Thursday, October 22, 2015

THE POINT ISN’T TO BE A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER, BUT TO ENJOY LIFE.

This excerpt taken from an article that I thought was an excellent read.  Draw your own conclusions.
I will tell you another story about my friend Satoki Nagata, a talented street photographer from Chicago:
I had a bunch of photos on an iPad and sat with Satoki one night at 10pm at a tea shop in Chicago. We sat down, and I showed him some photos to ask for his opinion.
 I showed him one photo and I asked him: “What do you think about this photo?” Like a Zen monk, he paused, looked at me, looked at the photo, looked at me and asked me, 
“What do you think about the photo?”I then paused. It was profound.
I then responded and said: “Good point, I never thought about that.”
I paused some more and responded:
“I guess the shot is okay, I’m not really crazy about it.”
He then looked back at me and said:
“Then why does it matter what I think?”
It was almost like Satoki dropped the microphone and walked away at that point.
Satoki taught me an important lesson: never ask others for their opinion unless you already like the photo.
Not only that, but I have tons of shots that nobody likes but myself. I also have tons of shots that others like, but I don’t like myself.
At the end of the day, if you don’t like your own photos, why do you care what others think of your photos?