Photography: Skill & Hard Graft V Instant Gratification

Not many things grate on me more than the self entitled generation that we are seeing. The instant gratification that people seek with technology flows through their veins all the way to their junk filled brains. Having everything at the touch of a button or a swipe of a touchscreen doesn’t really nurture patience and the skill of persistence. One of the huge things that has changed with the advent of the smartphone is that everyone who owns one has the ability to take photos and share them. There are two sides to this coin and this article really helps highlight the darker side.

This photo is from Dean Blotto Gray who I’ve followed for a while. He is out there 250 days a year and has been for the last 14 years. Off of the snow he has some great shots too.

I look back on when I first properly started taking photos. It was in 2008, when in my second year of university I purchased a basic Holga. It was an expensive way to learn from mistakes but I can remember having so much fun. Shooting a few rolls, forgetting what you had shot and then being all giddy when you pick them up from the lab.

7 years later and my experience of shooting film and now digital has grown exponentially. I’m definitely a lot stronger in some areas of photography than others but that’s because I choose to shoot what I love and I’ve never had to do otherwise. I still look up to the same photographers and all my experience has made me appreciate their work even more because I can relate on some level what lengths they have gone to to be the very best. Now that’s the very best according to my opinion but like any medium it’s all subjective.

This is a shot of Mike Blabac’s. This guy has been shooting photos since the year I was born and has dedicated his life to documenting the skate scene and is one of the reasons I still have a lot of love for DC

The self entitled instant gratification folk I mentioned at the beginning don’t seem to realise the path that ‘the best’ have had to walk. They don’t realise the hard work people have put in to their photography. They say ‘I wish I had talent, I wish I could do that’ or they can’t comprehend after putting in minimal effort why their work doesn’t compare to the people they measure themselves against and assumed it’s down to a technological or economic difference. In very small instances this is the case, but there are a lot of people who ‘have all the gear and no idea’.

People don’t see the hours spent learning and refining their photography skills. All the failures along the way. The time and effort wasted just to come through with nothing to show for it. Some of my favourite photos are years of hard work and experience encapsulated in a split second of life. The effort to get to some shooting locations, the sacrifices of basic needs, warmth, shelter and food just to get to THE location. These all happen behind the camera and it’s rarely documented. I recall a trip I took last year where I spent 3 hours hiking to a particular location and I was certain I had some of the best film shots I had ever taken. One of the rolls came back completely overexposed and the other was lost somewhere in a field. A tough lesson was learned but a lesson learned nonetheless.

I chose this photo of Chris Burkard’s as it featured on the front of a publication I buy called Sidetracked. This was my first time I had knowingly seen his work and very quickly found myself drowning in his awesomeness

I guess what I’m really trying to get at is don’t be mad or frustrated that your work doesn’t compare to your favourite photographers, use them as inspiration and creative drive for you to produce the very best work you can and to learn and grow. Maybe one day you’ll find yourself in their shoes and you are only going to appreciate every step you’ve made even more.

Thanks for reading,

Andy

— Written while listening to the best album of 2015 so far —