It’s Easier to Grow When You Feel Small
Last week I walked by the news stand and saw the latest ‘book’ by Reporters without Frontiers. To raise funds and awareness for their organisation they publish two or three photo books (more like a fancy magazine) by some of the world’s famous photographers. A couple of years ago I bought my first Reporters without Frontiers book, mainly to support them but I discovered immediately that the books are just great. So I couldn’t resist buying the new one when I saw it, it’s called 100 Star Portraits. The pictures in this book make me feel small, verry small.
And feeling small is just what I need at times. Yes, self confidence is important for a photographer but don’t mistake arrogance for confidence. You should be confident that you can pull off the jobs that you accepted but once your confidence turns into arrogance, you’ll stop growing as a photographer.
I know I can take a decent picture in many circumstances but many of the pictures in the book are shots that make my jaw drop on the floor, pictures that make me plain jealous. And that’s fine with me because it’s those pictures that force me to rethink my photography, work hard to improve my creative vision and pick up a camera and go shooting.
Every now and then it’s important to forget about marketing, the business, equipment, technique and clients. Many of my favorite pictures in this book, don’t require expensive equipment, exotic locations or a huge crew. I’m sure I could recreate most of these pictures pretty well. But I wish I could just CREATE such pictures.
Knowing that I still have a loooooooong way to go, doesn’t paralyse me. It motivates me to do more personal work and to keep thinking about wich way I want to go. Which photographers and pictures do make YOU feel small?
Wise words. Makes perfect sense to me.
There are so many photographs you look at and think “dammit, I wish I’d been there, wish I’d taken that”, but the key as you say is to not get demoralised by it, and just take it as part of the never ending process of learning.
All of your pictures, Bert, make me feel “small.” This just helps to me to try and get better. I keep pushing myself to learn new things, and that is pretty much always a good thing.
My attitude has slowly changed in this regard. I used to feel very discouraged when seeing work that I was impressed with. Now, after lots of practice, I have come far enough along that I have something of a history of progress. Since I can look back and see that I’m improving these really great images now serve as inspiration for things to come. They might be quite a bit beyond where I’m at now, but they don’t feel as… impossible as they once did.
Thanks for the tip on the book, Bert. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks also for the great podcasts, I’ve just caught up with them all, they’re fantastic.
All my flickr contacts make me “small”..
they make outstanding images
.. from simple to complicated setups
… from straight from cam to heavy processing
… from snapshots to works of art
… etc. etc..
.. I envy them..
.. but I enjoy their work so much.. I added them in my contacts list.
I recognise the feeling and was in absolute awe when I ‘read’ that book/magazine. I also bought the book accompanying the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize which I found to be very inspiring (very diverse styles as well).
Every expo in the National Portrait Gallery actually, and especially the portraits of athletes for the EJ Foundation.
But then again, like pepin said: there’s a great deal going on in my flickr contacts stream
Being a newby in this photography-thingy… I could name lots and lots of photographers that I envy (going from a collegue to Andrzej Dragan)
But i’m mostly impressed by Tom (Fotofolio), Pieter (Van Impe) and you Bert (Stephani) who, next to taking excellent pictures, return a massive amount of knowledge to the community, seem to have time to answer mails from practically everybody, … making better photography reacheable for everybody.
Ooh, I thought of another website/magazine I should mention. There is so much work in JPG Magazine ([site is here]) that amazes me. The site almost shut down, but, with all the support from the JPG community, it looks as if it will be staying up after all.
The most photography Blogs I follow make me small. The most photography books & magazine I bye makes me small…
If not, I wouldn’t follow, bye them…
Generally speaking I follow a massif amount of blogs, magazine, books. So, the most pictures and photographers are really impressing and have something I can not discover in my own work.
Looking at my main interest: Dogs I’m a real fan of the following photographers:
- Laurie Meehan-Elmer (Dogs in the studio, bust also a few very interesting nature projects)
http://www.lmeimages.com/
- Ron Baltus. Sports Dog photographer
http://www.ronbaltus.nl/Web/Honden/Agility.html
- Bonni van den Born. De specialist is outdoor portraits en bread profiles.
http://www.bonfoto.nl
Grtz
Kurt
- Laurie Meehan-Elmer (Dogs in the studio, bust also a few very interesting nature projects)
http://www.lmeimages.com/
- Ron Baltus. Sports Dog photographer
http://www.ronbaltus.nl/Web/Honden/Agility.html
- Bonni van den Born. De spesialist is buitenportretjes en rasprofielen.
http://www.bonfoto.nl
Richard Avedon is still my number one.
Someone who definitely makes me feel pretty small is chase charvis (www.chasejarvis.com)
The work of Oliver Roller!
Well you’ve taught me a lot! but i would have to say Platon’s portrait work wow! i can’t get over it
Also chase jarvis’s whole production
Keep it up guys!
I’d have to say a lot of people on Flickr make me feel small. There are some truly talented people on there.
Also, Andre the Giant made me feel small, that guy was huge!
Well, that’s difficult because I’m quite tall…
Hmm, Flickr seems to be a huge source of doing this to us! It’s there I found Rosie Hardy, who is a master of post production.
difficult. I think I’m not ‘the best photographer’ out there and often underestimate. Still people tend to look at something and what that exact thing. Interesting matter …
Wise words… Feelings and emotions remain with me always present during a shooting. Are these not, i see it on the result … Ollivier Follmi is my mumber one.
I could reel off hundreds of pictures I’ve seen that make me feel ’small’. Haven’t got a clue who took them, but I don’t think that really matters (unless it’s the same person again … and again … and again).
It’s quite intimidating, but I’m of the school of thought “sod it, if someone else can do it, so can I”
Similar to sports, you only push your abilities to grow when you’re against a better player than you.
The problem I find with the images I see and admire is that they are so disparate in content and processing that I’m finding it hard to develop my own ’style’.
Some of my finals are so soft and delicate and then a week later I’m making pictures that are hard and edgy.
It doesn’t make for a flowing portfolio :os
CW
I always feel small when I look at pictures like yours, Jessica Claire, Jen Berry, or guys like Avedon etc. And I support your opinion: It’s always good to see your skill in comparison to others. It gives your creative input and also the ability to actually judge the stuff you do a bit from the outside, if you understand me.
And I also love to be inspired.