Today's title is a quote. I came upon this wonderful quote not too many moments before sitting down to write today's update. The quote is attributed to wedding photographer, Amanda Caldwell."A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
Man! Ain't that the freakin' truth? Shades of "The Little Engine That Could," but aimed at photographers!
It doesn't mean, of course, that simply because you keep shooting you'll end up a big-shot shooter. What it means, at least to me, is that all big-shot shooters started out as little-shot shooters and kept shooting until, eventually, they made it to big-shot-shooter status.
Wow! In that simple axiom lies a lot of truth... and hope!
How many times have you looked at an image, captured by some big-shot photographer, and thought your own stuff is every bit as good as the big-shot's work? Has thinking that way made you feel good about yourself? You know, good about yourself as a photographer? Does it make you feel smugly proud of your big-shot-looking little-shot work? I don't know about any of you but, whenever I start thinking these kinds of thoughts, it makes me feel a bit unappreciated and like I'm being cheated out of something that should be mine. Oh! Pity poor me: Mister Legend in his own mind.
What's worse, thoughts like these sometimes make me feel a little bitter.
But what will self-pity and bitterness--justified or not--do for my career? For anyone's career?
Abso-fucking-lutely nothing! NOTHING! Not a freaking thing!
But if I turn those feelings around and view my own, obviously-biased, self-assessment from the perspective of Ms. Caldwell's quote, it offers a glimmer of hope. Maybe even a bit more than a glimmer.
"A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
"A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
"A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
It's my new photographer's mantra. I'm going to keep telling myself that every time I look at some big-shot's work that, I believe, isn't any better--maybe even not as good--as my own.
"A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
Yep, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.
And who knows? Maybe someday someone will be looking at my work while saying to themselves, "A big-shot is a little-shot that kept shooting."
Or, maybe not.
That little-shot-snapped-by-a-little-shot at the top is Faith. MUA was Lilian. I used a pic of Faith because I thought her name is appropriate for this post. Faith's image was faithfully captured with my Canon 5D and an 85mm cyclopean eye. I used three, modified, monolights and a white bounce card to light her.
2 comments:
I have never heard this quote, I like it much. I find occasions where I feel this way of big shooters and not-so-big shooters. Sometimes it's the overwhelming monumental feeling of how perfect an image is, other times it's not a great image, but the idea that went into the image blows me away.
I also get two variations of this sort of thing. One is seeing the big-shooter shoot something that I can't seem to find anything about it that I like, which in turn makes me feel pretty dang good about whatever silly thing I recently shot. The other situation is when I shoot something that seems to effect others in some way. I don't expect much to come out of my images and it's a surprise when others get something out of it.
-joshua
everytime i see work i like more than mine, it just pushes me to make my work better.
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