{"id":147098,"date":"2019-06-05T15:57:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T22:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=147098"},"modified":"2019-06-05T16:09:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T23:09:08","slug":"should-we-strive-to-make-great-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/05\/should-we-strive-to-make-great-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Should We Strive to Make Great Photos?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Something I wanted to essay about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes a great photograph?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Also — does it even matter if a photograph is ‘great’? Is ‘good’ good enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1 great photo a year is good enough for me<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For myself, it seems my ‘hit rate’ for a “great” photograph is about 1 a year. I usually make a ‘really good’ photo at least once a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So every year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 really good photos, and 1 great photo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is a good hit rate for me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But the question is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHOULD I be striving to make as many great photos before I die?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A shift in my thinking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For myself, I know I am capable of shooting great photos. The approach is quite simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Study great photographs (great compositions<\/a>, masters of photography<\/a>) <\/li>
  2. Shoot with great effort on the streets (get close<\/a>, conquer your fears<\/a>, ‘work the scene<\/a>‘)<\/li>
  3. Edit tightly (only show your best work)<\/li>
  4. Rinse and repeat.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    But after a while– this approach gets a bit boring. Sure, this is a straight-forward recipe to create a strong body of work, but I started to wonder– is there a different way to approach photography?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>
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    \"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>
    \"\"<\/figure>
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Just shoot it\/\/just have fun!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    This is my new approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just shoot anything and everything, and don’t “try too hard”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Just have fun; enjoy the photography flow<\/a>, and the great joy associated with roaming the streets, traveling<\/a>, and opening up your eyes\/mind to the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>
    \"\"<\/figure>
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    And this is the fun thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you just keep having fun, keep shooting — you will naturally make great photos along the way without even ‘trying’!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion: Never stop shooting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div>
    \"\"<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    New formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Never stop shooting, keep having fun– and you will make great photos along the way without effort!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Isn’t this the best way to approach photography?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ERIC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Something I wanted to essay about: What makes a great photograph? Also — does it even matter if a photograph is ‘great’? Is ‘good’ good enough?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/1421553E-B7E8-4E82-8E04-89F81095DAF0-scaled.jpeg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147098"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147119,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147098\/revisions\/147119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}