Learning Through Failure
I need to tell you my story of failure. I have been to Japan many times. Over this last summer I had planned several photography expeditions on our family trip to Japan. We would spend some time in Tokyo meeting with friends and family, and then have some dedicated small time with my wife, kids and I on the shores of Kamogawa. This would be chance to have some excellent sushi being Kamogawa is a fishing port, stay at a nice hotel, visit Kamogawa Seaworld, go to a festival on the beach, and finish the night with fireworks. I was going to take a couple of photography expeditions during this time to document life in this seaside town on the coast of Japan. Of course life doesn’t always go as planned.
The Plan
So I HAD a plan (past tense). The idea was to make do three photography project. Those would be the the fishing port of Kamogawa, the festival with all the people and food stalls, and the fireworks on the beach. I of course would match this with video taken with my new DJI Pocket 3. I would match the video from the DJI Pocket 3 with binaural audio of the location and photos to go along. These three are the basic building blocks of my on location street photography videos. The fishing port, festival, and fireworks were all happening on the same day. When I went to check on the video files the next morning none were present on the micro SD card from the Pocket 3.
What Went Wrong
Right before we left to go to Japan DJI had a firmware update for the Pocket 3. Several features were added including one I did not compensate for in my workflow. That feature is for people who buy small video cards and need to delete failed videos immediately. There are two main ways to stop recording on the device itself. One is to press the record button once and the other is to press and hold the record button. The press and hold feature immediately deletes the last recorded video. I don’t by small memory cards and always dump the contents of the cards to the Mac and a backup drive at the end of the day. The DJI pocket 3 was carried with a neck mount and the DJI Go-Pro mount case. This mounting style puts the record button and screen on the outside. Because I could not see the button or screen in all three videos I did the press and hold. Poof, all my videos were gone.
The Analysis of Failure
So were did I go wrong? A few things came to mind:
I did not test the new firmware on the DJI Pocket 3.
I was waiting on another product that would completely change the workflow in audio to video syncing.
With the delay of the product I did not test the workflow of the neck mount more than just casually at home. I have since come up with a much more compact mount option that has the screen and record button facing back to me.
That product is from Deity Microphones and is called the PR-2. It had been in delayed almost a year in release and of course was released the day we got the plane to travel to Japan. That product was the option to solve my syncing of recorded binaural audio with the video. All my street photography video sessions use binaural audio. I’ll write more binaural audio and how I solved syncing issue with timecode in my next blog.
Disappointment and Progress
Was I mad about this? Well on that day it was hard not to be a bit depressed. In the end though I did not let it discourage me. Let me explain.
David Bowie once said:
"If you feel safe in the area you are working in, you are not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water that you feel you are capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting."
What Does That Mean?
Bowie has a serious point here for artist. If you are staying safe in what you know and try you are standing still. The artistic process is about expanding yourself and challenging what you know. When you step outside of your safety zone the world expands its creativity for you. You will learn by taking risks. You will strengthen your creative base getting outside of your comfort zone.
Why Failure For Photographers Is Part Of The Process
In photography and in this case videography it simple means you will fail. If you push outside of your knowledge and experience base you are not on steady ground. You risk failure. You invite failure. An yes, sometimes you will fail. You will get up early, go to that planned location or shot, and just blow it. But if you did not take the risk, would you have learned the same lesson? Sometimes we spend all our time planning and studying in an effort to avoid failure. Sometimes though it still fails. You will sometimes come back from that expedition with something that just is not up to par. A disappointment that you just can’t avoid.
Enjoy The Pain
I once had a jazz instructor tell me about practice “enjoy the pain”. Failures are part of the process. The pain is real, but you should learn to enjoy it. You need to challenge where you are. You need to go into the water just above your head. Then step out of the water and learn. What did you encounter? What challenged your belief? What in the workflow failed? Putting these pieces together is the journey to success. In our words “Failure is Good”.