Quoting Success

It's been a successful few weeks. First of all I won the "Photo of the Month" at one of the biggest Scotland focussed online forums (Scotland by the Roadside) , next I received a request from my employer to use one of my images on their internal literature (Lubnaig Reflections) (alas, unpaid) and then I got my first critique back from my NYIP correspondence course and was told that I had been given a merit award for my echinacea flower image - an honour that is only given to less than one in one thousand course work submissions. I was pleased with some of the images I made this month and posted them on my website (PhotoForMyWall.com) which has experienced a 40% growth in traffic this month.

Now none of this sound momentous, but it doesn't have to be. I am trying to build momentum through small successes hoping this will lead to greater things. The learned 18th century dramatist and politician, Joseph Addison, who contributed to the direction of the Tatler and the Spectator periodicals, once said "If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius". In other words keep trying, learn from experience and believe in yourself. Trying to make a name for yourself in an artistic field, especially one so over subscribed as photography, requires great self-belief and perseverance. To be a success you need to be happy with your own work but you also have to bend to the dictates of fashion and ensure others are admire your work on their own terms.

Above all, you need to get your work out there and be seen. There are many great photographers who's images are stored on hard drives or in cupboards and equally there are many very successful photographers whose images remain average but grace the pages of magazines that each and every one of us reads regularly. These photographers are the guys with a name, the editors "go-to guy", the guy with a reputation for reliability even if not for flair. As Woody Allan said "Eighty percent of success is showing up." and he wasn't wrong. If you consider that a big chunk of photographic success comes down to luck (either in being in the right place at the right time to make the image, or in getting your work noticed by the right people), that only leaves a tiny percentage to attribute success to talent and skill. So my take on this is that you need to put your work forward all the time to satisfy Woody, and pitch it in the right way to give Lady Luck a hand. I may or may not have talent and skill, depending on your perception, but I'll have a damn good try at getting what I have got, noticed.

But these minor triumphs are not enough, after all American author Christian Nestell Bovee stated that "Small successes suffice for small souls" and while it sounds harsh, it's a valuable lesson. If you want to be great at what you do, you need to aim high. So my next steps are what? I continue to enter as many competitions as I can, to learn from the masters and to promote my work in the hope that those with similar tastes stumble across it. The other day I had the pleasure of chatting with Peter Paterson FRPS EFIAP MPAGB ie a very qualified gentleman and picked his brains on aspects of photography that have had me stumped for while. For the second time in a year I was told by a luminarie that my basic technique is essentially the same as theirs, but the minor differences in technique are where their quality really shines through. I continue to learn from them. To treat each failure as an opportunity for learning and growing and each success, as an opportunity for learning and growing.

So, having gained my successes in the last few weeks, I keep in mind that "Success is full of promise till a man gets it; and then it is last year's nest from which the birds have flown." - Henry Ward Beecher (politician, clergyman, social reformer and abolitionist) and I keep my eyes open for the next success to build upon the last one. Which leads me to my final quote, reminding us of the importance of taking one step at a time and enjoying the journey. While it is unattributed, it is as valid as these others, "Do not let big ambitions overshadow small successes."