Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a successful photographer? To determine what creates success, we first have to define success. While success can take many forms, in this case we are referring to it as a healthy coexistence between business life and personal life, while following a profitable career that you love. For each individual the criteria changes, but for the past several months, after lots of reading, listening to podcasts, and through personal experiences, I have compiled a list of five words that describe a successful photographer.
1. Inspiration
Inspiration could possibly be one of the most important aspects of becoming a successful photographer. Inspiration is the root of all creativity. As creatives, it is imperative that we do what we can to best understand what inspires us. Is it love? Nature? People? Whatever inspires you, I encourage you to dig deep and discover how you can harness this power. Find the times in which you are most inspired. Are you a morning person? A night owl? Does your best inspiration come when you are in the shower? Hiking? Meditating? Find out what works best for you and embrace this. I encourage you all to dedicate time to dreaming. Use this time to free your mind and be inspired. Whatever it is that you enjoy, do this, put aside the worries of the day, and inspiration will come to you.
2. Creativity
Creativity and inspiration go hand in hand. Creativity is the outward expression of inspiration. This is why harnessing your inspiration is so important. The better we can understand how, why, and what we are inspired by, the better we can express it. As photographers, this is what we do. Whether you are a photo journalist, wedding, fashion, or commercial photographer, it is your own unique point of view, your creativity, which determines how you frame the shot and when you press the trigger. Creativity is the how, inspiration is the why.
3. Meaning
Alongside inspiration and creativity is meaning. Meaning is the purpose behind your inspiration and creation. How does your work positively affect people? How does it affect the world? We can be inspired and we can create but with out meaning, what purpose does our work have? Your work doesn't have to have a deep meaning, it can be therapeutic to you, it can just be something to do in your free time, but if you are looking to build a career or business as a photographer, the greater meaning you can put behind your work and the more people you can help and inspire, the more successful you will be.
4. Discipline
From a business or professional standpoint, discipline is incredibly important. As creatives, artists, and entrepreneurs we have to be self-motivated and disciplined enough to actually finish the projects that we are inspired to create. Having self-discipline is the difference between our meaningful projects going out into the world and changing peoples lives versus them never seeing the light of day. Running a photo business takes a lot more work than taking pretty pictures and posting them to Instagram. You have to be focused and have self-discipline. There are lots of tasks that aren't exactly fun, nonetheless they have to be completed and often require getting down and dirty and making yourself put in the time to finish them.
5. Happy
Happiness and financial, or worldly success, don't always go hand in hand and this is why I saved it for last. Not only because I believe it is the most important aspect but because what good is your work is you are not happy? Especially in today's world, we are always striving to be happy but not quite there. "If I only had that new camera, if I had one more client, or if I had more time off I would be happy." Think about it, it is not exactly easy to be happy. How often do you acknowledge your happiness? I encourage everyone to take time when things are going great and bask in the glory. Take time to yourself and say "I am happy now." Acknowledge your success and don't immediately move on to what you need next to be more happy.
Bonus: Organized
I know I said five words, but the reality is there are more than five words to define or guide you to success. Another important word that comes to mind when talking about success is organized. Organization varies depending on the type of person you are. For some of us, it comes naturally; for others, not so much. My motto when it comes to organization is controlled chaos. For example, I like working in a clean space. This mean papers get put in bins and out of the way, but it doesn't mean they are organized by date or project. I am a visual person, they appear neat and organized and when the time comes I can flip through them easily enough. I take this approach to most aspects of photography. Organization is important but the point I am making is embrace who you are. If you are a super organized person, be super organized. If this doesn't come naturally to you then don't be super organized, just be organized. Don't try and be something you're not, I believe it would be a better use of your time to embrace a naturally positive trait that you excel at.
Success comes in different forms. Whether it is financial success, more time, or more creativity in your life that you are looking for, success is attainable with a little bit of hard work. I chose inspiration, creativity, meaning, discipline, and happiness as keys to success. However, these are not the only keys. There are so many words that you can relate to being successful and these are just a few of my top choices. Being successful takes hard work, time, and consistent effort. Just remember no matter who you are and no matter what comes naturally to you, you can be successful if you put in the work. If you have any key words that you believe define success, feel free to share in the comments section below.
I'm almost all of those, that's why i'm not successful.
I'm allways inspired or looking for inspiration, i'm happy or at least i'm almost there, Meaning...this one confuses me but i believe i'm into it, Discipline..heck...i'm missing this one.
Organized...i'm a programmer...i organize things...
Heh, i need to get a grip and lay off the lazyness...i know my stuff and i believe i am capable of making some top notch pictures.
Thanks for the article Michael, i needed to read something like this today!
It's funny you mention organizing things, i'm a former programmer (hobbyist and a couple semesters in college), and I find myself organizing things, at least digital things, like crazy. Not so much my laundry or anything else though.
..and here I always thought there was an inverse correlation between creativity and organizational ability.
Only two of the words (including the bonus) would describe me, or anybody else; the reason being that only two are adjectives while the other four are nouns and therefore qualities a successful photographer may possess. Inspired, creative, meaningful and disciplined would describe a successful photographer. I am not a successful photographer, probably because I lack at least three of those. I also lack happiness, so in general I'm not doing too well.
An odd post. You can learn and train yourself to be all 4... but start with discipline first.
If this is a call out for help, may I suggest a call or visit to your local camera store, user group, or community college for mentors, pointers... and possibly help with your depression.
It started off as a grammar point - the title says 'describe' and few of the words are describing words (adjectives). However, I didn't want to just criticise the author without a little self-reflection.
I always question the nature of creativity within my work. I feel like I take (good) pictures of things that already exist, but that I am not creating anything that does not yet exist - merely a photographic facsimile, and a largely unnecessary one.
For this, and other reasons, I feel like my work lacks meaning. Again, I merely produce pictures of things that already exist - generally safe, unchallenging things (... landscapes, found objects, etc.). People generally like my photographs and tell me I am a good photographer. I don't believe them; I believe my work to be vacuous and void, albeit not unpleasant to look at. Inspiration has been AWOL for at least a year now, and probably more.
Perhaps with disciplined thought I could recover inspiration and create meaningful work - although I personally believe I simply do not have the perceptive abilities to think deeply about the things that matter and create meaningful photographic work about them. Some have it and some do not; I am aware that I am one of those who do not. I am also undergoing psychotherapy.
Give yourself credit for being honest with yourself. I do... but that doesn't matter.
Have you considered looking into photo manipulations i.e. photo art? A lot of straight "out of the camera" photography also bores me to tears. But the combination of photography, technology, DIY, and simply being creative can be a lot of fun.
Look up: Best Photo Manipulation and Compositing Artists
Thanks, and thanks for responding in a manner that is altogether more constructive than my original post.
During University I spent a lot of time working in sketch books, collaging, cutting, sticking, stenciling, sewing, etc. but mostly as an aside to my projects. I've never done digital manipulation/art though.
I also spent my time at University battling against my thoughts about originality, creativity and meaning; and probably tried too hard to present (frequently half-baked) ideas through my work, which in the end I was never happy with. I was always happier with the sketchbooks; perhaps because I dedicated more time to them; perhaps because the act of creating physically is enjoyable, as you said.
Dedicating time to this again, as you said with regards to discipline, might help.
The creative arts offers a huge number of opportunities. Sketching and enjoying that process is one of them. You might consider publishing your sketches, rather than "always" using photography (or any other creative medium) to bring reality into the picture.
While I do think that you need and should discipline yourself to explore other forms of creativity, rather than the one you always feel most comfortable with (you might be surprised how that adds to your preferred medium!)... always try to do the the art that you could (and do!) in your sleep. It should be so pleasing you don't want to sleep!
Then you will discover your true calling to the creative arts.
Just some tips... not trying to preach here. Enjoying art and the process of making of it is priority #1. Success comes naturally.
Sorry it's taken a while to respond to your thoughtful comment. I appreciate that you're not preaching, but trying to help in a sincere way. Thank you.
The sketchbooks didn't really contain any sketches, mostly collages but they were generally for my own amusement. I know people at University enjoyed looking at them as physical artifacts but I don't think they would do well with digitisation. I still keep them though.
I've often used text with my photographs; and am currently working on a text and image project - I just need to bring what I have together actually as both the text part and image parts are finished; pending revision of the text by a Spaniard because I've written it in Spanish.
This week I've been out with the camera more ... I often forget that it's difficult to be happy with ones work if one is not producing any work. So for now I'm trying to let myself take photographs that I like without worrying too much about what they mean ... and trying to remember that a meaning doesn't have to be immensely complex. I'm not aiming to be successful anymore anyway, I'm aiming to be happy ... but that will take discipline too.
Great points! Inspiration is often uncovered by working. I find that when I pick up the camera and hunt for photos I am inspired by my surroundings, advice I've read online or in books, and by internal questions about the craft of photography and what makes a good photo.
I read a piece of advice by Brooks Jensen recently - he said that he has often found the best photos by "turning around" and seeing what is behind him.
Often when we are looking at the shot in front of us we climb hills, mountains, wade into streams, or snap pics of strangers on city streets. We don't always take the time to see where we came from. Turn around and see what's behind you. You just might find a better photo than what you were chasing.
This week I was frustrated with my weekend shots in nature so I delved back into a genre I enjoy, macro expressionism, and took some shots that made me really happy... and feel successful.
Thanks for this topic well treated. I will definitely follow these advise and work towards being successful. I am not a professional yet, but I am working towards getting there soon. Keep giving us good stuff!!!