Photography - What's LUCK Got to do With It?

There are those who would say there is no such thing as luck.  I would disagree.  There is good and bad luck.  With proper planning bad luck can be minimized, but not eliminated.  For example, let's say you have a wedding to photograph.  You've planned everything, will arrive 2 hours early to make sure you have time to do what you need to do, but on the way you get caught in a traffic jam that is not moving, and won't move for several hours.  And you're completely boxed in, no way to turn around.  Or worse, a car ran a red light and crashed into you, destroying your car and perhaps your equipment (hopefully not you).  Bad luck is rather negative, and since I'd prefer the positive kinds of things, I'll talk about good luck.

The first thing I'll say about good luck is that when it happens, you have to be ready and willing to take advantage of it.  I was just reading about how some photographers got their start though chance encounters with those that could help them.  Perhaps they needed an assistant and you happened to run into them at a restaurant totally be chance.  Or perhaps a magazine editor just happened to see some photos you had taken, again by chance, loved what they saw, contacted you, and gave you an assignment.

One piece of luck I had happened when I wanted to get some images of the solar eclipse.  I knew the eclipse was happening, so that wasn't luck, but when I was ready to take the photos, the beach low clouds and fog had come in.  But the luck happened because the clouds thinned out and had just enough breaks in them to not only allow me to capture the eclipse, but to lower the contrast enough to get good exposures.

  Another piece of good luck happened when this rainbow appeared.  Just by chance I was in the right place at the right time.  But when both of these opportunities arose, I was ready and prepared to capture them.



Although I prefer shooting people (with my camera, LOL!!!!), I love beauty of all kinds.  And with luck, I will keep finding beauty in my photography.  And if by chance you happen by here.....