Dear friend, when do you feel fulfillment in your photography?

Do you feel fulfilled when someone compliments your photos? When someone new follows you on social media? When someone likes your photos?

Do you feel fulfillment just when you’re out shooting? Or when you are done editing a book? Or when you are collaborating with other photographers? Or when you are printing your work and framing them, or giving them as gifts? Or selling your work, or exhibiting your work?

What is “fulfillment”?

For me, fulfillment is all about your attitude and perspective of yourself, your work, and your world.

Feeling “fulfilled” means to be filled with a sense of happiness, of gratitude, and joy.

Finding fulfillment in photography means different things for different people. Some people feel more fulfillment from external sources, and others feel it from internal sources.

When do I feel the most fulfilled in my photography?

I feel the most fulfillment as a photographer by teaching others photography, either in workshops, when giving advice, or when writing these articles or making videos. I actually feel the most fulfilled by empowering others in photography.

In terms of my personal photography, I feel the most fulfillment when I make a photograph that I myself am proud of. I feel fulfillment in my photography when I feel like I’m making progress, and whether I’m having fun or not.

When do I not feel fulfilled in my photography?

Strangely enough, I find that getting lots of likes and comments from others hurts my sense of fulfillment in my photography.

That is a bit strange, isn’t it? But let me explain:

Whenever I upload a photograph that gets a lot of likes/comments on social media — I feel excited and happy. But then again, a sense of insecurity seeps in. I start to ask myself questions like, “What if my next photograph doesn’t get as many likes? Are people just liking my photos for the sake of it?” And no matter how many likes/comments I get — I realize that I don’t have as many likes/comments as other photographers, celebrities, or people out there. And therefore I feel discouraged.

And of course there are situations when I think I have a great photograph, I upload it, and it doesn’t get as many likes/comments as I expected it “should.” This also leads to discontentment in my heart.

What is photography all about?

The more I pursue photography, the more I realize that photography is a tool of self-discovery. To me, photography is less about making images. It is about discovering who you are, what you find interesting in life, what excites you in life, and how you see the world.

No matter how “successful” you are in your photography, no matter how many likes, followers, money you earn, or “famous” you become — you will be miserable if you don’t feel “fulfilled” in the work that you do.

How do we find fulfillment in our photography?

I think the way to find fulfillment in our photography is to seek satisfaction from ourselves— to please ourselves, and to know that we are living up to our own expectations.

It means that we are still appreciative of the feedback and comments of others, but not letting their ideas cloud our own self-judgement.

It means we should be self-critical of our work, but not to the extreme that we are making ourselves miserable. Photography should add more joy, excitement, and fun into our lives — rather than stress, misery, and anxiety.

So ask yourself, “When do I feel the most fulfilled in my photography?”

Once you find the answer to that — follow your heart, and what brings you inner-fulfillment. Disregard what others say and suggest. After all, nobody knows yourself as well as you do.

Always,
Eric