Photography is not a sport.

Helmut hat geschrieben:Also entweder steh' ich auf dem Schlauch, oder ich steh auf dem Schlauch. In Franks Beitrag kommt doch nach dem Doppelpunkt nix mehr.

so I got an email this morning that I
thought was so good I wanted to make an
entire video about it basically the
listener was asking what did you do in
the beginning to stay inspired and say
motivated he says that he'll edit a
photo
he'll post it online he'll feel really
good about it and then he'll start
seeing other photos from other
photographers online that are just miles
better than his own and he starts
getting really down on himself and
really discouraged because there's so
many other really good photographers out
there with work that he feels is better
than his own the first thing that you
need to know is that's never going to
stop that's never going to end
I'm constantly looking at photos online
and just like holding my head in my
hands and feeling discouraged because
people like Mark Adam as' and Ryan Dyer
and Michael Shane bloom and Alex Noriega
their work is so amazing I don't feel
that I'm ever going to reach that level
of mastery with my own photography but
the important thing to know and the
important thing to hang on to is the
fact that it does not matter Photography
is not a sport it's not a competition
it's not something that you can ever be
the best at it's an art it's about doing
things that make your soul but doing
things that make you feel good doing
things that you love and to express
yourself the only person you should ever
compare your photography to is yourself
and to see that slow steady growth is
the best feeling that you ever did in
photography is to see yourself just
slowly getting better and to slow see
yourself slowly working harder to you
know better express yourself and with
the photography that you're doing social
media has done a lot of really amazing
things for photographers the very fact
that I'm speaking of thousands of people
and by staring in my little camera and
and getting my opinions out is just
mind-blowing it's crazy and this is the
world that we live in now but but
there's a downside granted we can post
our photos online and and people from
around the world can see them but the
problem is is that we're constantly
subjected to the best photography in the
world we follow those really amazing
photographers
we constantly have that you know that
measuring stick that we're never
measuring up to we see this all these
amazing photos in our Instagram feed
every morning and then we look at our
own photos and really you just don't
feel very good about yourself but but
but that's the thing to remember is that
just because there are so many amazing
photographers out there does not mean
that you cannot still enjoy it for
yourself because you're not it's not a
competition it's not a sport granted
being really competitive can be a
benefit you know the really competitive
person can really excel at photography
for a while
because you're constantly looking at
other people's work and you're seeing
that you're picking a part and analyzing
okay what is it that they do so good
okay I'm gonna try to implement some of
what I like about this person into my
own photography and that that will
really fuel a competitive person for a
while but the problem is is once once
you reach a certain point in your
photography where start looking around
and there's not quite as many people
that are better than you anymore you
start to lose your reason for
photography competitive nature cannot be
the only reason you do photography or
else it's not going to be fulfilling in
the end there needs to be a deeper
reason for your photography or for any
art or really for anything that you do
there needs to be a deeper reason why
you're doing it rather than just to
prove that it can because that person is
never going to stay motivated and never
going to stay passionate the real reason
you should be doing photography is
because you want to and because you
enjoy and because you enjoy the process
of going out and hiking around taking a
photo coming back editing it you do and
you enjoy that process and it's not
about what people think of your
photography it's not about how good you
are relative to other photographers it's
just about enjoying the process of it
that is going to be with sustains you
for the long term so if that's the
reason you're doing photography you're
set you're good it doesn't matter
whether there's other people that are
better than you because eventually
you're going to have more longevity than
the really competitive people
there and I say this with the caveat
that I am one of those competitive
people I thrive on you know trying to be
the best at everything but there comes a
point when you reach you know where you
start to lose your where you start to
lose your fire there has to be a reason
deeper than just doing it to be the best
because that will never lead you to the
be the best the people that actually
become the best are the ones that are
passionate and would do it even if
nobody saw their photo in the first
place they do it because they love to do
it that's what drives them to the top so
many people are doing photography
nowadays and I guarantee that a large
chunk of them are not doing it because
they are passionate and love photography
they're doing it because their friends
do it and they're doing it because it's
kind of a popular thing to do and for
that reason photography is a little bit
of a fad right now there's a lot of
people doing photography that probably
don't love love it they're doing it
because it's kind of the in thing to do
in another 15 years I bet there's far
fewer photographers than there are today
just because it won't be quite as cool
to be a photographer so that's kind of
my ramble for this subject is that you
need to be doing it for you and you need
to only compare yourself to yourself
look at yourself and see those small
increments of growth enjoy the process
of getting better and only put that
measuring stick up against the wall to
measure yourself against don't ever
measure yourself against other people
that have been doing it for far longer
that's going to do nothing but
discourage you and it's pointless
because photography is not a sport it's
not a competition it's an art thank you
guys so much make sure you like and
subscribe and we'll see you in the next
video buh-bye