Failure: The Ultimate Recipe for Success
My friends and I make a habit of heading out whenever we can do do little hikes to local points of interest. These are generally more about getting together and hanging out in person rather than photography, but as we are all interested in photography we bring our cameras too. It’s more of an excuse really, the photography, a way of forcing us out of our homes and getting out in the world.
The thing about these trips however is that I find I rarely get many ‘great’ shots or photos that will end up in my portfolio. Sometimes this bothers me, as a photographer I’m always trying to put my work out there, get noticed and hopefully gain more clients and followers. It’s just the nature of trying to build a business around your creative pursuits. So to come home with just over 100 photos that I can mostly describe as ‘average’ it’s hard to escape that feeling that I’ve ‘wasted’ the time, or somehow failed as a creative person.
However, after our little trip yesterday — and some reflection — I’ve readjusted my thinking here. After all, the goal of these little hikes isn’t really to produce portfolio worthy work. It’s to get out, experiment, see new things — and above all, have some fun with my friends doing something we all enjoy. Plus, a good bit of well needed cardio!
More than that though, I believe it has reinforced a point us creatives need to remind ourselves of more often.
You’re not always going to produce amazing work 100% of the time. Most of it, will probably be embarrassing garbage.
However that doesn’t mean it has no value, just because you won’t be uploading these images to your social media or printing them in a photo book, doesn’t mean that producing the work was a waste of time. What’s important is that you got out there and shot the stuff, maybe you tried out a new lens, maybe you used an old one that you haven’t messed with for a while. Whatever it might be, every time we get out there and create anything, we’re improving ourselves — all it takes is some reflection on the work.
If you find the results underwhelming, don’t just sit back and pout about it, be critical, analyse why you’re not happy with the results. This simple process will give you a new perspective on your work. Perhaps you’ll see it in a new light and decide that it’s worth publishing after all — or maybe you’ll just learn a valuable lesson about what you shouldn’t be doing.
For me on this kinds of trips I generally enjoy shooting with a wide angle lens, moving close and distorting objects in the foreground to give them a larger than life feel. However, this time I tried to avoid doing that, picking different focal lengths and going for more compressed compositions and close up shots. My results were, as mentioned, underwhelming. Almost nothing worked out and the few that did are very unlikely to see the light of day. The one image I liked? I used a wide angle lens and shot what I know.
So what do I take from this? Well, I could just decide to stick with what works, but the danger there is that I won’t really grow as a creative person. I already know I can create good results shooting with that wide angle perspective, so while my hit rate will be dramatically higher it runs the risk of growing stale. For me, I’d rather keep pushing what didn’t work, and hopefully improve upon it, than simply staying in a comfort zone.
So, Instead of looking at poor results and giving up because you’re inadequate at it, keep doing that thing you’re awful at — whatever it is. Keep pushing it further and further and improve upon it. Don’t just dismiss the results with easy excuses like ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I can’t do this’. Look at it, figure out what you dislike, learn, adapt and push forward.
Nobody starts out great, nobody is born talented, you have to earn it — and failure, when properly analysed, is the best teacher.
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