The Culling of Photographers

When populations of deer get to great they can start to destroy the land due to the lack of resources. There are Wildlife Management Programs around the country to control the population of deer.

Without management you can overharvest and it will take a long time for the population to recover and if you underharvest there is crop damage and deer-vehicle accidents may increase.

This process is called culling of the herd or the thinning of the herd.

There have been natural disasters that have helped nature to correct itself without any culling.

Humans used to have more natural culling of our population. If you did something stupid on your bike when I grew up then you didn’t survive. Today helmets are keeping more of us around. Some could argue that lack of helmets helped us thin the herd.

Weld Founder Austin Mann says, “Many people are calling photography a profession and moving away from a 9-to-5 job.” Just the other day on Facebook an advertising headline read “Understand your camera in 10 minutes.”

Today the market is flooded with photographers and since we do not cull the population [some may wish they could] nature has it’s own way of natural selection or the survival of the fittest surviving in today’s marketplace.

There are just only so many jobs and more photographers than needed, so sooner or later many of these photographers will have to move on to another career to pay their bills.

It is said in sailing the pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

I played trumpet for many years and even through college. I was pretty good and enjoyed playing. However I did not have what it takes to make it as a professional musician. I did not enjoy practicing for hours each day.

When I discovered photography things changed. I discovered I was spending unusual amount of time shooting or in a darkroom. I would lose track of time. I never remember losing track of time playing my trumpet.

The first clue that you might be culled out from the herd of photographers is if you really lose your sense of time with photography. This lets you know this is not just fun but your passion.

Jay Maisel, Bernie Boston, Hugh Morton and George Tames.  Four famous photographers in my book. I took this at the Southern Short Course in the 1980s.

Jay Maisel tells his students to “always carry your camera.” He goes on to say to them he can tell who will not make it—those not carrying their cameras all the time.

“In this world you're either growing or you're dying so get in motion and grow,” said Lou Holtz.

Time to assess

Where are you now and where do you want to go? How are you going to get from here to there?

I know many photographers who wanted to go from no video skills to adding these to their skill set. They took the NPPA Multimedia Immersion Workshop.  I want to invite you to join me in Romania this summer in a Multimedia Immersion Workshop and here is the link to Storytellers Abroad Workshop.

I will be glad to help you see the way from here to there if this is the path you want to choose.

I believe that better than having a passion for photography is having a passion for the story. Eugene Richards went from being a social worker to a social activist and then finally realizing that photojournalism was the most powerful way for him to help those he cared so much about.

Discover your passion and it will help give you the answers to the big questions of Why go there? AND Why not stay here?

You may also find out that you don't have a passion for this and that is a good discovery. Just move on to your passion and you will be successful–if you nurture it.