When Good Photographers Take Bad Images: Why It Should Be No Big Deal (VIDEO)

Manny Ortiz is a professional photographer we turn to again and again for inspiration and instruction. In the below video titled “All Photographers Take Bad Pictures,” he offers a little bit of both.

It’s something of a pep talk/mea culpa, where Ortiz explains it’s ok to take bad images, in fact, he does it all the time.

“I think there’s a misconception out there with newer photographers who may think I take nothing but great images,” Ortiz says. “And truth be told, I only show you the good ones. Just like you I still take a lot of bad images. The difference is, that my good images now are better than they were before because of my experience and everything that I have learned.”

His point is that you have to accept the fact that not every photo is going to be golden and just keep learning and shooting so you can improve.

“The message I’m trying to get across in this video is to not measure your success off of the bad pictures that you take or any kind of failures that you have because it’s never going to end,” Ortiz explains. “Just understand that you’re going to have bad days, you’re going to have bad months…it’s going be like a rollercoaster, just don’t lose that hunger and that determination to get better because you will inevitably get better, trust me.”

What we like most about the video is that he takes you on a shoot with a model and shows the misses and the hits of his images, explaining why something worked and why it didn’t.

You can see more of Ortiz’s educational videos on his YouTube channel. Here’s a recent one we liked where he explains how to use off-camera flash in just three minutes, and another good one where he shows you how to make beautiful outdoor portraits

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