Lindsey Ross is a conceptual, fine art photographer who likes to do things the hard way.

While most of us are enjoying the convenience, speed, and ease of modern living, Ross is lugging around a 250lb vintage camera and gallons of chemicals in the extended bed of her pickup truck.

Ross shoots gorgeous monochromatic images via a somewhat forgotten process known as wet plate collodion.

Her website notes:

“She became interested in the wet plate collodion process when she viewed a collection of early 20th-century prisoner mug shots. Ross began working with wet plate collodion in 2010. The wet plate collodion process has become the ideal format for Ross, who seeks autonomy and at the same time a sense of connection. Ross finds freedom in taking raw materials and transforming those into photographs. The slow pace of collodion requires a presence and intimacy that connects her to both the physical and spiritual world.”

According to Ross, wet plate was the reigning photographic process from 1850 until about the 1890s. It’s how we photographed the civil war and how Yosemite and Yellowstone were first photographed and brought back to Congress, which made them national parks.

Filmmaker Andrew Schoneberger produced a brief, fascinating documentary about Ross and her vintage photography titled “Lindsey Ross: A Less Convenient Path.”

So why would anyone want to lug around unwieldy, inconvenient cameras and gallons of chemicals?

The hard days are what make you stronger

Purpose and meaning in our lives seldom come from convenience. More often they come from hard work, effort, and accomplishment.

A day spent on the couch watching TV or scrolling YouTube videos might be convenient and relaxing, but you won’t walk away feeling like you’ve accomplished something.

“You have to remember that the hard days are what make you stronger. The bad days make you realize what a good day is. If you never had any bad days, you would never have that sense of accomplishment!” — Aly Raisman

Not that downtime is bad, but life today increasingly seems to be about the path of least resistance.

Conveniences like TV remotes, Alexa audio commands, robot vacuum cleaners, and DoorDash deliveries all reinforce our sedentariness.

The convenience of smartphones and texting often replace real, person-to-person conversations. Social media and fear of missing out can prevent us from making things and accomplishing goals.

Passive living has become pervasive, along with obesity and a growing sense of mediocrity. It’s like we know all these conveniences must be enjoyed in moderation, but we can’t pull ourselves away.

If you’ve succumbed to today’s conveniences at the expense of new accomplishments and personal growth, don’t feel bad. It’s easy and natural to embrace the path of least resistance, and I’ve certainly fallen victim at times.

But if you want to achieve your goals and chase your dreams, try to identify the conveniences that are hindering you. For me, it’s less zoning out on YouTube videos and more time painting, writing, and photographing.

A less convenient path

It helps if you have a passion that excites and motivates you.

Lindsey Ross fell in love with wet plate collodion photography while completing her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

Ross lives in her cluttered photography studio and trudges all of her heavy equipment to inspiring locales like Yosemite National Park. She can only afford to produce one, large image during an outing, and sometimes the image doesn’t work out.

Ross accepts these hardships and difficulties as the cost she must pay for her art and passion. She must intuitively know that hardships and difficulties strengthen us, like exercising a muscle. They also move her art forward.

In the documentary, Ross states:

“Convenience is the route that we’re all told to choose in life, and it’s what society is guiding us towards, and it’s what commercialism is trying to sell us. But it all leads to typically the same place. And I don’t want to go to the same place. And I don’t want to go to the same place in the same way.”

Look around the Internet and social media and you’ll see a lot of similarities. Everyone is using the same stock photos for their blog posts. People are copying one another, writing about the same themes. All because it’s convenient.

Ross notes in the documentary:

“When I think of original experiences and friendships that I’ve made, they’ve usually been born out of some type of inconvenience or some type of struggle, so I have typically chosen a less convenient path.”

You learn the most through the hard things

How about you? Are you stuck on a convenient path?

There’s no shame.

I think a lot of us have become a bit too comfortable with today’s conveniences, at the expense of doing the hard things that move us forward.

“It hasn’t always been easy. There’s a lot of hard moments. Sometimes you learn from the end of the bench. Sometimes you learn from injuries. Sometimes you learn the most through the hard things. If you can keep a good attitude and keep on working, eventually situations change, and you can put those things to use.” — Kyle Korver

There are plenty of smart people like James Clear, author of the best-selling book “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits,” who can help you sidestep conveniences in favor of accomplishment.

But in the end, your desire to change must be stronger than your resistance.

Just remember, if an inspiring person like Lindsey Ross can haul a 250lb vintage camera and gallons of chemicals around in search of classic photos, perhaps the rest of us can get off the couch and chase down our own dreams.

Before you go

I’m John P. Weiss. I write elegant essays about life, shoot artful photos, draw whimsical cartoons, and paint moody landscapes. To follow along, check out The Saturday Letter here.