Join the Movement: Share Your Frame Fraction
I thought I might make a quick and easy blog post to give you a peek at some of my favorite shots from September. I wanted to choose 30 images for each day in September. But as I was searching among all my September photos for the diamonds in the rough, I felt sad I couldn't show you all of it.
Every mistake.
Every missed focus.
Ever blah composition.
Because there were a lot of them. These are some of my best:
How many images in September do you suppose I shot to make these 30 favorites? Read on to find out....
Drum roll, please:
I shot 1217 "keeper" images in September. Some of them, were only OK or near duplicates that I was too lazy to delete, but barring all the probably thousand more I deleted before this count, I shot a lot of images. In that number are three large professional photo sessions. So with the professional sessions removed, I shot 429 "keeper" personal images. This post only shows my 30 best. That's the top 7%. If I had the data to show how many I deleted, I'm sure that number would go way down- probably only the top 4%.
I tell you this because I think that something our community of artists doesn't do well is we unwittingly pass off our best work as the kind of stuff that pours effortlessly from our cameras every time we pick them up. We fail to find ways to show our clients, our peers, and aspiring photographers how much work and how many frames went into our few "wows."
This is not easy work. (Fun, yes. Easy, no.) Making a great picture takes planning, thoughtfulness, education, patience, and a pinch of luck. Photographers who are always growing understand that the work and the learning and the continual shooting doesn't end.
So join my movement, won't you? The next time you share a "Best Of" post, post a frame fraction too.
Mine for this post: 30/429, or 7%
I'm not saying you have show off your less-than-best pictures. But put a number out there, for the sake of all the aspiring photographers and dreamers. Let's see just a little of the behind the scenes work- the grit - that went into the art that is uniquely yours.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that count. - Winston Churchill