What Drives Excellence?

I was thinking the other day, "What Drives Excellence?"

Take professional photographers for example. We go through a lot of equipment. Well, many of us do at least. I know I do. Why do we do it? Will it make us better?

For some, they buy new gear just to have the latest and greatest toy. Bragging rights!

For others, it's because they can see a new image in their minds, but they can't create it because of the limitations of using their current gear. So they buy a new camera or a new lens.

Which one am I?

Well, I'm both, actually. I like having the latest and greatest camera and lens. I like having bragging rights! Who doesn't? But I also have a burning desire to get a better image... to get something that my mind's eye sees, but I can't get because of my current gear. So I get something new in hopes to achieve that image.

What drives excellence? I think it's the desire to be excellent... to not be ok with just being "OK." It's the desire to be better than "OK."

I have many professional photography friends. Although not all of them fall into the catagory of being driven to excellence, most of them do fall into this catagory. One of my friends just purchased a Nikon D3 camera recently. Why? Because he hopes it will get better quality images than he was getting with his old camera. Why? Was his images of poor quality? No... far from it! He's one of the best photographers I've seen in a long time. But he's driven. He wants to be the best. Now THAT is what it takes to be the best. The desire and drive to do it.

Many of my photography friends look to me for advice. I give it freely. We'll talk about everything from how to achieve a shot technically, to how to get more wedding bookings. Why? Well, the business of photography is more than just taking a nice picture. It's also a business and so we need to be well rounded in that area as well.

But often our talks do revolve around photography gear and our images. Even when we aren't "working" we are still thinking about our photography gear and our images. I wonder if we dream about this stuff too! Probably.

And, we practice! Even when there isn't a wedding happening, we'll go out and practice. Considering how many photos we take in a given year, do we really still need to practice? You better believe it! Just like the top classical musicians who practice daily to keep their "chops" up, we do the same thing.

So what drives excellence? We do.