The Law of the Universe dictates that we all make photos that suck. You and I, and all of us, should never break this law. Here’s why.
It’s the human thing to do
What kind of beings are we if we never make photos that suck? No one, whether we are a National Geographic photographer or have just picked up a camera for the first time, is ever going to create great photos every time out. No, we’re not. It’s just not human. That’d be weird. Stop beating yourself up over all those photos that suck. Making horrible photos is the human thing to do.
Failure is essential
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
– Michael Jordan, often considered the greatest player of all time, and winner of six NBA championships
We learn from failure. All of us begin from scratch.
This is how we learn. We don’t grow unless we make mistakes. We don’t grow unless we change the way we go about creating photos.
Beauty and greatness can come from nothing
When we set out to do something, we initially might have humble beginnings. We’re frequently awful at something. But this is the way of life. Things evolve from nothing. A tiny seed in a field can turn into a meadow of radiant flowers. But a tiny seed in the middle of the street turns into nothing.
We’re frequently told, “You can’t do that.” We hear that creating something is for other people. Other people are talented. They have a gift. But not us. How tragic it is to think, “Those people, they had this beautiful talent. They create beautiful art. They create beautiful photographs. But not me. I don’t have that inside me.”
Think about how different our lives might be if we didn’t ascribe these feelings to ourselves. Think about how different our lives would be if we acknowledged that wonderful things come from nothing.
Don’t get hung up on all the photos that you create that suck. I promise, you’ll keep doing that. So will I.
But we’ll grow from that if we are willing to give ourselves license to do so.
Growing, adapting, learning, changing
What sucks about your photo? What don’t you like about it? Simply think about how you can change that to make it better. It might be several things. That’s okay.
What do you need to make your image better? How might the lighting be better? How might the composition be better? Is the horizon straight? Is the lens cap still on?
It doesn’t matter how awful it is. It only matters that we think about how to change some aspect of the photo to our liking, and then keep chipping away at it. In the process, we learn.
Eventually, we create less photos that suck. But not to worry, we will still always create photos that do suck. Remember, this is the Law of the Universe.
Now please, go forth and create.