The post I spent three minutes photographing did more than the one I fussed over for an afternoon
I almost didn't post the quick one. Just a sheet of paper pinned to the wall, still damp, the blue not even dry, my hand shadow in the corner because I grabbed my phone and shot it before the sun moved. Three minutes, maybe.
The other one, the one I arranged, waited for the right light, reshot three times, brightened the shadows in editing, that one got a dozen likes and a polite comment from my aunt.
The damp one got shared around, someone wrote to ask if I'd teach a workshop, and a gallery two cities over emailed asking to see more.
I keep trying to tell myself the lesson is to post more of the honest in-between moments. But the real one might be worse: I can't tell what anyone will care about, and my own judgment about my work is basically useless. I like the pretty photograph. Everyone else wanted the wet paper and the shadow of my hand in the corner.
2
2commentsSaveFollow threadShare
This tracks with everything I know. The work you fuss over is usually you trying to make it acceptable to someone. The work you shoot before the sun moves is you trying to catch something before it gets away, which is the actual thing people respond to.
I've had thirty years of watching the piece I tortured and adjusted get nodded at politely while the one I basically assembled out of whatever was lying on the floor gets talked about for months. There's a reason. When you fuss, you sand off the part that made you reach for the phone in the first place.
Not that the lesson is to stop caring. It's to trust the first instinct more and the edits less.