When I was growing up, I always heard the phrase: Close only counts in horseshoes, and atomic bombs. Later in my career, I had a boss who always said: “good isn’t good enough, and perfection is the enemy of done.” These two phrases have been bubbling up a lot for me in recent weeks during my photography.
In this week’s podcast, we take a look at how these two phrases can help us better understand what is working and not working in our photography. Whether you are missing focus, composition, framing, settings or timing in your photographs, when things that need to be right are off, even just a little, it can cause huge issues for a photograph. If things in your work are close but not close enough, it can give you a roadmap or way to think about the skills to develop and practice.
At the same time, if you have areas where you obsess over getting it exactly right, then you might find that you are not getting your work done because you are unable to finish. In that case, it is about finding the balance between your need to have something perfect and more than just good.