How big a part does luck play in photography?

Talking about a fellow drag racer, at the track, it was commented how lucky he was. Another indicated he was experienced enough to know where to stand to get hit by it.

jovo said:

Brian Kosoff once described what he goes through when he's on location, and for that matter when he's going to be on location. It involves GPS, weather info, seasonal almanac kinds of stuff like moon phase, sunrise and sunset times, tides, and a host of other preparatory work. It almost seemed like voodoo and over-the-top silliness till I realized how much more likely he is going to be to get what he set out to get. Are his results lucky? Well, of course they are up to a point, but when "good luck" is consistent, then there's much more to it than that.

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Gosh John you make it sound even easier than it is! You forgot the computer topo maps, a really great tool......

The whole prep thing is really the difference between a professional background, or at least a professional attitude about your photography and an amateur one. When you're hired to complete an assignment, the client doesn't expect that the photographer relies on luck to bring back good images. The expectation of a professional is that you come back with the goods EVERYTIME. No excuses.

Photographers who come back with unusable, or poor quality imagery can expect, at the very least that they will not get paid and that none of the expenses or OOP will get paid. If travel, models, makeup, hair, assistants, set or location rentals, etc expenses are involved, the photographer can be held fully liable. Some of these shoots have 5- 6 figure costs. A blown assignment can easily cost you your business maybe even your house. Your reputation is the least of it.

So coming from that background, I have learned to do a huge amount of preparation before I go out to shoot. In my own case now I only risk spending 6-10 weeks on the road, with all of the accommodations and expenses out of my own pocket. Still that's quite an effort and expense to have and not come back with good images.

For those who do photography purely as hobby or passion, the pressure on them, both financially and emotionally, is less. But once you start making a living at it, you have to work with the assumption that the only luck you'll have will be bad luck and that you need to be able to switch to plan B,C,D etc, on short notice.

Early Riser said:

The whole prep thing is really the difference between a professional background, or at least a professional attitude about your photography and an amateur one.

So coming from that background, I have learned to do a huge amount of preparation before I go out to shoot.

For those who do photography purely as hobby or passion, the pressure on them, both financially and emotionally, is less.

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This has been an interesting thread. For me, how much luck plays into photography is a distinct: "maybe". When I was shooting weddings, or other editorial work, I was prepared and did all the things I thought a pro should do to ensure a salable produce, just as Brian said.

But, for the rest of my photography, I am pretty much an amateur, and so all that goes with that classification tags along with me most of the time.

On the Texas Church Project, we started as no more than an excuse for a few friends to go out and shoot together. Well, we got "lucky"! We've had two exhibitions hung, are in planning for a 3rd venue, (turned down a 4th) and have been featured on a regional TV show. We've decided we have to get "serious" if we're going to continue the project.

But, we all have other lives and none of us make our livings with photography. We travel and visit churches all over the (large) state when we can. So, we have to take conditions as we find them. It is a challenge that has become sort of a trademark of the images in the project that we make do with what we find. We can "plan" to visit a particular church, but we don't have any images planned. So, the artistic challenge, if you will, is to make something of the place once we get there. There is always some picture of some sort. Light may be flat, or contrasty. Many churches are very dark, and we rarely turn on lights because we find the artificial light to be less appealing (if more abundant).

So, I would have to say that luck plays a part in this project. Consequently, we often "fail", i.e., we come back with few, or zero usable images from a shoot. But, overall we're being successful, and most important, we're still trying to have fun.

Listened to an interview with a photographer recently and remember him say that the only licky shot would be if you dropped you camera and it went off and you liked the result... You've invest time into learning photography, money in the equipment, time in going to a specific location and carrying your camera there...