Have pride in your pictures! Don’t expect others to praise you for your photos. Praise yourself and your own images!

To become famous in photography is a combination of effort, skill, and luck. Because becoming a famous photographer requires (some) luck, becoming famous and well-regarded for your photography isn’t 100% in your control!

Therefore my suggestion is this:

Seek to impress yourself with your own photos, and have pride in the images you make!

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Horace once said that he wrote poems to amuse himself, instead of seeking amusement from external sources and entertainment.

We can do the same; we can amuse ourselves by making photos which entertain and interest us!

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I did a Skype call with my friend Tim’s middle school photography class, and one of the kids asked me, “What makes a good photo?”

Essentially my answer was this:

A good picture is one which shows the soul of your subject, and also shows the relationship between you and your subject!

Or in short words,

A good photograph has your soul imbued in it.

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I’m glad that I deleted my Instagram and no longer have one. Why? It has helped me focus on making photos to please myself, not others.

And as a result I’ve been so much more inspired and motivated in my photography! And I am breaking lots of new personal ground in photography and visual art.

So as a simple tip, before you share a photo with others, ask yourself:

“Do I like this picture?”

If not, don’t share it. Only share photos which you personally like and have pride in!

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Take pride in your work! Because if you don’t have pride in your work, who will?

ERIC