Ian Furniss Photography » Blog Archive

I’ve Got Talent!!

There are times in life when you wonder what’s around the corner, what lies ahead for you. You start out filled with hope, walk the path for a while, and then that nagging little fella on your shoulder starts whispering in your ear “Are you good enough?”, “Do you really have what it takes to make it?”. He’s a hard chap to shut up and by the end of the day he has you loking at everyone else who has made it a little further down the path, and he sits there telling you “They were just lucky!” – and by implication, you aren’t. Before you know it, your filled with jealousy and rage and your looking around at others saying “I could do that!” …but you aren’t.

I think we’ve all been there at one time or another, and certainly i’d be surprised if there was anyone who says they haven’t. Most of the time we can pick ourselves up, knock the devil off the shoulder and carry on, but sometimes his shouting is so loud we feel no option but to give up and walk away for a while. Now that’s not always a bad thing and I spent my formative years either playing music myself or being surrounded by others who were, and for the most part any time you gave up for a while, you’d always come back a lot stronger and a lot better. That’s the thing though, you have to make sure you do come back, and preferably stronger and better.

There are any number of reasons to give up on something and photography is no different but, “I’ve not been lucky and i’ve not had the breaks” shouldn’t be one of them. You make your own luck in the world and because of that it isn’t really luck at all. Someone once said ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’ and that holds true for whatever discipline you follow. To be succesful in something you have to work hard at it, and put in as much time and effort as you can manage .. and then a bit more. You can love what your doing, in fact you have to love what you’re doing, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. The rewards are there for those who make their own luck.

I’ve been travelling to Belgrade for a number of years now, usually two or three times a year, and each time I go I have the most blissful experience surrounded by the most wonderful city & people there is. Whenever I go, one of the first thoughts on my mind is to head down to Kalemegdan and then walk back up through Knez Mihailova. It’s a little ritual I look forward to for many reasons but not least amongst them are 3 young kids who sit and play the violin and accordion for the passers-by. They’ve been there for as long as I can remember, although how many years that is I don’t know, but this morning I got a wonderful notification from my Blackberry Facebook app. It was a post by Merkat Traveller stating that these kids had won the Serbian version of the ‘Talent’ shows “I’ve Got Talent”. I couldn’t wait to get back home and check it out and sure enough, they have! €100 000 and a lot of opportunities are heading their way now from what I can gather .. and all because of a lucky break!

A lucky break?! No. Those kids have worked their backsides off day & night for many a year to get that ‘lucky break’ and I was so happy for them this morning I was literally jumping for joy! It doesn’t matter what you do or where you want to go, if you believe in yourself and you’re prepared to work your backside off you’ll make your own luck. Practice your craft and then practice it some more, you never know what’s around the corner for you when you keep trying.

Congratulations Danijel, Darko & Sandra!!