After watching the YouTube video on Sam Abell’s talk about The Life of a Photograph, I was inspired. I was also up until about 2 am in the morning watching it which made my brain start buzzing because I was so drawn to his talk. Are my images as a photographer on the same level as his? I am not sure but I do know the elements he talks about looking for to make are images I have done, perhaps not all the time but the images I have taken popped into my mind.

I could see horse images I made for a fun-for-me project years ago. I could see travel images where the lighting, horizon line, and all the elements added up at the right moment.

Sam Abell says:

All photographers know that luck is divided somewhere between good and bad. More good things happen to photographers if they are patient.

I have always said more of my photographic career has been luck than skill and know-how. I may not always be patient not in the same way, Sam has been waiting 5 weeks for all the elements to add up but I have been lucky in being in the right place at the right time as the elements naturally unfolded without ever being planned.

Check out a few older images that meet Abell’s golden rules: Horizon line, backward-forwards, and composition.

I may not make every image in the style Sam spoke about, in the style he has perfected but I have made images similar though perhaps not layered. (I tend to follow a less is more thought process.)

I absolutely loved the work of Sam’s that I saw, and I was inspired. I would definitely like to play with the style more and see how it changes my shooting and my business. It will be fun to see how I add it now that I have grown rather obsessive about how I could incorporate the layering idea and the potential that is there. Though if I am doing it on the fly or in client shoots will be the question and something I will have to figure out as I go.

I think the biggest takeaway from Sam for me was letting go of my idea of perfection. It’s hard not to be a perfectionist to want everything perfect but in the decade I have been working perfection has been out of reach and it has been exhausting creatively to strive for it. Letting go of perfectionism was the first thing Sam said that had me pausing the video to make a note, because it was a message I need to remember and perhaps it will help me progress my career in new and unexpected ways.

No matter what kind of photograph I am making; I try to make it as good as I can make it. I am talking about a snapshot, or at a restaurant not on assignment for anyone. Living the photographic life at a high level by making each picture, snapshot or not, as good as I can make it.

Perfection is not the ideal.