THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON IN PHOTOGRAPHY

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere are topics that I like to bring upon this show because I believe theychallenge what we're doing creatively asphotographers in fact that he could takethat a step further in any kind ofcreative task that you do whetheryou're a musician with you're a dancer whetheryou're a painter a designer an actorwhatever that is in our casephotography but there are topics that Ilike to bring up because they challengewhat we're doing creatively so I talkedabout things before like doing work thatmatters and what that means and I'vetalked to even about the challenge ofnobody cares about your photography butthings that make us think things thateven just bringing up that as a discussionchallenges me creatively and I thinkthat's important in this video thoughI'm going to answer a question that I gotin a letter this week that I think isreally important - let me get the letterso this is a handwritten letter andaccompanying photographs that I receivedfrom Pennsylvania and I want to sharethis with you - it says hello Ted my name isErin and I am 14 years old I picked upphotography about seven months ago andhave loved it ever since I watch your showthe Art of Photography and I havelearned so much from it I would like tostart filmmaking is there any one thingthat you have learned throughphotography and filmmaking that you feelis the most important also I haveincluded my favorite photograph that Ihave taken I took this in August at theNaval Academy the man in the brownuniform was talking about the importanceof leadershipwell I hid behind my mother's car to geta candid I thought you might like itthanks Erin. Erin - I love it!ok I actually had to think about this isa tough question to answer particularlywhen I'm being asked by someone who's 14i'm a very different place in my careerand so it's very easy for me to want toreact and say in some kind of pompousway well this is what you should do andyou should learn from this mistake buthonestly there isn't much that I can saythat's going to replace the value of theexperiences that you're going to have inthe things that you do pursuing acreative lifestyle and that's going tobe very important but looking at thequestion was asked though what is theone thing that I think is the mostimportant thing that I've learned in mycareerokay bear with me here this is a baddrawing but it's supposed to be anhourglass when you begin a creativeendeavor you're at the top of thathourglass at the widepart and there is something about the actof picking up a camera and makingphotographs or videos or whatever thatis that made you realize it wassomething that you loved it was funremember that I'm gonna come back to itand the possibilities were wide open andendless here at the wide part of thatnow is you start to pursue a career inthis you're going to inevitably startmoving towards the bottleneck whathappens in the bottleneck is a lot ofdifferent kinds of things there's a lifethat intervenes there is paying yourbills and your rent if you have a spouseor kids and you have people dependenton you that can be a big dealsometimes you're in a job that you'renot exactly crazy about and you'retrying to figure out how to move on andgo up from therethat's difficult there are people outthere that do not want you to succeedand they're going to say things andsometimes they don't really mean itvindictively they're not trying to tearyou down but they care about you and youprobably already heard people say thatdon't pursue a career in the arts orphotography because it's very difficultand they're rightphotography and filmmaking are bothextremely difficult career choices - let meput this into perspective - if my house isburning down I need fireman if I getsick I need a doctor if i'm doing mytaxes I need my accountthose are all careers that arenecessities now photography filmmakingin the rest of the Artsdo we really need photographers do weneed filmmakers that I would argue thatwe do and i'm sure most people watchingthis video would argue that yes indeedwe do in fact I even did a whole videoon that we need work that matters butthe reality of it is when the economygets tight when budgets get restrainedthat's usually the first thing to getcut because they're viewed as notnecessities they're viewed as luxury sofor instance if you have a newspaperthat has had many photographers on staffand they look at the numbers and they'relike we could save money if we farm thisout to people who could freelance muchcheaperthat's an unfortunate side of what we donow having said that don't let anybodydeter you from this because I firmlybelieve that anybody in this world cando anything they want in their lifetimeanything everything comes with a pricetag my dad used to say so it comes downto a question of what are you willing tosacrifice to get there now I don't knowwhat that means to you I know what I'mwilling to sacrifice to doI want to do but I don't know where yourthreshold is or what your standard isyou're going to have to figure that outbut I'm just trying to be positive herebecause I do believe that you can dowhatever it is that you want and if youwant to career as a photographer orfilmmaker go for it - but to answer yourquestion is there any one thing that youhave learned thru photography andfilmmaking that you feel is the mostimportant it would be this never everforget why you started in the firstplace don't ever forget how much fun itwas in the beginning it has to stay atthat level and those are the things thatwill get you through all the difficulttimes when the career becomes difficultwhen there's people that don't want youto succeedthat is the one thing that will help youthrough all that and I will be perfectlyhonest with you - you know there are dayswhere I'm making these videos and I gothrough periods where maybe I'm notfeeling super creative and I'm you knowwhen you're making a living doing it youhave to produce and you have to do thevideo anyway and there are times and forme that's what always gets me throughthat is sometimes I have to take anevening and say okay I'm gonna watch alittle bit TV then i'm going to turnthat off and i'm just going to sitquietly for a little bit and rememberwhy I started this and why it was fun tobegin with and that's the thing that carriesme through - and if you surround yourself byother people who subscribe to that samephilosophy you're going to do just fineand that's the best advice I can giveyou the shutter speeds f-stopstechniques all that stuff if you havethe passion and the drive to do thisyou're going to experience all that andyou're going to learn it on your ownanyway so that is the best possibleadvice that I can give you never forgetwhat made it fun in the beginningErin thank you for your letter and Iwanted to share this with everybodybecause I think that is important andjust so you know I wrote you ahandwritten letter back with a littlesurprise in there as well so thank youand another thing that I want to sayabout this is that when you make stuffcreatively you know different peoplehave different things that drive themthrough that process and you know nobody'sreally keeping score necessarily but toget a handwritten letter from somebodythat is basically saying I like what youdo and I trust your opinion and I have aquestionit means a lot to get that so Erin Ireally appreciate it - if you guys liked thisvideo please remember to hit that likebutton and subscribe to the artphotography for more videos in fact i'mgoing to if you're on YouTube you'reseeing these videos pop up here i'mgoing to go ahead and put inthose placeholders some of the othertopics that have talked about thatchallenge our minds creatively as well soanyway until the next video I'll see youguys then later\n"