10,000 Hours

I was listening to the CBC radio recently. It’s a show called Ideas with Paul Kennedy. He was discussing the theory of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success. Where it states that you must put in 10,000 hours of practice to become a world-class expert in anything. This does not explain my pitiful guitar playing. I have put in at least 10,000 hours over the past 40 years and still can’t play like Eric Clapton. Oh well. I do feel I have obtained a certain level of photographic expertise. But my skill level changes at a much slower rate these days. I guess now it’s more a matter of practicing my craft and pushing myself to keep growing, however subtle the changes may be.

Light Reflections - Click for larger

Some of Gladwell’s elements of success are:

• Working harder than everyone else.
  
• Noticing things that others don't.
  
• Understanding your place in society.
  

So if you put in 10,000 hours, will you be one of the best? Clearly if I go back to my guitar skills this is not the case. If I trained for 10,000 hours, I would still not be a world-class runner. It isn't in the cards. So what’s the secret to success? Hard work? Talent and luck? Probably these are some of the ingredients. I’m sure there are many people at the genius level that have not achieved success. I’m not sure I buy into the whole IQ thing anyway. I think it's such a small measure of overall intelligence. I have been around some very smart people who can’t really function in our society. Genius can sometimes border on madness. The most successful people I know are the ones that didn’t give up. They are forever curious and have a bucket of passion for what they do.

Capelin Weather - Click for larger

We had Nigel Dickson in to talk to our students recently and he mentioned the 10,000 hour theory. He has obviously put in his time and is one of the most creative photographers I know. But he felt it was easier to become successful when he started. He did say though that he put in many 18 hour days and loved every minute of it. He said passion is one of the most important factors. He also said, "The cream rises to the top, and then it goes off a little". Clever man…

Theories are one thing but there is a magical side to success. It’s not just hard work, it’s so much more.

Canoe on Georgian Bay - Click for larger

So you want to be a rock and roll star, a photographer, an artist? Put in your time and as my Dad always said, “You make your luck”.

Balance

Balancing Rock - Click to view Larger

I was sitting in a bar in Lowell Massachusetts, The Old Worthen, now called Worthen House. I was having a beer with my good friend Brian Maloney. The Worthen is a very old bar in a very old New England town. Charles Dickens visited there. Jack Kerouac wrote there. It was so full of history and charm.Brian is a fine musician, a really gifted sole that I miss everyday. We were playing cribbage, drinking beer and smoking Marlboro Lights. Ah the good old days! I was a little down as I often am in the Fall. He looked at me as he played a killer hand of crib, and said, "You know, you have to keep your highs low and lows high. Balance is the key to happiness".

Surfer - Click to view Larger

I’m not sure how either of us has succeeded in balance in our lives. We both put off doing what we loved to do in pursuit of money, security and establishing ourselves. Was it a mistake? I’m not sure I was ready to be an artist back then. I still had a lot to learn. I still do. But Brian could sing like a bird. I can remember us sitting down to play music together. He was so good that I stopped playing and put down my guitar. I just sat there and said, "Play". He could play songs that I loved and they would sound better than the original. But music is a young man's game. I watched him wrestle with his marriage, his work and his passion. Did he wait too long? I hope not. We lost touch a few years ago. Usually I call him every year on his birthday. Last year I called and his number was out of service. I searched for a phone number or some sign he was alive. Nothing. A line in a song he wrote kept running over and over in my head, "So many people have run through my life, so much resistance, so much to fight. It took me too long to see the light".

Sandbanks Beach - Click to view larger

Whenever I feel down I think of that night in the bar. It was a cold, rainy night just like tonight. My friend made the time tolerable and fun. Balance? I don’t know much about balance even today. But I do know more about following my passions. I've learned a lot from the people around me. I've watched people struggle, make mistakes and carry on through the good and rough times.

I don’t have many close friends. Maybe I'm too selective or maybe it's some terrible character flaw. In the Fall, I struggle with the rain and the darkness. But I remember some wonderful people who have run through my life and how they have shaped who I am. I feel so lucky to have what I have. I feel pain and joy. I feel sad and happy. I remember a good friend teaching me to go for what you love, even if he couldn’t.

Keep your lows high and your highs low. Hope you are playing a bar somewhere warm Brian. By the way, I'm way better at crib now. Up for a beer at the Worthen?

Have I Created My Best Image?

Can you imagine, you are 36 years old and you have landed and walked on the moon? How do you follow that? Would you experience anything as exciting or significant ever again? Astronaut Charlie Duke was the youngest person to land on the moon and has led an active productive life since, but I wonder if he sometimes looks up and longs for that day.When it comes to photography, it is possible and I’m even sure common for great images to be produced at the beginning, middle, and end of your career. Yes for me it is getting a little uncomfortable crawling out of a tent in cold wet conditions. But I’m still young enough to be out there working. I still enjoy the changing light. Still enjoy seeing and looking. Ansel Adams did most of his greatest work before he was 40. Not that the later stuff wasn’t great. It just didn’t have the same energy for me. I think Ansel spent the later part of his career becoming a master printer. He reworked his images in the dark room and expressed the images differently over time. Ansel was a concert pianist and often expressed photography in terms of music. He felt the negative was the score, and the print was the performance. Ansel Adams followed up his walk on the moon with a space walk. Both periods of his life where productive and wonderful.I wonder sometimes though, have I landed on the moon so to speak? I’m sure writers feel this way, especially if they have written a very successful book. Now what? I don’t have that touch stone reference of success but I do feel successful. I guess it depends on how you measure it.When Bob Dylan was interviewed on 60 Minutes a while ago, he talked about how his abilities have changed. When asked about his early work he said "I can still do a lot of things, but I can’t do that." I look at my images from the past and I wonder if I have done this? Am I just reworking stuff or am I still growing as an artist? I guess its like shooting a landscape. I tell my students, start shooting before the light is at its peak and shoot through to the other side. It is only then will you see the difference between the good image and the great one.If we are lucky we will all experience a long roller coaster creative life.

Doom and Gloom

I don’t know about you but I’m getting tired of all the doom and gloom surrounding the current economic news these days. Yes we are in for a rough ride. And yes many people are already suffering from job loss or at least reduced incomes. But is the sky really falling? Bad enough it’s February without all the talk about recession or worse - depression.

Speaking of depression, I recently had a conversation with a colleague about the state of photography. We discussed whether it is still viable to make a living behind the camera. I think so. But the recent changes in technology bring very challenging issues to today's professional photographer.

As a stock photographer, I have been frustrated with the common practice of dumping large numbers of quality images on the market at very low prices (often free). Maybe there are just too many people who want to do this for fun. Maybe it's too big to fight. My colleague and I discussed the fact that the way to compete is to rise above the norm. We need to bring the level of our work noticeably higher than the average person with a Digital SLR. Do I solve that with technology alone? Perhaps a 60 Mega Pixel medium format system would help. But how do I raise the level of creativity and thoughtfulness of my images? I think that is really the goal.I wonder if this is any different than the changes the world went through with mechanization and the industrial revolution. The change from living with and off the land to a factory/desk/technology/knowledge based economy. No matter how much you loved working with horses and digging your hands into the earth, it was no longer possible to support 80% of the population who wanted to make a living that way.Change is inevitable. Success at any time in history is gained from anticipating and exploiting the opportunities that change brings.
Personally, I still feel optimistic about the future. I still dream about the places Lori and I will go and the images I will create. The world will continue to change and evolve and hopefully, so will I.

So where do you think we are going?