Hey, everyone!  I hope everyone is doing well and is healthy.  I'm all in, are you?  What does the title of this blog mean?  I heard a saying a while ago that you only get what you put into something, whether it's photography, a hobby, or a project.  If you don't put in the hard work, you won't get the results you're looking for.  We are surrounded by great photography, whether it's in a magazine, Instagram, Flickr, 500PX, or Facebook.  These photographs are impressive, and we think that ours aren't compared to them. But what we forget is that these are the contributors' best photos.  They probably took hundreds of photos to get the one that you're freaking out about.  That said, they put in the effort by shooting hundreds of photos to get that great one.

Putting in the work.  In photography, like most things, you must put in the work.  When I learn a new Cathedral Falls photography technique or editing procedure, I do a lot of research and practice, practice, practice.  But I'm all in!  I make mistakes and fail.  But I keep going.  I have an addictive personality, and I can't stop until I can do whatever I was trying to learn.  As photographers, we never know it all and are, or should be, constantly learning.  That's one of the things that I love about photography.  You never stop learning and can experiment with all kinds of stuff.  When I'm in, I'm in!  In life you must put in the work if you want it to turn out great.  Nothing ever happens without trying and putting forth the effort.

Pushn' up Dasies Failing.  Failing is a part of life.  Everyone fails at something and fails many times.  When you fail to do something, you have just learned a way not to do it.  Those who do not try are the only ones who won't fail. By trial and error do we learn the best in my opinion.  I can read about it all day long.  But if I actually try to do it and I fail a couple of times before succeeding, then I will have it forever.  Because I didn't only learn how to do it, but I also learned how not to do it.  And sometimes that is just as important as learning how to do something.  I just had a big fail that is and isn't photography related.  I lost a camera!  I have, or had, a Canon G7XMII point and shoot camera.  (Because I always want a camera that is better than my phone with me).  What I think happened was that it was very hot one day at work so I took the camera out of my car and brought it inside where it was cool.  When I went to leave, I think I placed the camera on the roof of my car while loading up and left it there.  Then I drove off.  I didn't notice it for a day or so.  I have searched everywhere for it with no luck.  I'm going to get with the security at the place I'm working and see if anyone found it and turned it in.  This was a big fail!  And it's not the first time I've done it either.  When I was in high school, I placed a lens on top of my car and drove off.  Luckily I found the lens in the gutter by the street unharmed.  Hopefully I'll find this camera.  If not, I will have learned a big lesson and will have to replace it costing more money than I want to spend.  We all have fails.

What I'm trying to say is you can't sit on your couch watching TV then go to a pretty place, pull out your camera, press the shutter button and expect to have a masterpiece.  It just doesn't work that way.  You have to learn by trial and error how to compose shots, how to set up your camera, and how to post process your images to get that masterpiece.  You have to learn all of the things to do and not do to get that shot that people will "ooh and ahh" over.  It's just not one click.  Thanks for listening to me on my soapbox for a while.  Hope everyone has a great week, and until next time be safe and get outside and shoot!