I have a bad habit of ending any positive statement about something I’ve done with a negative statement. For example, if my boss or coworker tells me I did a good job with something I’ll likely say something like “thanks, but I should’ve done $something differently” instead of just saying “thanks!”. I always point out flaws or bad decisions that I’ve made. I do that because I think the person telling me something good can see the flaws or mistakes I’ve made.
This really translates over to photography and it’s something I’m keenly aware of and I’m actively trying to stop. I’ve been posting a lot of photos over on Facebook, instagram, etc and when someone does give positive feedback I simply say “thanks!”. I’ve posted pictures that I haven’t been super happy with and I just say thank you to the person who commented on it because who am I to tell them what *I* think the mistakes are? They don’t care! They simply like something that I made. It makes me pretty uncomfortable to post photos that I’m not happy with but the fact of the matter is those are some of my most liked pictures. This has really helped me be more forgiving of my mistakes and as a friend mentioned when I started pointing out things I wasn’t happy with, “I like that it’s not perfect”. That really resonated with me and has really helped me post more of my pictures and also not spend a ton of time editing and post processing. I find that I really enjoy street photography more than anything else and something that’s a common theme in the street photography genre is less is more, imperfections included.