Pro Photographer's Shocking Failures Exposed 

This kind of format kinda reminds me of the Magnum Contact sheets. Even the greatest photographers who made world class images have one shot that stands out on a roll of 36. They work the scene, change angles, change light, until everything lines up perfectly. Thanks for sharing, Justin.

Great advice, Justin. The big takeaway on this is that it's important to look over your daily shots and determine what could have been done better. This is the benefit of the personal project, developing a rhythm, which is not so easy when it's a single 'street' experience, say. Too often, we hurry to get the shot and perhaps overlook the basics we take for granted - the light, the angle, the background and what's in the frame. Love this story on the white rhino. Love the rich African light too. Well done.

I also think the picture with the gun is the most powerful. So good! Congrats.

This is great. We miss all miss shots. I really beat my self up mentally about a shot I missed focus on recently. It's great to see people I look up to showing they do the same and that what we see is what we are shown by others, very few people are willing to show us what they get wrong.

This was a breath of fresh air. Thanks for your vulnerability and sharing images that you were not happy with. But as you know, emerging photographers need to hear this and see this. Good to know it’s all part of the process.

Thanks for sharing this!! I think we all intellectually know that even the most amazing photographers don’t make the most amazing photos on every snap, but I also feel like that’s easy to forget while watching RU-vid videos related to photography

Lesson #1: It takes time. Lesson #2: Establish a bond. Very good advice, obvious and overlooked. Thank you.

When I take a lousy photo, I delete the evidence immediately like it never happened😂

Great video, Justin. We often focus too much on our successful images without considering the lessons we can learn from our mistakes. Love this. It'll help me have a whole new perspective when I go through my images after a shoot.

Good information, thanks for sharing your good and bad. I need to remember to slow down and study the scene more, good tips!

Your analysis of your good and bad photos was very interesting and informative. Your striving and persevering to obtain the best shots was very inspiring. Thank you.

I loved this episode, Justin; it was really insightful (and inspiring). I'd love to see more videos like this.

This is very helpful, thank you Justin!

I know a photographer who's every single image is excellent in every way - the only exception being the rare under- or over-exposure - but never by more than half a stop or less. He can judge the exposure he needs/wants just by looking at the scene/subject - he rarely uses a meter of any kind, other than the one in his head. He shoots strictly in manual mode. With digital cameras, I've never seen him chimp. He pre-visualizes the 'scene-as-image' and takes the picture when it's exactly as he wants it. In the days of film, he would stick in a roll of 36 exposures (for 35mm) and get 36 great images. Now, with digital, he gets the images 99% the way he wants them straight out-of-camera with no or virtually no post production. He has his cameras set exactly for the way he wants his images. He doesn't bother shooting RAW because he doesn't have to. His JPEGS are almost always publishable out-of-camera. Once you've met someone like that, you are really challenged to call any one else a good photographer. But rather than being discouraged and disillusioned by it, teaching my self some of his methods (e.g. judging light to expose w/o metering and pre-visualization) certainly has improved my output but I know I will never approach his natural capabilities and artistry, and I've never met anyone else that can, either. Yet, he makes it all look so simple and easy. He's simply a natural born killer photographer.

Thanks for sharing your sub-perfect work; it's kind of a confidence booster to know that not every photo taken by a pro is perfect, so thanks for that. One question that kept popping into my head while I was envisioning you around the guards/rhinos is how much directing, if any, do you do when doing this type of photojournalistic work? Did you tell the guard to hold the pose as you wait for the rhino to get into the perfect position?

So true, I'm off to India for the first time soon and I'm so stupidly excited I just know I'm gonna take rubbish shots for the first day or so haha Wish me luck! Another great and very honest and informative video, thank you sir.

Your Channel is as good as it gets! Have a Happy Healthy Holiday and New Year!

I get some seriously odd wildlife shots because I'm a wildlife magnet. I've been slobbered on and used as a scratching post by giraffes, spit on by camels, walked on by water buffalo's, licked by lions, caressed by caracals, and had a camera crunched by a crocodile.

9:16 let’s see you convert to black and white and make magic with this image🤞🏻would be an awesome follow up vid

Great content!

Interesting, continuous reassessment.

Thanks!

I want to live in Vietnam

Don’t be to harsh 😂