What Can Getting Messy Do For Your Photography?

A celebration of the moments you never thought to share.

“If an image stays with you, and you are just not sure because it is not ‘perfect’ when measured by anyone but yourself, you may have something there.

Not guaranteed, but maybe.

And, BTW, those are the images I love to see.

The messy ones. The nearly amazing ones that you love.

I like messy images that photographers love.” — Don Giannatti

I kind of took that to heart.

It’s hard to relate to a perfect image. Most of us are not perfect. An image that resonates deeply within us touches the recesses of our pasts, our thoughts, our feelings. These electronic impulses, shaped through experiences, and compounded by time will never comprehend the meaning of perfection.

We are taught and I’m not against this, to put your best foot forward. When you create a portfolio, you show your best work. On social media, more often than our failures are shared our successes. Which is great.

It just isn’t real.

While I would never promote intentionally failing or settling for complete mediocrity, there is nothing inherently wrong with making a mistake. In fact, many places encourage your mistakes. That way you learn, and hopefully, never make them again.

But who ever sees these? When are these moments acknowledged for what they are?

Knowing that there is a process towards improvement, from time to time we should share some of the little messes we make. Or heck, forget sharing, you could even celebrate them alone if you wish.

Just because I felt so obliged, here I am sharing a bit of a random assortment of imagery that has never really been shared before.

Too weird.

Too boring.

Too pointless?

Who knows. The thing is, I liked them. These were moments that stuck out to me from a greater collection of images and moments. If you’re familiar with Lightroom, these are the ones that got a star but never made it past one (one a scale one to five). So they lived there, in the darkness. The stepping stones upon which other successes emerged.

What I’d really like to do now, is encourage others to share similar moments. Those messy beginnings you never wanted to share before. The works in progress. I guess you’d call this a prompt. Idk, I’ve never done one before…

Prompt

Show us your messy attempts.

A collection of the messier photographic moments. The moments where you were trying something, and it didn’t turn out perfectly. The moments where you had an idea, thought you saw something, and went for it. The moments where you were at the peak of your mental artistry until you got home and realized to yourself, “Meh.”

Let’s celebrate our paths to greatness. Not perfection, but to our own personal rags to riches tale.

Thanks for the inspiration, Don. Now, where’s the beer…

“I love messy photos. They reveal intent far more than successful photos. Messy, not quite on the mark, confusing, challenging imagery pushes us into places we haven’t been before… and we end up making images that are more compelling than at the surface level. Find a subject and begin to analyze it. Look at the light, the easy-to-see compositions, the POV that is comfortable — then dash it and go for something totally different. Grab that extreme lens, or get on the ground, or climb a tree… find a way of actually creating the images you see starting to take shape on the screen. Push, push, push.

And then it’s time for a beer.” — Don Giannatti

On the flip side, to see a fun rundown of images that I was more proud to share more often, check out this list which breaks down how every camera I’ve owned has performed photographically.

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Story and photos ©Ian Hanson. All rights reserved.