The Photography Muscle

A few months ago I was having an overdue catchup with a good friend Eren while walking and shooting round London. The light wasn’t the best and neither of us walked away with anything to shout about, however this didn’t bother us. We understood that not every photo session will produce results, but instead every photo session will get us closer to those results. As we started to ponder on that thought more, we realised that photography is very similar to working out. This is where the idea for this blog, the photography muscle came from.

I’m sure most of you reading this have worked out at some point in your life. Whether it’s lifting weights in the gym, running, walking or any other sport. You know full well that you’ll not see any meaningful results from each individual session. Even after a couple weeks of hitting the weights, any difference will be minuscule at best. However if you persist, stay consistent and more importantly work out with the correct form, the muscle growth and improvements will come whether you like it or not. Same with running or any other activity. On the other hand, if you go to the gym for a week, then skip two, do another 2 weeks, then skip 4 and so on, it will be considerably more difficult for you to make any progress.

Another consideration is friction. When something is part of your routine, it’s ingrained into who you are and how you spend your time, then there will not be much resistance to doing the task. Going back to the gym example, if being in shape is part of your identity and working out is something you do subconsciously every other day, then you will not feel like you need to drag yourself to the gym. However if you only go to the gym because it’s become popular or because your doctor said you have to and deep down you’re not that bothered, you will find 100 excuses not to. This can be extended to photography. If being a photographer is part of your identity, your camera will always be with you, you will not need any excuse to go and shoot. Photography will physically be a part of who you are and you will have no friction or need to drag yourself to shoot.

Treat photography in the same way as your muscle. Small consistent steps will result in huge long term differences. Shooting a couple times a week for a few hours is better than a full day out followed by a month of nothing. Embracing photography as part of your identity, will remove a lot of the friction you might have. Going back to what me and Eren were discussing, these fruitless days are nothing more than reps in the gym. We might not see any progress today, tomorrow or even the week after, but a year from now we’d be glad we were putting in the work.