"'It's kind of lonely work,' he said, 'because you just have to keep your pole in the water. I always had a little routine of going into whatever room I was using at the time to write in, and just staying in there till I felt like I got a bite.
"I compare it to fishing: There's either a fish in the boat or there's not,' he said with a laugh. 'Sometimes you come home and you didn't catch anything and sometimes you caught a huge fish.'"
—Tom Petty, who died on Monday, quoted in "Tom Petty's final interview: There was supposed to have been so much more," by Randy Lewis, from the Los Angeles Times website
Compare to what I said about photography in the article "Key Thoughts and the Zen of Fishing," July 7, 2002. "The other thing I find really helpful is to constantly remember to discard my expectations. Photography is a bit like fishing. You can think and prepare all you want, but sometimes the fish bites and sometimes it doesn't. (Also like fishing, those who know what they're doing stand a much better chance of success than those who don't. But there's still that element of serendipity involved.) Those of us lucky enough to be shooting as amateurs, for ourselves, ought to remain aware of this. Many photographers force their work to conform to the ideas they had when they shot. But the reality is, some shots work and some shots don't, and which is which does not always have much to do with what you wanted to have happen."
I still love the fishing metaphor where photography is concerned. I'm not a "control everything" kind of photographer. And the key is, "you just have to keep your pole in the water," meaning, get out and about with a camera in your hand and turn your seeing on. Ralph Gibson said something like that to me in the '90s, during an interview. This is a paraphrase, not a quote, but he said something like every time I go out I know I'm going to get something. I'm just good enough at this point. I always come back with something.
Mike
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Jimmy Reina: "Re '"...Some shots work and some shots don't, and which is which does not always have much to do with what you wanted to have happen,' I have heard that, when asked how to make a good photograph, Robert Doisneau said, 'If I knew the answer to that, I would do it every time.'"