I Take a Lot of Terrible Photos

Since I am someone who shares photos online, and also creates tutorials and courses about how to make beautiful photos, you might expect my “keeper rate” to be pretty high. That is, that I take a lot of great photos when I am out shooting and not very many bad ones.

But that’s not the case at all. I take plenty of terrible photos. It’s just that I only share the good ones, of course. People sometimes comment that I take beautiful photos (which of course I appreciate), but they don’t see all the images that stink - and there are plenty of them. Way more bad ones than good ones, in fact. It’s not even close. I have ~300,000 images in my library, and most of them are bad.

Sure, we’ve all had those outings that are huge successes, where the light and subject matter all come together for an hour or two of capturing amazing shots and it all just seems so easy. But we both know those are few and far between, and it’s much more common to come home with some ok stuff but nothing to brag about. 

Winston Churchill famously said “Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” That is a perfect quote for me, and I think for photography in a broader sense. None of us succeed in every outing. We may fail due to lighting or other conditions, or we just didn’t find something we like, or we just weren’t feeling creative and inspired, or whatever. But our success rate is never high. It’s just part of the game. But I suspect you are like me, in that you still want to get up, go out, and try again the next time. 

Another quote that I am rather fond of is from Henri Cartier-Bresson, who said “Your first 10,000 photos are your worst.” And keep in mind, he was shooting with film in the 1930’s. That’s a LOT of film to go through. These days, thanks to the ease of taking and viewing photos with digital cameras, it would be more like 100,000 photos, or even 1,000,000 photos. That is also a lot of photos.

Now, I don’t recommend you run out and randomly snap anything and everything, just to hit some magical 10,000 or 100,000 image number, like it’s a quota or something. Instead, be intentional, think about your shots and actively practice to improve your keeper rate. It will improve, especially when you slow down and put more thought into it. You may also find over time that you take fewer photos, but you take better photos. That has definitely happened to me. 

What I think happens when you slow down and become intentional is that you start to rewire your brain and train your eye to find the things that make a more beautiful photo (however you define that). You put more “pre-work” into it (better inputs, better visualization) and thus you get better results (better outputs). No, you don’t capture magic every time, but you definitely improve, learn to see better, and learn to look at things differently, and that will help you capture more keepers.

When I was new to photography, I couldn’t believe how the pros that I looked up to churned out winner after winner and seemed to get great shots on every outing. I was amazed (and still am at times). And it intimidated me and sometimes made me jealous. But I have learned that they are only sharing the good ones, and that they take plenty of bad ones too, and that because they are being more selective with their shots they have a higher keeper rate.

But mostly I have learned that I shouldn’t compare myself to others. My journey with photography is my journey, and I make progress as I can, and seek to improve through practice and more practice. And I love the journey regardless of what I produce on any outing.