I learned one of the most important lessons of my young career while on a photo assignment that never actually took place.
In my first year as a young staff photographer for a daily Midwestern newspaper, I was sent to a small town to cover an evening high school basketball game. It was cold that night and snow and ice had covered the roads by the time I arrived at the school. The parking lot was empty and the lights were off at the school’s gymnasium so it didn’t take long to realize the game had been cancelled.
Still, I did what I thought was due diligence and asked a janitor at the school if the game had been relocated or delayed. He confirmed it had been rescheduled and off I went, thinking there was nothing more I could do.
I was wrong.
When I returned to the office later that night, my editor asked to see my photos from the game. I explained to him that it was cancelled, but his response surprised me.
“Where are your photos?” he asked again.
The lesson I learned that night (actually, it took me some time longer to accept this) was that no matter the circumstances, there’s always something to photograph. Just because the lights were off in the gym and the game had been cancelled, that didn’t mean my obligation as a photographer had been fulfilled.
All photographers face this obligation, even if you owe it only to yourself.
I’m not sure what kind of photograph I would have come up with that night outside the school. I might have documented the snowy scene outside the school, or even asked the janitor if he had plans to clean the empty gym. No matter the photograph, it would have been better than the one I returned to the office with. Something is always better than nothing.
It might sound extreme, but photographers of all levels of expertise can become better with this lesson in mind. You will never improve as a photographer if you don’t push yourself, and more importantly, push that button on top of your camera.