Is Good Enough Ever Good Enough?

Al Nowak, a Glamour1 forum member, has posted an interesting, food-for-thought bit of photo-philosophy on G1 he titled, The Imperative to Improve.

In his post, Al hopes to exclude, as a group, commercial shooters' growth imperatives as he wishes, instead, to focus on discussing the photo-growth and development of hobbyists. "Let's leave the commercial side of photography out of this discussion since it brings in competitive factors that cloud the issue tremendously," writes Mr. Nowak.

Al seems to take this position because, as he explains, commercial shooters hope to advance to that next (economic) level whereas a hobbyist is not driven by financial gain and, therefore, might simply arrive at a level of skill that's good enough and satisfying enough.

Economics aside, I don't see much difference between a serious hobbyist's "imperative to improve" and a pro's. I also don't see how, with something as subjective and creatively-driven as photography, "good enough" can ever be good enough for anyone. Maybe that's just me?

Competitive factors notwithstanding, the need to improve one's skills and hone one's vision -- to creatively evolve -- is equally important and not very different for those people making a living with cameras as those who pursue photography as a hobby and creative outlet.

Plus, it's possible for a shooter to work professionally in one genre of photography while being a hobbyist or (if I can write plainly) amateurish in other genres. I'm an example of that notion.

My MySpace friend, Leesa, whom I wrote about some time ago, has become a RealLife friend. Leesa is an outdoor photography shooter. I'd label her a semi-pro if labels are needed. Yesterday, she invited me to tag along with her on one of her photo-field-trips. We went to the beach, late in the day, to shoot... uhmmm... whatever.

As an outdoor/nature photographer, I'm a complete novice. While we were shooting rocks and waves and birds, I'd ask a question here, make an observation there, and Leesa, playfully and with an impish grin, sometimes added to the end of her explanations: "...but your a pro."

Ouch.

Yeah, I'm a pro when there's a nude or scantilly-clad pretty girl in front of me. In more than a few other areas of photography, I'm not much past clueless. Is there an imperative for me to improve as a pretty girl shooter? Unquestionably there is. Is there an imperative for me to improve, assuming I want to pursue the genre in any meaningful way, as an outdoor/nature photographer? Well, at this point, I couldn't be much worse at it.

The pretty girl peeling her panties and about to let me shoot "nature" as she goes au natural is Leah.