What Is Luck?
According to Seneca, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I could not agree more. If you want to make use of the luck you might ‘get’, you need to be ready for it. How do we get ready for it as professional photographers? We master the technique by acquiring all the skills and keep perfecting them. And this process is never supposed to stop, it’s part of our evolution as photographers and artists.
As Steven Pressfield says in the famous book ‘The War of Art’, technique is not a substitute for inspiration and genius, it’s what allows the inspiration and genius to be used to make art once they present themselves. He also suggests that the professional, by working on the technique, creates room for more inspiration to come.
Learning What You Love Is Easy
I believe learning your craft is relatively ‘easy’, because your passion fuels all that effort (if that doesn’t happen to you, maybe there’s not enough passion there) and you enjoy doing that. What is normally more problematic is approaching the other aspects of your business with the same energy in the absence of passion.
The Pros Do The Work
I doubt a lot of photographers have a passion for all those things that a professional photography business requires, yet all those things (bookkeeping, branding, marketing, advertising, networking, outreach, etc) demand so much work and effort. I’d say they stand for at least 50% of the total work needed in order to run a successful photography business. How do we bring ourselves to doing those? By creating a structure and routines in our daily life and that, too, requires a lot of work.
Are you willing to put in the work required? I think it’s an aspect that is very often neglected by amateurs and semipros who are considering transitioning into professional photography. Technique is essential to the professional photographer and we should constantly refine it, but technique alone is not enough in order to turn pro.
Recommended readings:
The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
The Artist’s Way - Julia Cameron
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Thank You and Happy Shooting!