On the last page of Practical Photography (a British photo magazine) for the month of September is a summary of what it took to create the September issue.

Titled “the Practical Photography Cookbook” it lists things like: “2,387 miles travelled, 5 hours spent in traffic jams, 51 photos taken in traffic jams, 1 destroyed camera, 2 sunburnt journalists, too many mosquito bites, 6 hours waiting for a FOX that never showed up…” (go to Mission Viejo Mall, there’s plenty of Foxes there….)

It continues….”13 computer crashes, 37 flapjacks consumed. 87.5 hours spent using Photoshop…”

A lot of work these Monthly publications, and a lot of opportunity for Photographers!

To me, one of the most telling entries is the one which states: “5,943 Photos taken” This amount for ONE ISSUE! , and then it states:”199 Photos Used“.

Hmmm…and here I thought that the “Pros” (whatever that means) got it right 99-percent of the time.

I thought that pro-photographers got the shot at the first release of the shutter!

Of course, I’m being a little facetious because this illustrates the realities of the business. Many people assume that the Pros (and serious amatuers) just have to press the shutter and “Voila!” a beautiful picture comes out.

That’s not to say that the gang at Practical Photography or any other photographers don’t know what they’re doing, it just means that anyone learning photography shouldn’t beat themselves up if they don’t get it right with the first press of the shutter.

As you learn and shoot, you obviously get better at judging the scene before you. You learn more about exposure-latitude and metering, and depth-of-field and focus.

But, also, the more you learn, the more you push yourself to get a little more into (and out of) your pictures.

You start out being happy to get on-base, but, soon enough, you start wanting to hit ‘em out of the park with every “at-bat”.

As you stretch your capabilities, you learn better how to take more compelling photos, or how to get a photo in situations where others would just have a shadow and blown-out highlights.

This can make you have to take a few exposures to change your point of view or to get more favorable metering. this is also why many Pros eschew automatic metering and focus as it can be fooled in tricky situations.

So, shoot carefully, shoot thoughtfully, but by all means shoot, as this is the best way to learn what you can and can’t do with your camera.

The crew at Practical Photographer goes on to mention “560 e-mails sent, 1640 e-mails received (think they’re busy?), 1621 competition entries judged” (another good way to learn more), and other sailent tidbits.

So the lesson here today is to shoot, have fun, and don’t beat yourself up if the shot’s not perfect the first-time everytime, after all, you have to bunt once in a while!