Today, I want to talk about something I think affects photographers a lot more than we realize: FOMO, the fear of missing out. And honestly, I think FOMO is one of the biggest reasons why photographers miss great shots. It sounds a little strange, right? But it usually comes down to this idea that we want to get everything. We see something beautiful over here, something interesting over there. "I've got to shoot both. I want it all." And most of the time, that's how you end up getting nothing. Let me give you an example. In July, I was in Botswana on a safari with an amazing guide, Bogosi from Moonlight Safaris. It was our first day out and about 30 minutes before sunset, we pulled up alongside a river. The sky was looking spectacular, but that wasn't actually why we stopped. We stopped because there was a herd of elephants making their way down toward the river. And just then, Bogosi gestures behind me, pointing at the sunset. So I turn around and he was right. It was one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. The sun was low on the horizon, that perfectly round ball of fire in a sea of orange. It was gorgeous. But here's the thing: it was a sunset. There wasn't anything in front of it—no animal, no interesting foreground, no dramatic silhouette—just a big ball of fire. So I took one picture and I remember thinking, "Okay, it's a sunset. I've seen sunsets before." And I turned back to the elephants. That was something I hadn't seen before.
And that's when things got really interesting. The light started hitting the elephants just beautifully. The water was bouncing the golden light upwards towards the elephants. They were in the water and there was a bit of a reflection. And all these little pieces started to come together to make a photograph. And this is where I think FOMO gets photographers in trouble. Because you look at the sunset and you think, "Wait, maybe I should be photographing that too."
So now you're trying to photograph the sunset and the elephants, going back and forth, back and forth. And most of the time that's a mistake because the elephants are on the move. And although they're not moving very fast, they're constantly changing. And you're waiting for that one moment where everything lines up—where the light is right, the elephant is in the right position, and the reflection looks great, the background is clean, nothing is overlapping in a weird way, and then, click. That's the photograph you're looking for. But if you're constantly turning around and thinking, "Oh, I should get the sunset," and then, "Oh, now I need the elephants. Wait, what's happening with the sunset?" you're splitting your attention, and photography doesn't really reward that. In fact, there's another problem that makes this even worse: the settings you're using for the sunset aren't going to be the same ones you want to use for the elephants.
The elephants are front lit by the sunset, so the exposure is totally different from the actual sunset. You can't just keep bouncing back and forth and expect to nail both. By committing to one or the other, it is much more likely that you will get a shot. And that's really the lesson I took away from that evening. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a photographer is to decide what you are not going to photograph, because FOMO makes you greedy. And when you try to photograph everything, you often end up photographing nothing particularly well. So when you find yourself in one of those situations—there's a sunset, there's an animal, there's a landscape, there's something happening over here and something happening over there—stop for a second. Look at the opportunities, pick one, and then give it everything you've got. Because sometimes the photograph you get isn't the photograph you were afraid of missing. It's the photograph you were actually paying attention to. I hope that was helpful. Until next time, keep on shooting. And join me on a safari next year. Go to BoundlessPhotoSafari.com.
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