How Photographing at Speed Rack Helped Answer the Question: Am I a Better Photographer Than I Was a Decade Ago?
And why Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act" is the worst advice for getting better.
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I often question whether I am a better photographer now than I was a decade ago. Shooting at a speed rack competition last Monday for Wine Enthusiast helped me to articulate the answer.
This was my first time at an event like that, and I didn’t anticipate it would be such a demanding shoot. The speed of everything was manic — two contestants at a time making three cocktails in less than two minutes, screaming audience, flashing lights, loud music, and general pandemonium. I had to shoot behind the house photographer (who always has the right of way) on a small stage, which limited me to side angles. For the first two hours, I kept spinning in place, failing to take a single good photo. There were many technical issues — it was hard to focus, the off-camera flash held by an assistant (who couldn’t be on stage with me and had to light from below the stage) would miss the subjects, and I couldn’t figure out how to frame the angles I was given. I started shooting the competition at 5pm and managed to get the first decent photo around 7pm. Only towards the last few rounds did I find my groove, finally understanding how to extrapolate the visual layers from all the chaos. Almost every photo that made the edit was taken in the last forty-five minutes of a four-hour shoot.
While editing the photos, a progression in thinking was obvious as the photos went from wobbly to precise, almost as if two different photographers started and ended the shoot.
Here is a sample of the edit. Each row is an hour.
As a younger photographer, I’d never get to that last row. The difference is not that I can compose better — my very best photos stayed on approximately the same level — but that a crucial change in mindset has resulted in astronomically increased consistency and an ability to think through high-stressed situations. Back then, I didn’t have either the understanding of what it takes or the perseverance to stick it out in hard situations. I’d arrive to shoots late, believing that I’d accomplish what I needed in the minimal amount of time. Such an attitude was partly the result of ego —thinking I was so good, I didn’t need all the hard work — and partly the result of the romanticized idea of an “artist” who creates armed solely with instinct and inspiration (books like Rick Rubin’s, The Creative Act, encourages such notions). Drudgery and patience were not part of the equation.