Over the course of the last few weeks I have been listening to some new podcasts. I will admit up front that what I know about photography, the things that I talk about here, are not all my idea. In most cases these things come from experience, such as the previous blog where I talked about all the mistakes that cost me editing time that I made at my last family session. I am currently listening to the Improve Photography Network, (which has multiple podcasts about photography) Tips from the Top Floor, Fotobug, Full Time Photographer and ProBlogger. Crazy I know. That is a lot to listen too, and I have listened to ALL the available podcasts. It is a lot of time that has been invested. However I feel like I have benefited. The reason that I feel that way is because I take a look at what I am doing in my own life and my photography and based upon what I hear and learn it changes what I am doing. So like I said there have been some major changes in my life and I have had the chance to add two more podcasts, and as of late I must admit, they are the ones that are making me think a lot harder about what I am doing with my photography.
The first one that is not really affecting things, and really is the only one that I am listening to for fun is Serial. If you have not heard of it, well it makes you think. They have taken a case about a 17 year old Muslim that was arrested, tried, and convicted to a life sentence in Maryland for killing his ex girlfriend. I know, sounds crazy that anyone would care, but you know it makes you think. They talk about the facts of the case, the way that these same facts in the case during trial were twisted, and how things like prejudice may or may not have affected the case. Believe me, it has really sucked me, and it really makes me think. Which is great, it gets the gears turning and once the episode ends I really start to day dream and think about other things, like my photography and well for lack of better term gives me the chance to start thinking about new fun ways to improve. Weird way to get there, I know.
The second one that I started listening too and really the reason that I started writing this post today is Profitographers. Mind you I have only listened to two episodes at this point and I am hooked. I am hooked for one simple reason. A question was asked "Does practice really make perfect?' My answer immediately was yes, and of course I was stunned when I learned that is really not the case. Practice does not make perfect. The explanation was so simple and made so much sense that it really can make you feel kinda... well... stupid. The simple answer is NO practice does not make perfect. Very strange right? All of your life you have probably been told that practice makes perfect and to keep trying. However, think about it, were you practicing to be perfect, or when you achieved what you deemed as perfect, were you practicing perfect? Let me explain. With everything that we do in life there is a bit of a learning curve that goes with it. We "practice" fail, at whatever it may be, and we make a change, and than we try again, right? So think about it. You have just changed whatever you were doing. You changed the way that you look at how you compose an image for example, and you continue to make minor changes until you get to a point that your composition is correct, and than you apply that one method to every single time that you shoot from that point forward. once you are applying that same process with no changes every single time, that is practicing, however, it is practicing perfect. I understand that it is not exactly the way that each and everyone of us is use to looking at it. However it makes sense.
Let me illustrate it another way. I use to be a very avid sports player, my favorite sport being softball. When I started I had no idea how to catch, hit or throw. I am quite sure at the young age of 8 I was a horrible sight to see as I was struggling to learn. I especially struggled with batting. I was admittedly horrible. During games I use to pray to be walked, just so I wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment of striking out, because I couldn't connect with the ball. I use to go home after games and practice and I would swing a bat for hours trying to make my swing "perfect", the problem was I was not changing what I was doing. Each time that I swung the bat I would drop my shoulder and this would cause the bat to change the level that it was at, and would cut right under the ball, or it would catch the bottom of the ball if I was lucky and it would cause a pop up, which of course led to an easy out. It took a long time, but I finally realized what I was doing wrong. When I focused, and stopped dropping my shoulder, I would connect every time with the ball, thus creating what I deemed to be the perfect swing. From that point forward, once I corrected the error I practiced, correcting the muscle memory that I had created with my bad habit and replaced it with the perfect habit,and therefore practicing perfect.
I found this whole idea very interesting and I love the way that it is applied to everything that we do every single day, and it has really made me stop and think. I hope that it does for you as well.
As always feel free to leave comments. This could be an amazing discussion!
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