I try to tell myself that everyone makes mistakes, that it’s only human and bound to happen on a fairly regular basis. But…good grief, I make some big ones! A recent mistake, which has cost me £350 to correct, was a failure to properly fix my rather expensive Nikon 14-24mm lens, just purchased, to the body of my camera before taking a quick look through the viewfinder. A nanosecond later, the lens had dropped to the concrete path below, and my heart sank at more or less the same rate. How could I have been so stupid? Quite easily, it seems. 

The lesson I learned on this occasion (other than to properly secure lens to camera - “Pearson, you idiot!”), was to properly insure my gear, which I’ve now done. Peace of mind comes at a cost, but I’m less worried about future disasters now.

Other mistakes are less financially punitive, and more to do with the continual process of learning the craft of photography. The disappointment of finding an interesting composition, then realising when viewed on the big screen that it isn’t quite sharp, or something inconvenient has found its way into the scene, can at least be turned into something positive. Go back to that scene and try again; maybe crop the image differently; process the image to distract the viewer from that annoying piece of seaweed bottom left. These things are all easily done, don’t usually involve great expense, and are actually part of the creative process.

I have a very unhelpful habit of beating myself up mercilessly for past mistakes, and quite often I use photography as a means of distracting my mind from such unhelpful thoughts. In that context, the mistakes I make with the camera are actually a help rather than a hinderance, because frustrating as they can be, they’re not that important in the broader scheme of things, and they give me the opportunity to spend even more time doing what I enjoy: taking pictures, processing them, and presenting them to you.

Enjoy the frost, the wind and rain of the coming season, and be kind to yourself.