Why Professional Photographers Get Better Results

something I think that is a bad piece of advice is when people say well just shoot you just got to shoot more you just gotta shoot more I agree with it but I don't think it's the whole story I think it's only a small part of the story [Music] it's been reported that Picasso created more than 60 000 works of art in his lifetime sixty thousand on average that's three paintings a day for more than 60 years but what is he known for he's known for a few select Works bringing this into the world of Photography we can think of prolific photographers such as Albert Watson over the span of Albert Watson's lifetime he's done countless photo shoots but he's known for a number of iconic photographs when I was teaching improvisation there was a phenomenon I discovered when people would get to about the year three Mark of studying improvisation they would start to exhibit an attitude that sort of said I know what I'm doing I don't need to learn anymore everything I'm doing is right we know that's not the case we know that we need to keep studying for years and working and improving but around the three year mark there's somewhere in the three to five year mark people would become a little a little cocky a little arrogant about what they could do see the same thing happening in photography people have been doing photography for about three years start to get a sense like I got this I know what I'm doing my style is set everything's done I don't have to work on producing anything new or interesting this is this is who I am this is what I do at about the five year mark they start to realize oh there's so much more to this than I thought I knew I was wrong I assumed that I had learned everything there was to learn but there's so much more to learn this discipline this art form this this creative Pursuit is so full of possibilities that we can't even begin to imagine how we could explore different different ideas and different concepts I don't know that I will ever get to do underwater photography for example but there are Masters people out there who only shoot underwater and it is mind-blowing to me it's such an interesting style of work but in order to explore and and create and get to that point of by the time we're done by the time we're gone to think about what is Left Behind I want to be as prolific as Picasso as prolific as Albert Watson I want to shoot shoot shoot constantly and be remembered for a few iconic images what I don't want is to shoot a few iconic images that are never remembered I want people to like my work as much as you like this video click that like button quantity will lead to better quality in your work you cannot help but learn and get better the more you shoot the more you practice the more you you participate in deliberate practice deliberate being one of the keys there if your practice is deliberate you will grow faster and you will get better faster you will look at your work with a critical mind if you just practice and shoot and shoot and shoot you may get better incrementally but a lot slower I do think you will get better you'll get a better understanding of like how everything works you you don't have to think about a lot of things it's one of the reasons why I love the eye tracking autofocus on my camera because it's one less thing for me to think about when I'm photographing a subject I don't need to worry about Focus anymore you do have to shoot more you have to keep shooting but just shooting isn't going to make you better faster you can participate in deliberate practice and shoot with the intention of learning and experimenting and growing seeing if something works and if it doesn't don't just discard it and and say well that didn't work I'm never doing that again I did a shoot recently with a client of mine we were experimenting he was really open to a lot of experimentation and I bought I bought a bunch of like mylar and I opened it up and we put them in and shot in and around it and it looked horrible I hated it and I I we had spent a bunch of time setting it up but within five minutes I was like no this is this isn't working this is a waste of time I'm going to continue trying to do that shot have the shot in my mind but it just wasn't working it wasn't working with that client it wasn't working with that setup but I have this shot in my mind that I want to see if I can get to maybe I'll get to it and I won't like it maybe I'll be able to figure it out and it won't be any good and then I just go on to the next 60 000 images I want people to like my work I want people to look at it and think that's that's there's something interesting there that photo speaks to me or this photo repels me to find a repugnant I want to say something I want I want my work to mean something in order to get there I have a lot more work to do I have a lot more images to take I have a lot more photos to take I've got a lot more to learn I'm interested in in traveling and doing travel photography and Landscapes and photographing people in the places where they exist and I hope to do that in the meantime get out there and shoot look at your images with a critical eye figure out what it is you are trying to do and how you can improve upon it for a couple of good ways that to help you grow check out this video here about how to create ideas for personal projects and check out this video here for how you can create a dogma and to help create a set of guidelines for you in your work thanks for watching hit that like button and I'll see you soon take care