Is good enough good enough?

[Lee4145]

I had a short conversation with a musician friend of mine. I was lamenting the slow decline of my 'chops' after a session one night. He is a professional musician, makes his living at it. He happens to be playing with me because he picks up side gigs where he can. We're having this conversation because he's playing with me at a time in my life when I am not at my best and I'm insecure about it! So here's the conversation:

Him: "You're good enough for what we're doing."
Me: "But aren't you always trying to improve?"
Him: "Nope. I'm as good as I need to be..."

His honesty blew me away. And it forced me to reconsider the marginal return on my effort. At this point in my life I have quite a full plate. Do I love photography? Yes. Do I love playing drums? Yes. Do I love my family? Yes. Do I have a lot of free time to invest in myself? No. Where I end up on my music is, "Ok, yes, I'm good enough. It makes me happy."

So. Do we all really want to be Ansel Adams or whoever your favorite is enough to invest the time needed? And I understand we all have different levels of creativity, talent, vision, etc. so I realize I'll never measure up to some standards. But will I ever even measure up to MY own potential? I'm not doing it musically. I don't have the time. But where I am is good enough. Can we end up with a vision and a bag of tricks and a base of knowledge that satisfy us? I don't see many people re-inventing themselves. Especially when they become commercially successful. Maybe especially then. Whatever they have sells and that's where they end up. Like my musician friend.

So, I have a few rhetorical questions.
1 - Am I just lazy?
2 - Am I justifying my lack of talent?
3 - Am I just a simple man who doesn't "get it"?
4 - Am I the only one who feels this way?

How is this different from adult, city-league softball players who, as grown men doing nothing of importance, spend three nites a week acting like they're in game 7 of the World Series? Complete with Big League screaming matches and trash talk! Are we taking ourselves too seriously? I feel like maybe we're "measuring up" if you know what I mean. Does anyone else get the impression that this is just public masturbation? (forums in general)

Ok, my seat is in the upright position, seat belt buckled. Chin strap is tight. Let me have it.

[Mr. Pickles]

If you have no free time for yourself, then you can NOT be lazy, correct? I don't know if you have any talent, or lack there of. I'd say if you have questions about it, than you think you do have a lack. But maybe that is all inside? Do you know of others that have picked your talent apart? If not, then you are like your friend. Good enough. If you understand that, then I'd say that you do "get it", wouldn't you?

And no, you're not alone in your thinking. I think that all the time. Nobody offers to help me though, so in some sense, I guess I am good enough.

Don't judge all your talent based on comments or lack of views in online places like The Camel or PBase.

[ohenry]

There is no need to measure yourself against someone else, only against yourself. Just my 2 cents.

[craftysnapper]

If its a hobby then enjoy being a amatuer and by amatuer I mean the original true meaning of the word "someone who does something for the love of it"* not just for money, by the way Pro does not mean better , a friend of mine that used to enjoy doing photography and lived and breathed it like me went Pro, now he only picks up a camera when working and there is £ sign involved and no longer lives and breathes it..its just a job now and just like your musician friend is as good as he needs to be.

Me I'd rather be a happy amatuer and pushing myself for the love of it. So stop knocking yourself and get on with enjoying it when and how you can, just a personel point of veiw*

[cedric_r]

To my mind, it depends what your aim is. If your aim is to take photos because you like to do it, then it doesn't matter how good you are. The aim is in the process, not in the result. If you want to involve other people in it, i.e. show the results to other people, then you need to compare yourself to their standards, not yours. If you show your photos to your immediate family only, they're likely to like whatever you show them. If you show them to friends, they're likely to be a bit more critical ant to have slightly higher standards. If you show them to strangers who know about photography in a competitive environment, then you'd better be good or they'll tell you so. If you're a pro, then you need to be good enough to blend into the market (however good or unimaginative it is).

[Mark McCall]

Sounds like your friend is lazy.

Whatever you do, strive to be the best. Whether it be photography, being a drummer, or a Dad.
(I'm a drummer myself, having played in a band for 12 years before "retiring").

The reward is so much sweeter when you work to achieve a goal rather than not even trying.
If just being "good enough" is OK with you, that's entirely up to you.

I still regularly attend seminars, conventions, competitions and photography schools. That's where my heart is, and I'll always strive to be better at my craft....or my life.

[badpickev]

your friend is so right. i used to fly with the piano player for kc & the sunshine band. he had such a unique perspective what is needed to succeed.

[Lee4145]

lol, wait a minute, I'm just old enough to remember... Wasn't KC the piano player? Or was there a backup?

[badpickev]

there was a backup studio player. he was on 4 or 5 of their albums. he got the gig when he was unemployed as a classical pianist. he said playing for a pop music group was liberating because he didn't have to be perfect. but i did hear him play mozart at an embassy function once.

as for good enough, remeber we as photographers are not needed to be perfect every shot. a national geo photg once said its not the amount of pics you take, its only the home runs you are remembered for.

so good enough is all that really matters. we do not judge our selves, we are judged by other over what we leave behind.

[Paul Shields]

An excellent topic Lee, and I admire your soul-baring. There is definitely a trend on public forums for some to take themselves too seriously (in fact it probably covers all of us at various moments). I could wax lyrical about this for a long time but what I've concluded after having similar rhetorical conversations is that you only have to please yourself (there's the masturbation rejoinder already ). Rule nbr 1 for me is to *never* take yourself too seriously. Being an artist (which is not an exclusive club) involves a lot of introspection. Doing it on a forum is a form of extrospection (a new word I just made up as my dictionary couldn't find it ). My advice to myself is to follow the Dadaist movement, but of course replying in such a sane way on a public forum shows that I'm not quite there yet.

[Lee4145]

Ok, it's official. This forum has the sweetest bunch of guys on the planet as members. I fully expected to incite a riot with this!

It was borne of some reading through other threads this morning where people seemed, to me, to be overly self-absorbed in this business of excellence and constant vigilance toward attaining some awfully lofty goals. I got the sense after a while that it stopped being fun for some of them. I posted it in a more speculative tone than maybe I intended to. I tend to ramble...

I'm completely at ease with where I am at present given the amount of time I choose to devote to it. Not great but not bad either! I make images that make me and my family and friends happy and, right now, that's what I have time for. I do love it and I do have a passion for it. It's the perfect medium for me as I can neither paint nor sculpt! And once in a while I luck into a shot that really impresses me. The tips and help that I recieve from all of you is bumping my percentage of keepers way up so I love this site for that. And for all the support in the face of my last paragraph (in the original post) that I received from all of you!

The fact that this thread didn't catch fire is a testament to this forum and it's members. I appreciate you all.

Lee

[brian.austin]

Excellence in all things is overrated. We can't be the best at everything we do unless we don't do the things we're already best at.

I found this out sitting on a lake in my brand new pontoon "craft" (it's not really a true BOAT with capacity for one person) flinging a flyrod around in the air hunting for trout. I had been at it most of the day, caught exactly one six inch brookie, and not much more. People around me were catching fish. I was using what they were using. I was fishing where they had been fishing (after letting it rest for a while). Everything was the way it was SUPPOSED to be...but I wasn't catching anything.

It was then that it struck me: I sucked at this. I truly could never grasp the concept of catching big fish whenever I wanted. My friends did it all the time, even some who I TAUGHT how to flyfish. I can put a fly anywhere, regardless of the water. I can match the hatch and even field tie a quick 1/2 dozen as needed. I've been doing it for almost 20 years at this point.

I just suck at flyfishing.

Of course, I haven't stopped. I go out now with the fatalism of the doomed. I'm pretty sure that, no matter how much time I spend at this, I'm not getting the return for my time, effort or money.

Beats working. I'm okay with that.

[Kevin Barrett]

My dad coined a phrase awhile back; "Simulated Perfection." At first it seems to smack up against the old adage, "It ain't worth doin', if you're not going to do it right." Yeah, Yeah.... The truth is working at something to achieve 8 or 9/10's of "perfection" is often eminently more satisfying than taking it to a theoretical 100%. That last 10 to 20% can be so frustrating and the energy input is not proportional to the outcome at that point.


So, strive for excellence, and be content with "very good" because it is often good enough.

[Mithras]

One of the toughest things in life for us to do self-evaluation and introspection. Most of us here in Camel Land are old enough to have come to realize who we are and are comfortable with ourselves. That doesn't mean that we simply accept life as it comes but rather that we engage life on our terms.

Decide what is important to you, then take charge and carry out the plan of the day.

[Lee4145]

Hey a fellow 7D shooter. Don't see many of them around here!

[Sidebyte]

This is an eye opener for me because of the perspective at different times in ones life.* *When I was 22 years old, (1951) U.S. Navy photographer packing a 4 X 5 Speed Graphic and a half dozen cut film holders I was EXPECTED to get the shot the first time......usually for documentation purposes.* I didn't have the liberty of experimenting with different lighting setups (except in the studio) and really never gave it much thought, just did my job and went along with the program daily.
In todays word of journalistic photography I would find it much easier because of digital photography and the equipt. available today.
Now my photography is entirely for my own pleasure sans family of course but you can burn up a full days work behind a PC in an hour of shooting digi shots.* The percentage of keepers is way down but the results are probably better overall for the few good ones.

Placing myself in the position of a fine arts photog, I could see burning up hundreds of* images and experimenting to retain a few.* Compare the expense of shooting 4 X 5 film in color vs. digital images is an invitation to experiment and hopefully learn from "shooting the sky full of shots" to finally get a duck.* I read articles from people like Moose Peterson and Bjorn and see that they tipically shoot hundreds of images in a days shooting, that is entirely foreign to me to have that wonderful resource available.
So my point, different types of photography requires a totally different approach to your craft.

[Jon]

I'd MUCH rather be "good" than "good enough."

[Sidebyte]

Originally Posted by Jon

I'd MUCH rather be "good" than "good enough."

I raced cars for 30 years and had a slogan mounted on the dash that stated, "I'd rather be lucky than good", you can't beat luck.

The second one just below that read, "I don't get angry but I DO get even"!