Who, photographically speaking, do you want to emulate?
Which of your friends is the best photographer?
Which photographers on the Internet would you want to be as good as?
If you are a professional photographer, who among your photographic colleagues and acquaintances do you most admire?
Who among these are your photographic competition?
But who really is your competition?"
It is not the famous photographer you admire; not the photographer you most want to emulate; not the wedding photographer across town; not the female photojournalist you see on Google+ or Flickr or 500 PX; not your colleague or friend or acquaintance; not the photographers you see regularly on the Internet sites and blogs; not the older, experienced guy at the camera club; not any of them.
The answer is: It is you! You are your own competition. Only you can beat yourself. You are your worst enemy and you are your best friend, when it comes to your photography. Only you can improve your photography regardless of what anyone else says or does or tries to teach you. No one else is going to do anything different because of your photography or in spite of your photography. It is all up to you, your plan, your actions, your desire, your determination, your efforts, your courage, your tenacity, your hard work and your perseverance. As the old saying goes, "if it is to be, it is up to me!" Your photographic destiny is in your hands, my friends.
Photography is like golf. You can beat yourself or you can help yourself. Not only is it about skill, it is also about psychology. It is about making a plan with the end result in mind. It is about practice, practice, practice. How many professional golfers practice? How many musicians practice? How many good public speakers practice? How many dancers practice? The answer to these questions is that ALL of the good ones practice. How many photographers get out every day and practice? Almost none. You can't do that. You have to practice and hone your skills, muscle memory and craft.
My advice is to only photograph for yourself. Don't try to make images to be like someone else or to make photographs like another photographer's photographs. Only take the pictures that please you. Don't try to ever make images to try to please someone else. Don't try to be as good as the guy or woman whose images you see on the Internet. Don't try to emulate a famous photographer that you have studied. Don't try to live up to some psychological and artificial level that you have constructed in your own mind. If you only photograph for yourself and only photograph the subjects you want to photograph or feel the need to photograph, you will get much better as you will derive greater and greater pleasure from your efforts. Greater pleasure and better results have a huge psychological effect on pushing forward and getting better and better.
Don't be afraid to fail. Failure is important in every endeavor. It is hard to achieve a high level of success and appreciate success without some failure along the way. Failure is not necessarily a bad thing. Failure is educational. Failure is character building. Failure is enlightening. Failure is mind altering. Be very critical of yourself and "fail" yourself if you don't live up to your own expectations. The other thing about failure is "it is not how many times you've been knocked down, it is how many times you get back up and push forward!"
It is not the famous photographer you admire; not the photographer you most want to emulate; not the wedding photographer across town; not the female photojournalist you see on Google+ or Flickr or 500 PX; not your colleague or friend or acquaintance; not the photographers you see regularly on the Internet sites and blogs; not the older, experienced guy at the camera club; not any of them.
The answer is: It is you! You are your own competition. Only you can beat yourself. You are your worst enemy and you are your best friend, when it comes to your photography. Only you can improve your photography regardless of what anyone else says or does or tries to teach you. No one else is going to do anything different because of your photography or in spite of your photography. It is all up to you, your plan, your actions, your desire, your determination, your efforts, your courage, your tenacity, your hard work and your perseverance. As the old saying goes, "if it is to be, it is up to me!" Your photographic destiny is in your hands, my friends.
Photography is like golf. You can beat yourself or you can help yourself. Not only is it about skill, it is also about psychology. It is about making a plan with the end result in mind. It is about practice, practice, practice. How many professional golfers practice? How many musicians practice? How many good public speakers practice? How many dancers practice? The answer to these questions is that ALL of the good ones practice. How many photographers get out every day and practice? Almost none. You can't do that. You have to practice and hone your skills, muscle memory and craft.
My advice is to only photograph for yourself. Don't try to make images to be like someone else or to make photographs like another photographer's photographs. Only take the pictures that please you. Don't try to ever make images to try to please someone else. Don't try to be as good as the guy or woman whose images you see on the Internet. Don't try to emulate a famous photographer that you have studied. Don't try to live up to some psychological and artificial level that you have constructed in your own mind. If you only photograph for yourself and only photograph the subjects you want to photograph or feel the need to photograph, you will get much better as you will derive greater and greater pleasure from your efforts. Greater pleasure and better results have a huge psychological effect on pushing forward and getting better and better.
Don't be afraid to fail. Failure is important in every endeavor. It is hard to achieve a high level of success and appreciate success without some failure along the way. Failure is not necessarily a bad thing. Failure is educational. Failure is character building. Failure is enlightening. Failure is mind altering. Be very critical of yourself and "fail" yourself if you don't live up to your own expectations. The other thing about failure is "it is not how many times you've been knocked down, it is how many times you get back up and push forward!"
In photography, you can be your own worst enemy or you can be your own best friend. Treat yourself well. Only photograph what you love and practice, practice, practice. Don't be afraid to fail.
Keep pushing, my friends. You are going in the right direction.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
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