Everyone wants to succeed, and that is a healthy normal way to be.  Even the animals and plants of the natural world spend their lives in search of success.  I write a lot about success and failure, and with human beings, that usually means our occupations or our hobbies.

In 1971 my first attempt at some level of pro photography succeeded.  I made a picture of two cars racing at a local dirt track.  I submitted it to a newspaper and it was published.  I was successful.  I made that image in black and white and a 3 ½ x 5 inch photo was printed via a drop off at a drive through Photo Mat.  The picture was beyond horrible.  The editor needed an image from that track on that night so he published this “little rectangle of horror“.  My second racing image was published the next year.  I personally printed a high quality 8×10 photo in my own darkroom.  I had developed the film myself.  Over the winter I built my own darkroom and taught myself through one book and much trial and error, how to make a presentable image.  I was two for two.  All success is not equal.

I was lucky in my photographic life, in that I always had enough success to keep myself enthused and moving forward.

What do you do when nothing seems to work? There is good news!  Current forms of digital photography and software programs make it easier than it has ever been to make good images.  There is a trap hidden in that fact. It is just as hard as ever to make great images.  I had an advantage when my photos came back from that Photo Mat.  Despite the fact that they were published, I could see they were horrible.  Today someone buys a 21 mega pixel camera with the many bells and whistles that aid you in creating a presentable image, and they take it home and use the “user friendly” auto this and that portion of the software on their computer,  and the picture file looks  good. Who wouldn’t be satisfied?  It becomes easy to settle for pictures like that.  When I saw my horrible racing picture I immediately began a project to make them better.  You would have done the same.  As technology makes it easier and easier for everyone to make similar looking good pictures, there are still people out there reaching for that next level.  While I was still a professional photographer, I began printing all of my own business cards.  Then I began printing flyers, then full brochures.  My worked looked just as good as what print shops were doing for me in the past.  Then I saw an example of what good print shops were doing now. Much better than mine.  Technology makes it easy for all of us to create things that look good,  but there will always be somebody out there that reaches a little farther and makes something that is great.

Successful nature photography does however mean a lot more than great images.  The one thing (thankfully) that I did not have to do in my earlier times was market myself to the general public.  I made myself desirable to photo editors by having great work, getting them the photos that they needed when they needed them, and always being the best professional I could be.  In the 1990s when I began teaching workshops and doing public speaking, the only true marketing I had to do was to make sure I was good and likeable at those events, so word of mouth might help me down the road. Today with the internet and social media, your marketing is a daily job.  You need to pay attention to all of those friends and contacts that you have, and know how cultivate relationships.  You have to balance when to be a normal person (my car broke down today etc.)  and when to push your next workshop or e-book.  You do this seven days a week if you want to be truly successful.  This comes natural to some people but others have to work at it.  The same can be said for photography itself.  Eventually anybody can become good at marketing themselves, just like anybody can become good at photography.  For me it is probably just as well that my business of photography is over.  I tended to use social media as a marketing tool one day, and then disappear for a week, and then start all over again. I only want it, when I want it, so to speak. That will not work.

One thing that I truly believe, is that the more passion and love that you have for photography, the more likely it is that you will succeed.  That is what will drive you to market yourself successfully.  It is what will make you put together that portfolio of images to show to that gallery.  It all starts with a love for creating and sharing images.  If that is your burning desire, it will drive you to do those other things. When you consistently create new imagery it will also keep other people interested in your work.

This blog has a small but fairly consistent viewer ship.  I know that only because the number of clicks to each page is counted.  On those rare occasions when I make a new picture, I can put that one shot on this blog and the visitation to that page goes through the roof.  I have no idea how people find out that there is a new picture/pictures that have been posted.  People are not as enthused with a photo from three years ago, or 30 years ago as they are with one that has just been made.  You cannot rest on old work alone, and you should not want to if are still capable of creating new work.

Now that all of you know everything that you ever wanted to know about success, let’s move one.  There should be an lol after that last sentence, but as usual I refuse to do what every normal person on the internet or with a cell phone, does ten times a day.

Much continued success to each of you in your chosen endeavors.

Lake Michigan sunrise.