Consistency versus Greatness
Nobody builds a career or reputation on their best day
“Before the storm” The Serengeti’s Namiri Plains at dusk. I would never consider this to be a great image. It’s not a lion taking down a zebra or a blazing orange sky. But 40 to 50 meaningful, evocative image like this one during a ten-day trip to Tanzania is good work and time well spent.
“It’s not hard being great occasionally. It’s difficult to be good consistently.” - Richard Avedon
Most photographers have had at least one transcendent moment while in the field. The light went nuclear. Your subject offered you an unreal performance. Your instincts fired and you knew, before you even chimped the screen, that you captured magic. You drove home buzzing. You posted it on social media and people cheered and hit the like button. You felt like a photography god.
That moment is real.
Cherish it.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: that moment didn’t necessarily require much from you. The conditions conspired in your favor. You showed up, which matters, but the rest was largely handed to you. Almost anyone with enough time in the field and a decent eye will eventually produce something extraordinary. Greatness, in that sense, is a visitor. It unexpectedly shows up and then leaves.
Consistency is different. Consistency is a decision you make before you know how the day will go.
It means going out when the light is flat and creating something in spite of the less-than-ideal conditions. It means delivering strong work on deadline when you’re tired, when you’re uninspired, when nothing feels alive. It means developing a working method that doesn’t depend on the stars aligning. Richard Avedon (quoted above) spent decades shooting fashion and portraiture, on assignment, with clients breathing down his neck and art directors waiting on selects. He didn’t wait for inspiration or a lucky break.
So here’s the reframe that changed how I think about my own work:
Your floor matters more than your ceiling.
The photographer whose weakest work is consistently strong is trusted, hired, and respected more often than the one who produces occasional flashes of genius but falls short everywhere else. Nobody builds a career or reputation on their best day. They build it on their average day, repeated hundreds or thousands of times.
This means systems beat inspiration. If your best work only comes when you feel it, your effort will be inconsistent and so will your results. The photographers who last develop routines around how they see, how they approach a subject, how they edit, how they show up regardless of mood, conditions, or degree of inspiration. (I talk more about this in my War of Art podcast episode “Inspiration is for amateurs.”)
A moment of greatness is a compelling story to tell. It feels amazing. It will garner plenty of attention on social media and provide a powerful cover image for your website. But the harder, more meaningful achievement is something quieter and less glamorous.
Just being good. Every single day.
New Podcast Episode: Dr. Diane Boyd
This one is for all you wildlife and wolf lovers!
Dr. Diane Boyd is a world-renowned wildlife biologist who has spent four decades studying and advocating for wolves in the wilds of Montana near Glacier National Park. When she started in the 1970s, she was the only female biologist in the United States researching and radio-collaring wild wolves.
A Woman Among Wolves: My Journey Through Forty Years of Wolf Recovery, winner of a 2025 National Outdoor Book Award, is the captivating story of Diane Boyd’s work as a wildlife biologist studying wolves. Often alone in remote northern Montana, she encounters cougars, grizzly bears, and, of course, wolves.
Latest BTL Podcast Episodes (Links to Apple Podcasts)
As I mentioned, all links are to Apple Podcasts but you can search for Beyond The Lens with Richard Bernabe on Spotify or any other podcast app.
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Here’s to Truth, Adventure, and Passion
That’s good stuff! I agree that it’s often the subject alone that makes for our most popular images and other than knowing settings, we can’t take too much credit for that. Great interview with Dr Boyd! That story about Sage definitely brought tears to my eyes! What a survivor!
"Greatness, in that sense, is a visitor. It unexpectedly shows up and then leaves."