Lather, Rinse, Repeat …
Photographers, show us your best shot…
Good dog…
Here’s a biscuit.
One problem: now you gotta do it again. Unless you can produce great photographs consistently you won’t be successful even if you have made one tremendously popular photo. Sure, you can expect accolades and a viral surge in blogs (that sounds so dirty). Maybe you’ll sell some prints, but you can’t make a career out of one photo. The photo community will eventually chalk up your photo to dumb luck and move on to the next one-hit-wonder.*
“Every day you have to throw a bucket in the well and bring the water out. There’s no other way.” – Alexandre Desplat
My job as an architectural photographer is to go to a location and photograph five or ten or a hundred views of a building, bridge, or landscape. All those photos need to be good, usable images. As a wedding photographer you need to bring back a solid album full. As an editorial photographer you need enough to accompany the magazine article.
We can’t tell our client “Hey, I got one masterpiece that will go viral, but the rest kinda blow, what’s the next project?”
*Who sang “My Sharona” anyway?
Chapter 5 from the book: Don’t Shoot | 66 Reasons NOT to Become a Professional Photographer by S. Dirk Schafer funded on Kickstarter in 2015.
