Everyone's A Photographer

This is not my typical blog post :) but rather just some thinking aloud/in text...you know...blogging for the sake of blogging. Something I haven't done in a while despite the fact that topics constantly pop into my head that I want to put somewhere and can't due to lack of time or the fact that I completely forget by the time I'm sitting here actually BLOGGING. I'll admit...it's not terribly comfortably sharing my feelings on some things, but if I can't do it here, where can I?

This is about photography. I feel like talking about it is taboo or something, like I'm annoying people or speaking of something completely irrelevant, but it's become a huge part of my life....as big a part as say....my house, or my clothes or my contact lenses. You see, I do it every day. Not always for money...sometimes for fun...sometimes because it's necessary even, but if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about doing it (oh how my husband wish I were talking about something else right now!) It's like that old Canon ad where the man is embracing his wife and looking out at a beautiful sunset and thinking "F8 at 1/160"....yes, that's me. But you know what? (My grammar is terrible in this post, but it is 1am and I AM rambling brain waves.) It's not a bad thing. I see the world like I'm looking through a camera and wanting to capture it. I've been this way for a very long while...now I just have the means to do so.

I'm involved in many a group and forum geared towards photography. Some are incredibly supportive, some are a little harsher, some are local - others are not...but one theme that comes up ALL THE TIME is the vent about how 'everyone is a photographer' these days. Hand someone a DSLR and they'll probably set up a website and be charging money by morning - haha! True? Sorta. It happens. Do I care? Not so much. Firstly...I was that person. To a degree. If you look at it on paper, anyhow. I got my camera and literally less than 2 months later I took photos for someone. I didn't get PAID (oh thank goodness), but I did it. 5 or 6 months after I bought my camera, I had a facebook photography page...quickly followed by a meager price list and a website. I started "portfolio building' soon after. I wasn't terrible (I wasn't great either) but obviously there were people out there willing to buy my work and the same goes for pretty much any other photographer.  I can honestly say I've been on the receiving end of the heat that surrounds this topic. More established 'old school' photographers will lament how 10 years ago, you had to take out a loan to own decent equipment...there was no such thing as a MWAC (mom with a camera...it's practically a bad word for those who don't know.) So of course now the market is flooded, people aren't charging enough, or charging too much for mediocre work and compromising the industry....yack yack yack, yada yada yada. I'm not saying it's not true...I'm here to say I DON'T CARE and maybe even SUCK IT UP because I'm just tired of hearing about it. Does it affect MY business...um, yeah sure it does...but I guess I have this naive theory that if I'm great at what I do, and people catch of a whiff of my charming personality to boot, then it won't matter what anyone else is shooting.

I was sitting here thinking just a little while ago...as a local group rattled off about all their favorite photographers...I don't have any. Ok, that's not true. I have friends whose work I look up to, whose images and advice has been my guidepost....but that is not what these photographers were discussing. They were talking about various photographers whose work they stalk, can't get enough of, wish to replicate. Maybe it's pure laziness, or maybe I just don't care to waste my time on that. I look at people's work, I enjoy it or I don't...I move on. I do my own thing. If I can learn something from it, I stay a little longer. I don't want to BE anyone, I just want to take pictures....and I want to do it my way.  Is that so bad? Am I terrible because I haven't read every book known to man on photography and lighting and studio setups....that I have no interest in strobes or softboxes (not that I never will....but possibly) I like to figure things out on my own. I learn by doing...by making really stupid mistakes and figuring out how not to do that again. I pick up tips where I can, but if I sat around all day reading these tutorials and books and whatnot...when would I have time to DO? Is it terrible that I have blinders on where my business is concerned? I don't know, I really don't...but if there's something to be said for going on instinct, I think I've got that covered.

I might be in business for 5 minutes, or I might just do this as a job the rest of my life....who knows, but I do know that if you constantly worry about what others are doing...what time does that leave you to get better? To work things out for yourself? I love taking pictures...I love my silly little business name. I love that pictures MEAN something to me more than a paycheck and that even if I take down my shingle, I'm still going to be that annoying woman with the camera for the rest of my life. I love my photography and though I will never be perfect at it, I love the challenge enough to keep trying because when you love something, you nourish it...you don't beat it down with ugly sticks just because you aren't the industry standard (or maybe you're the NEW HATED industry standard....) 

And that's how I see it.  (yes, I've been watching too much Glee.)

Brain ramble done.