Closing “The Gap”
This photo was taken on November 27, 2015 with my first dslr camera, a Canon T5.
It’s blurry, grainy, shot on auto mode, shot in jpg (not RAW), and it’s pretty bad. Bad light, bad angle, bad composition, the list goes on.
Now here’s a product photo that I took in October of 2021 (almost 6 years later).
It’s lit well, in focus, was shot RAW, has layers, and is more visually pleasing and interesting to look at.
While I’m still a ways off from the look I want, I’m a lot closer in this photo than the photo from 2015.
The distance between these two is called “the gap”.
Ira Glass, a famous American radio personality, has a famous bit about the creative process and “the gap” that exists when you first start something.
He basically says that when you start something creative, you have good taste and you want to create something beautiful, but you lack the knowledge and skill to create exactly what you imagine.
There is a “gap” in knowledge, skill, ability, etc.
In order to close that gap, you have to work at it consistently over a period of time.
So if you’re someone who has picked up a dslr or mirrorless camera for the first time recently, and your photos are not as good as you envision them to be, remember that there is a gap. That gap could take years to close, but you have to keep doing the work.
No one would have hired me to take a photo for them back in November of 2015. I was a complete beginner. I didn’t even know how to use the camera. I didn’t know any of the terminology or what my camera could or could not do.
I’m at a place in my photography journey (6.5 years later) that people will pay me to take photos, and they genuinely love the photos. I don’t say that to brag, but to say that I’ve come a long way. And I still have a long way to go.
Start Closing “The Gap”
If your photos look closer to the first photo and you want them to look more like the 2nd photo, I want to help. Join the Sunday Snapshot!
The Sunday Snapshot is a photography club & newsletter to help turn your ordinary snapshots into works of art. It’s full of photography tips, tricks, resources and assignments to help you take better photos.
Every Sunday I share 3 blog posts related to photography and 1 assignment to help you progress in your journey. The email is short, sweet, and takes about the amount of time to consume as a cup of coffee.
