Only Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

"So you want to go pro in the world's greatest profession? First go to a baseball game, then go to a symphony! What happened before the big game? What happened before the concert? They practiced infield, and batting basics; they played the scales - the same thing they did the first day they picked up a bat or French horn!" Ralph Romaguera from GoingPro.

by Skip Cohen

The year is fast coming to a close and I feel like I'm trapped in an old Jimmy Stewart movie and the hands of the clock are spinning.

Over the last two days I've been talking to attendees registered for the upcoming Thrive program. I want to get to know each attendee and get them started on a stronger marketing and business platform, long before March 2. 
In the process of talking with each photographer I've visited their websites and while some are outstanding, others clearly have a ways to go in building stronger galleries. That got me thinking about the challenge of practicing your skill set and learning to create outstanding images.

My good buddy, Roberto Valenzuela, who I've quoted before, said in a program once,

"Practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect! What if you're practicing it wrong?"

Then I found a great quote from Ansel Adams:

"In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice."

There's that word again, "practice".  So, practice makes perfect in terms of exercising your mind's eye, but technique requires perfect practice.  Well, that led me to a search to see what somebody famous in the arts had to say about "technique" and musician, Dave Brubeck, came through:

"And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into."

Everybody has had that one moment or series of moments where you played above your normal game.  It's that sweet spot in life where you were on the mark with whatever you were doing. Your goal to building a strong skill set is to practice letting your mind's eye just run with the vision and work to develop the right technique.  When you hit one of those moments where you've gone beyond your normal abilities, just smile and enjoy it!
 
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Work on your technique, but don't take it so seriously you forget to have fun.

Photo Credit: © yang yu - Fotolia.com