15 Minutes to Shoot, 15 Years to Master

Here’s a story that was shared over on the Photo.net forums recently:

Client : Nice shot. You got it in 15 minutes. But isn’t 1,000 bucks for that a robbery?
Photographer : Yes, you are right, but to get it done correctly in 15 minutes it took me 15 years of hard work and dedication to master this art of “robbery”.

When people see photographers at work, they often assume that the results must not be worth as much as other forms of art, since pressing the shutter to capture an image seems so much faster and easier than painting a photograph.

There’s a similar story that’s told about Picasso:

Picasso was in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw a portrait of her. Picasso agreed and quickly sketches her. After handing the sketch to her, she is pleased with the likeness and asks how much she owed to him. Picasso replies $5,000. The woman screamed, “but it took you only five minutes!”.

“No, Madam, it took me all my life”, replied Picasso.


Image credit: Sketchbook in action! by denn

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