Think The Game

I played basketball my whole life. I started out when I was 5 years old. I learned the fundamentals of how to pass, how to shoot, how to dribble. I thought I was pretty good, especially against my competition growing up. Eventually I wanted to play against better competition, so I decided to play AAU summer basketball. I played against the best of the best guys, most guys on my team went to play for D1, D2 colleges, and even some of the guys I played against play in the NBA today. When I first started playing on my AAU team, I knew that I could compete but I really struggled starting out. It was my first time being on a team where I wasn’t the best player. I remember this like it was yesterday. My coach at the time knew I was struggling and he pulled me to the side, and he told me “Joe, don’t just play the game, think the game.”. When I heard that, I didn’t understand what he meant, but then it clicked for me. Basketball is a game, in order to be successful (especially against more talented players than you) against the best, you have to use more than just your skills, you have to use your brain as well. That was eye opening for me because I was trying to do everything that I did before when I was the best player on my school team. I had to adjust and be better, I had to actually think about what I was doing on the court to see success.

Now I was getting somewhere with this story LOL. I’ve tried to apply that same principle to my photography work today. Don’t just take pictures; think about what you’re shooting. If you want to grow, you have to find ways to get out of your comfort zone. My approach to photography is that I’m constantly thinking about how I can shoot this a different way, why I am lighting my photos like this, what my image means, and how I can take a better photo than I just took. You won’t take the perfect photo every time, but you have to learn from the mistakes to find your voice. Those are the best creatives to me— the ones with a voice, the ones whose work means something and is not just copying and pasting other people’s work. I challenge you to find your voice, think the game.