What is Failure

What is Failure, is there really such a thing. In art or more specifically Photography, we should not look at a bad image as a failure, rather a learning curve. At the start the learning curve is pretty big & has a huge curve in it.But as time goes on the curve gets smaller but trust me it is still there. We should look at the images that dont work for us as a means to progress, we should study these images & work out why they dont work ,what is it that I have done that doesn't make this work, or more the point what do I have to do to get it right.
I do this all the time when one of my new images gets rejected in a competition, what ,why & where have I gone wrong with this image, is it the detail, is it the story, is it just crap? even though I think it is great, am I too emotionally connected to the image to see the trees for the woods. This is where your friends, peers, or what ever you want to call them come into it, someone who is not emotionally involved with you is generally less bias. Send the image to them ,what do you think be honest, remember you might not like what you hear so be prepared for criticism.

On Sunday I went to the Methven rodeo, I watch young men & Women compete against mother natures creation, horses & Bulls, they fell off.One guy got dragged around the arena by a horse, do you think he sees this as being a failure, I dont think so he will use this experience to hone his skills a little more to be a little better or if he is too badly hurt he may feel it is time to hang up his spurs, but he will pass on his knowledge to the younger one's. So as we learn new ways of doing thing pass it on & people will pass it back?