Sunday, July 29, 2007

Gold Ratio

I have not kept good records on the ratio of good to bad shots I take, but it's probably around a hundred to one. One hundred shots deemed not worth keeping, to one that is. The vast majority of the rejects are reasonably well exposed and focused, thanks in no small part to modern day electronics. Most of my rejects are shots that are too similar to stuff I've done in the past or shots that are just not that interesting.

If I'm to improve I need to stretch my shooting ratio to two hundred or three hundred to one.

I need to take more risks, experiment more, stop taking the "same" shots. And I need to be more vicious in my editing, not accept anything that isn't top notch.

That means oddly enough that I need to fail more in order to succeed. The goal being not to avoid making mistakes, but to avoid making the same mistakes. It's not how many times you get knocked down that count, but how many times you get back up.

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