One of the quotes from the tributes to Richie Benaud whose death was announced yesterday was him saying that "Captaincy is 90 per cent luck and 10 per cent skill. But don't try it without that 10 per cent."* It made me think whether it applies to other aspects of life, photography included. If you consider any of the acknowledged greats of photography, the number of shots they have taken comfortably exceeds those which are published and some of those will not actually be that good. The number of masterpieces produced, those which remain in the mind, is remarkably small as a percentage of overall output. In other words, for most of the time these photographers sucked. That's actually a comforting thought for us lesser mortals as we all, without exception, suck as well. It is only comparatively rarely that everything comes together and very often luck will play a role in that, however much planning has gone into a shot.
* I also enjoyed "Glenn McGrath dismissed for two, just ninety-eight runs short of his century." If you think about it, that also was skill on the part of the bowler no doubt combined with a slice of luck, which was unlucky for McGrath that it occurred when it did.
