I am of the opinion that everything in life has value - or a value. Depends how you look at it. Of course, money has a value. But even that value can be different for everyone. $5 could make an enterprising twelve year old mow my lawn. Where as I wouldn’t get behind one of those bladed stink machines and clip your crabgrass if you gave me five hundred smackers. Okay, maybe if it was a really small lawn and you were going to give me a chocolate milkshake when I finished. Still, you get my point.

So, if everything in life has value, and money has value, then as distasteful as it might sound, maybe you can put a dollar amount on everything in your life.

My time, your time, has value. Our ideas have value - lots of value. I have made my living, my whole adult life, from my ideas. So although there are actually many million dollar questions, for me, in photography, what would I say is the million dollar question?

I forgot.

Oh yeah, now I remember.

“What do you want to say?”

Every time you fire off that shutter, you are making a statement. It might not be an interesting statement. It might be a ridiculous statement. It could even be a meaningless statement. Or it might be a statement that reveals the human condition in a way so raw and true that it makes grown men wet their pants. Maybe it’s just a picture of your dog.

You don’t have to make every image say something. They say it on their own whether you like it or not. So why not try making them say what you want them to say?

When you are planning out your next shot (you do plan them out, right, sometimes?), take twenty minutes and devote the time to nothing other than figuring out what you’d like to say with the image. Twenty minutes doesn’t sound like a long time. That is until you are sitting there listening to the silent echo of voices in your head telling you to kill your neighbor (I’m just kidding Mr. Danny). Suffer through the silence until you really come up with something you want to say.

Maybe you want to make a political statement. Perhaps you want the world to know how much you love your parents. Could be a protest against daylight savings time. Yeah, stick it to the man! Just decide what you want to say.

Now you have a goal, a destination, not just aesthetically, but substantively. I’ll offer some tips on how to say what you want to say in another article. But I’ll give you a clue to get you started: It’s as simple or as hard as you make it.

Don’t worry if what you want to say doesn’t seem as earth shaking or meaningful as the photographer sitting next to you. Maybe their feet smell worse than yours. This isn’t a competition. It’s about making yourself the best photographer you can be, about growing as an artist. If you haven’t thought about what you want to say with your photography before, start thinking about it now. It just might help make your images the best they’ve ever been.

Nice!

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