How do you know what is good

It’s another super cold day in a string of super cold days.Brrrr!

I haven’t stepped outside since Tuesday, when I went to the food coop. In this weather I don’t plan to go outside anytime soon if I can help it. On Tuesday it was cold enough that I didn’t try to bring home any fresh flowers from the food coop for fear that they would freeze.

So I’ve been working on other projects this week instead of photographing a new bouquet of flowers. Today I went back to some photos of delphinium flowers I made in January and picked out some of the softest ones (made at f/1.8). Initially I thought they were too soft and instead of looking artful, simply looked blurry. But today their soft impressionistic feel appealed to me.

This led me to the question

How do you know what is good?

I often see new things when I go back to old photographs that I’ve made. And sometimes I discover that photographs that I really liked initially I no longer care for. Does that happen to you too, in your creative endeavors?

I have learned that I like to give myself a lot of time to decide whether an image is one that I consider “good.” And over time as I learn and grow as an artist my criteria for what is good or not so good also change.

One of the things I often do is to create a collection of images that I like in Adobe Lightroom and then give myself several months (yes months!) to go back and look at them again and again. Some days when I’m in a bad mood almost nothing holds up to my critical eye. On those days I’ve learned to simply note my critical thoughts and move on without making any drastic decisions.

“So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray.”  —Mary Oliver

I was super excited about a current set of images in a new project I’ve been working on until one day I wasn’t. Suddenly everything looked like crap to me. At first I was very discouraged. Then I stepped back and decided to simply leave the project alone for a few weeks. I moved to working on something entirely different.

Today I went back to look at the images again. And I’m once again seeing promise in the project. I don’t like every image in the group but I do like a lot of them. Perhaps this week I will return to working on creating more new images to add to the collection.

What’s your definition of good?

A lot of artists look to others for advice about what is good and what isn’t good. That can be helpful but it can also be a trap. Creating is highly personal. And the definition of “good” depends upon where you are in your skill curve. If you’re a beginner good looks very different than if you’re more experienced. If you truly want to express an idea or a feeling some people will “get” what you’re trying to express. Others will be oblivious to it. Tastes differ.

For several years I belonged to camera clubs where I submitted images for judging each month. What I learned was that my ego got so caught up in getting a good review or getting negative comments that I began submitting images that I thought would please the judges instead of doing work that came from my heart. I decided to stop competing because I wanted to listen to and express my inner voice. And I wanted to create for the love of creating, not because some external judge liked it.

“It’s not a competition, it’s a doorway.” – Mary Oliver

I’ve been very happy with that decision. When I create I do it because I love what I’m doing. That is enough.

“And that is just the point… how the world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. “Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?”  — Mary Oliver

May you walk in beauty.