Spencer’s Law:
The level of risk you take directly relates to the benefits you receive.
The funny thing about information is that there’s never enough of it until it doesn’t matter anymore. So, there’s little that makes me happier than the fact that hindsight is 20/20. It means we live in a world filled with opportunity. It gives us all the chance to be pioneers by staking our own claim. Being bold. Finding our ponds. And it’s all as easy as taking a risk. Forget about wait and see. If you wait, you die. Because once everyone has access to the same information and tools, competitive advantage is lost.
Take the case of the camera that doesn’t need you to focus ahead of time. Does that sound cool to me? Hell yeah. If you haven’t heard about it, here’s an article from USA Today. But, you know what? For all I know, that might signal the demise of the profession. What happens when bokeh becomes commonplace? When mis-focusing isn’t an issue? Did all that time and energy I spent learning how to focus properly and decide where to focus just go out the window? We’ll see soon enough.
To gain a competitive advantage, you need to either have more, know more, or do more than others. Forget having more. It’s hopeless in this field. And knowing more is hard, too. It’s long to acquire, and you almost never know where your information sits in the very vast sea of information out there. Doing is easy, on the other hand. Most people are risk averse. They like certainty. Embrace uncertainty, and there’s your edge.
And we’re talking small things, too. Try shots that are all wide if you shoot tight. Try tight if you shoot wide. Look for light backgrounds, dark ones, dramatic light, bland light, lots of space, no space, depth of field or none at all. Unhinge yourself, and let it all go. Forget good, forget bad. Just try something new. In fact, if you just take about 10% of each wedding day and shoot the exact opposite way you normally shoot, I’ll bet you’ll learn all sorts of things about yourself and do all sorts of things no one else is doing. I spent years shooting tightly framed first kiss shots. I don’t know how I got it into my head that they’re supposed to be tight, but somehow, I did. Then, I stopped shooting it that way. Did anyone complain or even care? Of course not.
Take a look at trends. Think vintage. Or editorial or tilt-shifts. You can think of people doing dips, drawing hearts in the sand. You can think of textures and shooting tilted shots. It doesn’t matter what. Just pick a trend. It’s always a trickle, trickle, trickle, then a massive flood of people entering. Don’t be part of the flood. The market is diluted and the competition becomes fierce. Can you imagine that at one point, all you needed to do to distinguish yourself was to tilt your camera at a 45 degree angle? Or tone your sky yellow? How easy is that? It is a near certainty that before any trend becomes a trend, people are waiting. They are waiting to be influenced. They are waiting to see if it works. They are waiting, because they’re too busy too notice. People want proof before they act. And that’s where risk and opportunity step in. You just need to push a little further. I’m reminded of a joke I learned a long time back:
It rained for days and days and there was a terrific flood. The water rose so high that one man was forced to climb on top of his roof and sat in the rain. As the waters came up higher a man in a rowboat came up to the house and told him to get in. “No thank you, the Lord will save me!” he said, and the man in the rowboat rowed away.
The waters rose to the edge of the roof and still the man sat on the roof until another rowboat came by and another man told him to get in. “No thank you, the Lord will save me!” he said again, and the man rowed away.
The waters covered the house and the man was forced to sit on his chimney as the rain poured down and a helicopter came by and another man urged him to get in or he’ll drown. “No thank you,” the man said again, “The Lord will save me!”
After much begging and pleading the man in the helicopter gave up and flew away. The waters rose above the chimney and the man drowned and went to heaven where he met God.
“Lord, I don’t understand,” he told Him, frustrated, “The waters rose higher and higher and I waited hours for you to save me but you didn’t! Why?”
The Lord just shook his head and said, “What are you talking about? I sent two boats and a helicopter?!”
I used to think it was a joke about religion, but it’s really a joke about context and taking action. The answers are in front of us, but we wait and wait until we have a perfect solution, when taking action before the perfect solution presents itself is what matters. It is uncertainty that begins each journey, and it is uncertainty that lets us find success.
On a recent trip to Miami I asked my friend to step outside his photographic box just a little bit. My friend did step outside of his self imposed box and appreciated the little push perhaps that I gave him. Being conscious of what you do is as important as being instinctual, taking a new path will bring a new view. Discovery is a powerful and wonderful personal experience.