A Letter from Chris Suarez
BUT FIRST, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE
This week I was flipping through some old photographs. No, not swiping through photographs, but actually flipping through some old photographs that I had in a cabinet under my bookshelf. The type of photos that we took on our Nikon SLR or Kodak 35mm. Then we unloaded the film and dropped it off at Costco or Walgreens to be developed. A week or so later we picked up the prints and looked through them. We hoped that we got some good shots of the people or the memories we were attempting to capture. I know, some may not remember that at all. But from the 36 photos you could take on a standard roll of film, maybe you got 5 good shots. Maybe you got 2 great shots. You may have 1 keeper. More likely than not, it was a little disappointing. You could easily walk away with 36 failed attempts at capturing that incredible landscape or sunset, that family gathering, or that photo of your dog’s tricks. After waiting for weeks to get your finishing product, the results were often disappointing. Worse, there was no easy way to get immediately better at taking pictures.
When it came time to take photos, we were protective of the film. We didn’t want to “waste it” on the wrong shot. After all, you only had 36 shots per roll. We were protective of who and what we took pictures of.
Fast forward and you scroll through incredibly “perfect” photos taken by your friends and posted to their social. Pictures of the perfect sunset. Pictures of food looking way better than it could possible taste. Pictures of pets that look like they just came out of hair and make up. And pictures of themselves looking good enough to show up to the Academy Awards.
We see the perfect shot. But if we look closer on their iPhone that shot was sandwiched between 25 or 30 shots before it and 25 or 30 shots after it. That posted shot was just one of 50 that they took before they got it just right. The lighting was just right. The composition was just right. The smile was just right. The hair was just right. It was perfect.
If we are not careful, we will begin to disqualify the beauty of failure. We will disqualify the importance of the missed shots. We will disqualify the value of the attempts. And that is because we don’t have to go through the process of taking, developing, waiting, and then flipping through 36 shots to figure out if we got 1 keeper. We fire off 30 or 40 or 50 selfies, scroll through to find the one that looks the best, and post it…forever remembering ourselves as a perfect 10.
Although I’m all about great photos, we can slowly take for granted how we got to the perfect 10. The tweaks in light, in angle, in expression. The nuances of success are lost, and the countless failures are forgotten.
A few lessons emerge. First, the faster we get feedback, the faster we can improve. Getting immediate feedback helps us move towards perfection. Towards it, because it’s elusive. But that’s ok - because we are getting better every time we take a shot. Second, fail and fail fast. Don’t get hung up on missing the shot, or messing up. Immediately take another one. And another one. And another one. It’s easy to get in your head if you let too much time lapse between attempts. Think about how many incredible photographers there may be in the world if we weren’t convinced 36 times per roll that we just weren’t good at taking pictures. Lastly, be willing to share your failures, and not just your perfect selfies. It allows yourself and those around you to see that there is beauty and value in every shot - even the missed ones. Real life isn’t filtered. It comes at us quickly but develops over time. This week I’ll take notice of how many times I fail on my path to any desired result.
But first, let me take a selfie.
