experience, and perseverance through failures that brings them success in the long run. If you're new to photography or trying to grow your skills, remember that no matter what level of talent and success we're at, we all experience failures along with our successes.
I like how honest and open Thomas is. It's not all roses as you say, and it gives hope to the rest of us. I had a similar experience in Scotland / Ireland recently. It felt like the weather was completely against me. I was lucky to walk away with anything.
In the film "Rounders" Mike McD says, "In 'Confessions of a Winning Poker Player,' Jack King said, 'Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.'
I know many photographers, myself included, who may not remember every detail of the great shots they've made, but they can remember "with remarkable accuracy" the outstanding missed shots of their carer. Man, the sting of a missed shot just never goes away.