That last one is on the top of my list along with another: The anticipation and drama of never knowing when the next great image is going to happen.
I love photography for what it gives us as a memory of a unique moment from the photographer's perspective. Every one of the billions and billions of photographs taken are singular records of a frozen instant (or longer depending on shutter speed). If you really think about, whether the image is a casual snapshot, a throw-away accidental picture of the floor or ceiling or sky, or a Pulitzer Prize winner, every photograph ever taken is special in its own way.
That by itself will give you a headache thinking about deleting an image file or tossing a negative or slide.
As important as the concept of photography providing a never-ending record of reality is, the idea that the best image I will ever take may very well have not happened yet. Or at the very least, the prospect that the best image I, or any other photographer, will produce, could happen at any time. Today. Tomorrow. Who knows. What an opportunity to wake up with everyday. In my opinion, for an artist, there is nothing better.
I talk a lot about serendipity and how it plays into image-making. Better to lucky than good sometimes produces great art. But happen chance in opportunity can sometimes be just as important. Take for example what happened to me a few days ago.
I have been promoting some of my photography services on CraigsList recently. If you are trying to save a buck on marketing, this is a great way to do it. You can't get much more cost-effective than free. One service -- I call it DFW sPORTRAITS -- provides clients a hour's worth of shooting at a sporting event at a low-end introductory fee. I use a CraigsList ad to tie to it.
Because I am updating the advertising every few days, I am on CraigsList often and last Friday afternoon I scanned the "Gigs" section when I came across someone looking to hire a photographer to do just that same thing. I responded and got the job so Saturday morning I was at a YMCA flag football game shooting like it was the Super Bowl. It turns out I might get another job from the coach who hired me as well as some referrals.
On the way home I decided to do some reconnaissance for an upcoming Christmas season-oriented project and spent a little time adding some images to by stock bank.
While my "best shot ever" may not have come out of the morning of shooting, I think I produced some pretty good images. The funny thing about it is, that Friday afternoon I had planned on heading out to area of town to re-shoot some scenes I had previously eyed but I couldn't leave the house because of some unrelated circumstances.
Had I not been home, I probably wouldn't have seen the CraigsList ad for Saturday's shoot and none of what I produced that morning would have been captured by my camera. It's true that I might have produced something else in place of the images I did but the moral of the story is that the next time a photo-op doesn't materialize, the image-making gods may have another plan for you.
