Hey Folks,
How’s it going?
Not long now until the weekend is with us.
Got much planned?
I’ll be heading out to Germany Saturday morning to join up with friends Calvin Hollywood and Gabor Richter for a workshop but I’ll let you know more about that next week.
In the mean time though I just wanted to share something quick with you that I saw last night when I was sorting through some old blog posts.
The Ultimate Recognition: 1st August 2007
2007 is when I first started writing a blog and that was for the sole purpose of putting myself under pressure to produce content like I mentioned in yesterday’s post. [Link]
I still remember exactly how I felt when I read it this post on Scott Kelby’s blog. You see at this point I’d only seen Scott Kelby in passing at Photoshop World, Las Vegas and that was from a distance and I remember thinking to myself “one day I want him to know my name”
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Role Models
It doesn’t matter what age we are; if we have something in our lives that we love doing there will always be role models; those people in life we look up to and admire and for me Scott was, and still is, one of them. I tell you, waking up to read this on his blog on the 1st August 2007, for me was surreal. I was like a kid at Christmas…I didn’t think he even knew I existed back then; geez I didn’t have a business and didn’t even have a clue what I wanted to photograph. I was shooting anything and everything; if it stood still long enough I’d take a photo.
Having a role model/s is a good thing so long as that’s what they remain, and what I mean by that is NOT to compare yourself or your work to them. Role models by the very nature of what they are, are folks who are doing what we want to do, producing pictures like we want to produce and so on but if we compare ourselves then that will only serve to harm us. There’s the danger of thinking such stuff as “my work is nothing like that”, “why can’t I do that?”, “I’ll never be as good as that” etc when really we should be looking at what they’re doing and deep down in the pit of our stomachs feel that fire burning and motivating us to get out and create.
On the subject of ‘creating’ don’t expect perfection because you’ll spend a lot of time and effort looking for it. Back in my days as a competitive bodybuilder I was always told that ‘Consistency NOT Perfection is the key’…
There will always be those people bigger, stronger and more gifted with their genetics and consequently it could be very easy to feel deflated in a gym. But, rather than think “I could never look like that” be consistent: train hard, eat plenty of the right stuff, get plenty of rest and do that often enough and for long enough, one day you’ll look in the mirror and you might just see one of those big guys you saw when you first walked into the gym. Consistency NOT Perfection is key!
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here in a few days.
Enjoy,
Glyn
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Best not to ask what Dave is doing
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by Glyn
J.R. Maddox - Consistency! This is so true.. I used to play golf professionally and this couldnt be more true. Nothing is ever PERFECT. We have to get that out of our heads. We have to strive be better and to do that we need to shoot as much as possible. Getting inspired by those that we admire. As a golfer I would practice hours a day… Some others would practice more than me… At first I always thought I had to be out there as long as they were. But for me I could not keep my FULL attention for more than 3-5 hours a day. If you are not 100% into what ever it is you are doing you are doing yourslef a BIG disservice. So bottom line, practice what you enjoy for as long as you can. keeping your focus on what it is you are trying to get better at.
Your work inspires me to practice more, and also makes me think I have to put my knowledge to the test at some point. We cant just learn we have to step out and shoot… You can never really know what you know til you get out and put it to the test.
Ok this is about the most I ever have written at one time… =)
Thanks Glyn!
J.R. Maddox