Process 015 ☼ Fear of Failure + Beach Walks
Giveaway: expired film mystery pack
Dear friends,
Today we’re talking about something we all have felt: a fear of failure. I’m also sharing some images from my recent daily walks in the seaside town of Zandvoort.
For this week’s giveaway we have mystery pack with 10 rolls of expired film courtesy of my friends at camera shop and photo lab Safelight Berlin.
Fear of Failure
In issue 007 of Process I wrote about Richard Avedon’s work and how it inspired me to think bigger. At the end of the letter I asked you, dear readers, the following question:
Which project would you love to work on next and what is one thing holding you back from doing so?
James Fontaine wrote back with an eloquent and vulnerable answer that really resonated with me:
“I have too many excuses that I readily accept as insurmountable. Lack of budget, connections, time, and, worst of all, lack of talent. […] Fear of failure is what's holding me back. Fear that despite the proper "stuff," my photos will be crap. At that point, the only explanation will be my shortcomings as a photographer. “
The reason James’ answer resonated with me so strongly is because it’s so familiar. All of us have felt this way at some point. Some of us might have even felt this way today!
I responded to James:
I will tell you right now, you definitely have shortcomings as a photographer, but so do I! Even Richard Avedon himself had shortcomings, even after decades of being one of the best photographers in the world.
So who are we, the non-Avedons of the world, to be surprised or upset that we have shortcomings? Let us accept that we have shortcomings, but also embrace our ability to study, practice, and grow. In photography, you get out what you put in.
Let’s flip this into a positive: We are so lucky to have fallen in love with photography! Even if we lived to 200 years of age, we wouldn’t even get close to knowing all there is to know about photography.
Instead of perfection, let’s pursue the satisfaction that comes from learning a thing. If we do that, photography will be the gift that keeps on giving in our lives.
Keep Shooting
There is no better way to learn than to shoot as much as we can. We need to take hundreds of thousands of crappy photos before we get to the good stuff. And that goes for all of us, legends included.
Let’s again use Richard Avedon as an example: His legendary book “In The American West” contains 124 stunning images, all shot on an 8x10 large format camera, which is a slow and labor intensive process. It took five years to complete this project.
To get to that final selection of 124, Mr. Avedon shot over 17,000 images. In other words, 0.72% of his shots made it into the book. Remember this when you look at your own work and be kind to yourself. When you get back a roll of 36 exposures and only one shot came out great, that’s actually 2.77% of the roll which is more than 0.72%!
Keep shooting. It’s a numbers game and you gotta keep playing.
Take Aways
Keep shooting - More photos means more good photos.
More making, less thinking - Get out of your own way. Stop overthinking.
Give yourself permission to fail - Gotta get past the bad to get to the good.
Be kind to yourself - Nuff said.
I Like Long Walks On The Beach
This week my daily photo walks took place in the seaside town of Zandvoort where autumnal winds created salt water waves that were perfect for kite surfing and getting my socks soaked. Here are a few images from yesterday’s photo walk.
There must’ve been over 100 kite surfers on these waves all at the same time. I don’t understand how they don’t get entangled and form one giant kite-surfers web.
There were so many textures to explore and movements to anticipate and document. The salt water splashed up and stuck to my lens giving the images a special old school crunchy feeling in between cleanings. Thank goodness for weather sealed cameras!
At first I was bummed that I missed focus on the shot below, but as I looked at it longer I started to love the way it made me feel. Sometimes that’s all I need.
That’s it for this week. More exciting Notice book updates next week.
Be kind to yourself and others. Keep shooting.
Wesley
Process Giveaway!
My friends at Safelight Berlin have generously made available a mystery pack of 10 rolls of expired film plus some fun stickers and other goodies.
To enter send an email to hello@wesley.co (please don’t reply to this note but send a separate email) before 11pm EST on November 26th and answer the following question:
What is your current job and what is your dream job?
Why this question? I love discovering the great diversity inside of the Process community. Some of you are engineering PhD students, architects, doulas, and, of course, photographers. How cool is that? Even if you don’t want to win the giveaway, drop me a line and let me know.
One winner will be randomly drawn and notified via email. This giveaway is for Process subscribers only. Subscribe below by clicking this button:
Make sure to show Safelight Berlin some love on Instagram and check out their online store where they sell used camera, film, and run a wonderful film lab.
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Process is a weekly letter from Wesley Verhoeve.
Follow along at @wesley.