"The Gap"

This is actually a few years old, but it's been making the rounds amongst the photography blogs I follow. And I love it. I transcribed it and tucked the words away, and whenever I would pull it back up and read it, it's inspired me to keep on, particularly as it relates to how I think of doing photography:

"You gotta know it's totally normal. 

The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, every month, you know that you're going to finish one story. 

It's only by actually going through a volume of work that you're actually going to catch up and close that gap, and the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions. It takes a while. It's going to take you a while, it's normal to take a while, and you just have to fight your way through that."

And yeah, I know that this is basically Gladwell minus the pop science. But I do believe that practice is the best way to improvement and "success" (in quotations, because it depends on how you define it). It's about practice. (No really, practice, Allen Iverson!)

Sharon says I'm too hard on myself. In many ways she's right, because I am, about many aspects of my life. But she also says that about the way I judge my photography output. Perhaps I'm harsh; but I know what I like, and I know when I've reviewed photos that I took and realized that none of them are quite to my liking or have fallen short, as Ira says in the video.

But this is a reminder not to defeat myself just because I haven't reached a point where I'm "satisfied" or certain that my work matches my ambitions (and it hasn't; not by a long shot). I really appreciate when people tell me they think a photo I took is great. But I also know I'm working towards something. I don't have so many hours a day to devote to this, but it's something I've identified to myself as a passion, and it's something for which I have ambitions for myself. I'm just working my way through The Gap, as Ira calls it.

Come join me in The Gap?