Definition of Success – School

I need to blog more. I think I should have made a New Year’s Resolution to do so, but we all know that those usually get broken by about February, am I right? 😛 Anyway, today we had to come up with our own ‘definition of success’ at school. Everyones definition is different according to their own personal feelings and lifestyle. I was pretty sure I knew exactly what I would write for mine.

After having written a guest blog post for Jon-Mark Wiltshire I had what you might call a ‘revelation.’ Going to school for photography has been great and very useful, but it does instil a sense of “you can do better than that,” which can get a little discouraging when you hear it enough.

No photo is ever completely and utterly perfect. I agree, but what if I was really proud of what I did and all I got was 75%? That isn’t going to make me feel very good about the photo anymore. I think photos are subjective and shouldn’t have a number put on them. It is nice to get feedback! But, how you can grade them appropriately I am not really sure. Sorry, I went on a little rant there. I am actually loving school right now and am excited for the rest of the term. Soooo without further ado here is my definition of success.

My definition of success is… honestly being proud of the work I produce.
I don’t really care about earning large sums of money; even though it would be very nice, don’t get me wrong! But, my main goal is just to be happy. Being successful in my life would mean being happy and content with my life. Photography is a passion of mine and if I can make a living out of it, it will be a great success. I love making people feel beautiful, important, cool, sweet and more when taking their photos and I want the images to reflect that. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I find it hard sometimes to be proud of the work that I produce and I constantly feel like I could have done better. This isn’t always a bad thing because it motivates me to do better the next time, and the next time, and the next time, etc. Eventually, I want to be able to produce images that my clients love and that I LOVE as well. When I can achieve that and maintain a well-balanced lifestyle with friends, family, etc. I will consider myself VERY successful.

This is a photo I have been meaning to blog for a while. It is from our “Moment it Clicks” assignment based on one topic of the book written by Joe McNally.