Goals, Expectations, Predictions, and Hopes

I had written about negative thinking and it's costs and had casually mentioned that assuming you were going to shoot a masterpiece today was at least marginally better. G Dan Mitchell made the very sensible point that photographers have to believe that they can and will shoot a masterpiece - that we need to believe that to keep shooting.

I'd like to expand on that a bit. I think it's important to recognize the differences amongst goals, dreams, aspirations, expectations, standards, and intentions.

I intend to shoot a masterpiece today. I hope to succeed, I expect to be disappointed more often than not, but am aware that if I don't try I certainly can't succeed.

It's also important to note that it's one thing to believe that I can create a masterpiece but that it's destructive to expect that it's got to be today and that if it isn't I'm a failure.

I remember from my film days shooting 4X5 and developing film but not proofing or printing for several weeks, the anticipation building, the expectations rising, only to make prints and find out that I had way oversold myself. Cycles like this were responsible for me buying a lovely new 4X5 and never using it or any other camera for 15 years.

More than likely you aren't that dumb but failure to meet expectations can be pretty darn expensive.

I hear of photographers who shoot for an entire year before hitting the print darkroom - I admire their confidence and know I could never ever do that - in fact one of the joys of digital is I can head out again the next day and reshoot something if what I find isn't quite right. Perhaps I'm kidding myself but I do feel that rapid feedback is helping me improve my skills. When image problems don't show up for months, it's pretty hard to relate them back to issues of technique, when it's only two hours later, the lesson tends to be pretty powerful.

Dan is absolutely correct - we have to believe we have great images in us, that we are capable of producing them any moment now. It's helpful to feel confident enough to predict that we will be a success, but putting a time frame on it might not be helpful.