I'm a photographer...

I said to the shirtless farmer as I asked permission to take pictures in his pasture. That's a powerful statement really. Much more powerful than "I like photography" or "I do photography in my free time." But what does it really mean? I don't get paid to take pictures. I don't have a gallery. So far nobody has bought anything of mine. Heck, I haven't even taken a photography class since high school. So what, if anything, separates me from the millions of other people snapping away with their cameras?

Well, first I would point out that it's fairly rare for a landscape photographer to not have been something else first. Usually, they are accountants or computer programmers who caught the bug and finally decided to do it as a career. Who knows, maybe someday it will be me, or more likely I'll keep my day job but get more serious about making some money doing it.

In all honesty though, I'm not sure how much I want to try to do it as a career. I mainly would want that in order to share my photographs with more people and make enough money to justify buying nice equipment!

So what makes me a photographer? First and foremost it's love of it. Many people are in love with it, but aren't willing to commit themselves to furthering their art. Time will tell if it's me, but I'm certainly more committed than many. Second, it's paying attention. Studying to make myself better, watching the work of the most talented masters to learn from them, and being cognizant about improving my skill. Third, it's talent. That's a bit egotistical, but it's true. It's also scary, because if you want to be a master, you don't want to think that maybe your destiny is outside of your control (ie - you don't have what it takes).

When I originally started this post, my thinking was that I would differentiate how I am a photographer, but not a musician, even though I have thought of myself as a musician for a long time, but don't have the self confidence to call myself that. It had been years since I played my guitar with any regularity. My recording studio was gathering dust, and I wasn't all that interested in keeping abreast of the latest and greatest musicians. But that's changeds in the last few weeks. I've really enjoyed recording again, and hopefully I'll be able to motivate myself to practice and study to reveal the musician that I know is inside. I don't know if time will permit me to master two such hobbies, but I certainly won't regret trying.

Not too much has been happening. I cut my lip pretty good playing basketball the other day and it looks pretty ugly with 7 stitches. I've been keeping pretty busy between spending time with Kat, looking for a career move, and finally getting back into my hobbies. I'll get another crack and Yosemite in the coming weeks, and hopefully I'll learn some lessons. I'm also thinking about taking my photography to the next level with large format photography, where picture is from a piece of film 5-10 inches tall. It costs more to develop, proably $6 per picture, but you don't take as many shots, and you can blow them up to wall size.

In the meantime, here's a shot from the farmer's field.