Technically, this photo is a mistake. After switching lenses on my camera I forgot to change a crucial setting in my camera. This error resulted in a black vignette in the first photo that I shot. For you photographers out there, I put a crop lens on my full-frame camera without adjusting the lens compensation. Normally I would curse this photo as rubbage and toss it into the digital trash. BUT my error actually turned out to be a very “happy accident” as we artist types like to say.
I see Bigfoot! No, it’s obviously not the real Bigfoot. It’s my photographer buddy Barry Reese (https://www.barryreesephoto.com/). But the vignette combined with Barry’s pose while walking in the forest reminded me of that old, iconic Bigfoot photo that we all have burned into our memories. If you are the one or two people in the entire world who isn’t familiar with frame 352 from the legendary 1967 film by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin then see below for the photo and link to the film on YouTube.
Film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OBTUQI60yqQ
Frame 352 from the Patterson-Gimlin film (1967) allegedly provided the first real evidence for the existence of the legendary Sasquatch, a.k.a Bigfoot, in northern California
Other than getting a glimpse into the wacky depths of my creative brain, what is the importance of all of this? I used to worry a lot about making mistakes. Because I have always been so driven and motivated to succeed in everything that I do, I tend to have little patience for anything that could delay my progress as a professional. I do not like to waste time and I also don’t want to look (or feel) like I don’t know what I am doing. Fortunately, many years of being an artist have gotten me quite used to making a lot of mistakes and failing over and over again. Screwing up used to make me feel like an imposter rather than a pro. But eventually I learned to embrace my mistakes because they always provide an opportunity to learn something. Failure is just part of the process of growing. Put another way, you cannot improve without making mistakes. And put another way, sometimes you have to take ten steps backward to take 1 step forward.
In the case of the above photo, I was actually happy that I made such a rookie mistake when swapping lenses on my camera because it revealed a pretty interesting effect that I can use intentionally in future photos. I learned a new skill because I’m such a screw-up!
Although I am talking about photography here, this is a lesson that can be applied to anything that we do in life. Making mistakes is usually frustrating at best but I urge you to occasionally push yourself past your comfort zone with the goal of actually making mistakes. When the dust settles you will absolutely learn something new that will help you improve. And that improvement will always make you feel stronger. Now go out and do something that you’ve always wanted to do but never did due to a fear of failure. And say ‘hi’ to Bigfoot for me!