So a few days ago I wrote about appetite.
I deliberately left it open and didn’t continue to expand on what I meant. My reasons were two:
that I think if you’ve got it, you would know what I meant.
and if you didn’t know what I meant, you might be prompted into thinking a bit more about it.
The web is full of self-help stuff. Most of it has a short-term feel-good factor but it’s rare that things we read stay with us the long term.
we’ve got to do the work. And we’ve got to be clever about it.
Me explaining things all the time isn’t you doing the work. It’s me doing the work, and you choosing to tune in, and tune out when you feel like it ;-)
The thing about appetite, is that it can be whatever you feel it means to you.
You may define it as ‘drive’, you may define it as ‘effort’, or ‘talent’.
But I’ve known many talented people who never complete things (that’s ok - it’s no judgement - do what you want to do), but I mention this just to illustrate that having talent alone doesn’t make someone a great photographer. Neither does working hard. I’m not a big fan of the 10,000 hour view that if you put enough time into something, you’ll get better. You can spend a lot of effort running in a circle.
I think good artists are self learners. They are able to use their time to learn from themselves as they go along. I’d dare to say that most great artists didn’t get to where they are because of an art class they took. Sure, the art class will have given them skills and new ways of working, but they had to spend the time and effort joining the dots, making the connections and finding their own path. In other words, at some stage : they took hold of the responsibilities of their own development.
That’s the appetite I’m talking about.
Having the aptitude to grow is one thing, but wanting to do it badly enough is another thing entirely.
If you really want to improve in your photography then there are no shortcuts. No quick fixes, no instant results.
We all have to do the work.
And we have to have the appetite to do it.