Chapter 13. Never Make a Mediocre Image

Airshow pilot Sean D. Tucker of Team Oracle flies south of New York City.

ISO 320 f/6.3 1/1250 16mm

The reality for any photographer is you are only as good as your last photograph.

It doesn’t matter how good the image was that you shot last year or last week; you’re always in pursuit of the next image. And that pursuit of the next great image is about finding something new and different that you didn’t know, or haven’t seen yet, or haven’t thought of yet. It’s just a way of life.

It’s very easy to go through your career making predictable photographs. You take few risks and face few discomforts, and that can be your approach to photography. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But there’s something inside of a lot of people, including myself, that refuses to take those predictable images—that refuses to take the same images over and over again. Instead you make the choices that cause discomfort and create uncertainty. It’s only when you take this kind of risk that you discover the images you’ve never seen before, ones you can’t expect.