All creative artists (and we are artists) go through it. Whether you break through to the other side or not, that is entirely up to you.

The artist reaches a point in their journey where they are no longer a beginner. They know the building blocks of their craft. In other words, they know how to put a basic creation together.

And because they know the basics, they now have reached the ability to 'see' complex creations in their mind’s eye. They now want to bring these complex creations to fruition 'on canvas'. The trouble is, they can 'see' the creations, but they have trouble executing them. They get very frustrated and starts to doubt their skills and purpose. It frustrates and demoralises them tremendously and makes them question whether it is all worth it and whether the craft is the right 't' for them.

That is Mid-Road Syndrome.

If you are suffering from this Syndrome, there are
three outcomes from this:

1. It just all becomes too much and you give up 'serious' photography altogether.

Or

2. You resign yourself to believing you are only this good. And because you believe you are only mediocre, you stay 'only this good'. Look at many photographers on forums and in photography clubs. They are right in this category. They have spent years and years as photographers... and look at the images they produce. A picture speaks a thousand words about its creator as much as it does about its subject.

Or

Are you are suffering from
classic 'Mid-Road' Syndrome?

3. You snap out of this mindset and get on with learning (REALLY learning), practicing, experimenting - and, ENJOYING the journey - including the 'failures'.


Your choice.

Might I add, 'getting on with it' also means giving yourself a break. It means not beating yourself up over every little thing you think you have missed during a shoot. We WILL continue to miss things no matter how good we are. That is just the nature of the game. You need to accept this and don't beat yourself up over it.

Now, not being able to execute a pre-planned course of action/scene... well, that is a different story. If you had planned a shoot down to what 'look' you want etc... and during the shoot you can't achieve that look, then it really only comes down to two possible factors:


1. You were being unrealistic. You set out to achieve a look which for whatever reason could not be achieved during the session. It could be because you overestimated your skill level, the subject did not 't' the look, the location was inappropriate, lighting was inappropriate. It could be a whole number of things - but, it all boiled down to you (and your team) setting unrealistic expectations for the session. You are just setting yourself up for ' failure'.

Or

2. During the session, a number of unforeseen factors rear their heads and the look you had originally planned for can no longer be achieved. It was essentially out of your control. To be brutally honest.... with No1, it is your fault. With No2, there is nothing you could have done to change the fact. The great thing is this: With No1, you can change this through learning your skills and being realistic about where you are at with those set of skills. And with No2, it becomes easier and easier to adapt to changes during sessions as you get more and more skilled. Stay positive and don't beat yourself up... and resolve to get over your Mid-Road Syndrome...