Everybody gets lucky once in a while, but success in imaging and in LIFE requires purposeful focus.
I shoot pictures with a nice digital SLR… It has a deep well of features to draw from but, for the most part, I keep all of the dials and menus set to “auto” so that I can just point and shoot. I do this because I have a 4-year-old and I don’t want to miss any of the impromptu moments that happen in our family life…
I also do it because I’m kinda lazy…
In general, I don’t take the time to really dial-in my technical skills in photography. I have a pretty good “eye” for capturing good composition, but I am limited by the automatic choices that I set by default.
Auto-focus is a funny thing… particularly when you shoot macro-stills. For example, an image of a flower: the camera might select the edges of the petals as the focal point… or the end of the nearest stamen or the nearest flat surface or the dead twig in the lower right corner of the image that you didn’t even notice… I have come home from photo-walking with a hundred images in my camera and no more than 3 that were properly focused… I suppose everybody gets lucky sometimes…
When you let the technology select the focus, it could be anywhere.
If this isn’t an obvious life-metaphor, then you haven’t lived long enough: Focus doesn’t happen by default.
In life, I often wander around with all of the dials set to auto. I get by largely on talent and intuition but fail to capture the real potential because I slack on skills development, discipline and focus. Sometimes, I get a lucky break: a great image, a singable song, an interesting story… but mostly, I get a camera full of bad images, a notebook full of unused ideas…
And most of the artists I encounter seem to be floundering in the same way…
Except for the successful ones.
The “professional” artists that I know… the ones that play regular gigs, appear in multiple plays simultaneously, open their own art shows and make a living with their talents… These guys are all focused on specific goals. They spend hours dialing-in their skills. They have a camera full of great images, albums of great music, awe-inspiring portfolios… This is the legacy of living with purpose.
I saw this on a t-shirt:
Talent and discipline will always beat talent, unless that talent becomes disciplined.
Wow thanks for this post. Great challenge and recognition of my own tendencies to flounder. Laziness and fear of failure are huge anchors for me.