You’re a photographer and a blogger?

If you take pictures with your camera, you’re a photographer.  If you write a blog post, you’re a blogger.  It’s a mantra, yes, it is, and…

Yep, you are!

You’re a photographer, and you’re a blogger.

That’s what I tell myself to keep motivated.  Sure, there are many people who recognize the hobby factor in my work, and there are those who I’d like to think to say, “I wanna do that too.”  But, it is most important that I think I am otherwise, I’d be saying to myself every day…”What the HELL are you doing SHELLey?”

Are you good at any of it?  That’s up to you, and your viewing audience or your reading audience.

It’s really that simple.

But it can be really complicated, too, and it can be messy.

If you’re lucky, and you invest a lot of time, energy, and money into whatever it is you choose to do, you can make a career out of doing what you love.  Or so they say.

Do I do that?  Nope…

Why?  Because I have a job already.  And because I’m a novice and I’m learning, aka, still growing.

Both photography and blogger are really overpopulated with people trying to become one or the other or both, and it isn’t easy to break through the noise and become noticed.

But I do have something in common with famous photographers and bloggers.  Even with all of us reaching for similar things, each in our own way.  I do have something in common with them.  YES, I DO!

Yeah? What’s that?

I appreciate art in all forms.

That makes me an Esthete.  Holy crap…never heard of the word before but found a way to use it to join in with other bloggers who use word prompts – to be part of a community of like-minded individuals who are bloggers.

Doing so keeps the blogging world from being lonely.

For me though, I’d fall into the classification of a simple esthete.  I don’t have tons of time or money to devote to being a professional photographer or blogger and it shows in my novice approaches.

Am I okay with that?

Mostly…yes, I’d say, I’m mostly satisfied with it.  Because I’m in it for the fun.  I have fun, yes I do.

I play with my camera…A LOT, whenever I get a chance to.  Yesterday, I was trying to catch a really important shot for a friend and discovered my SD card was FULL.  All 16 GB of it.  So I missed the shot.  Dammit, apparently, I do take a lot of photos on my own.

But I’m shy, I don’t get paid to do photos for anyone (like professional photographers do), it is mostly just me playing around in the shadows or finding time to step out my front door and head to my backyard.  I take so many photos that no one ever sees.

I also like to document historical happenings – important stuff like our meals or projects the Mr. cooks up.  More on those in a different post – I wouldn’t want to spill all my tricks of the trade in one post.  All sorts of photos are important when someone like myself has limited time and resources at my fingertips.

Okay…just one photo, because…it was fricken (chicken) delicious and so attractive in the afternoon lighting…

The more I play, the more I (you) learn and grow.  That’s the trick, really it is.  It’s a simple way to grow.

Pick one or two topics, play and let your creativity run loose.

When you do that, you learn what works and what doesn’t.  It forces you to look at things in multiple ways.  The more ways the better.  Because that helps you grow.

You learn to appreciate the things you normally look down on that look up at you in admiration, even when they are focused on something else at the time.

Use topics that are readily available to you.

Even simple acts of every day sniffing around are intriguing in photos.

You’ll learn to be okay with missing the shot.  That happens a lot the more you put yourself out there to play in the big world.

You learn to appreciate the weird effects of your subject’s movement and how that can be cute or abstract or both.

You learn to appreciate rays of sunlight on weeds.  The tiny details in life that we normally stomp over or around can be interesting in a photo.  Blur out the obstacles or ugly thoughts.  Focus on what is right in front of you.

You learn to appreciate something that has lost its life, but still has beauty and potential left in it.

You learn to appreciate different angles as you weave the thoughts and the ideas around in your mind as you play.

You learn to appreciate your ability to persevere in the unknown of what you might just become…someday…

and someday…is always today!

You learn to smile at your own efforts…someday, somehow, you’ll realize you’re noticed more than you know you are.  If not by someone else, you always notice yourself in your efforts, and you’re okay with that.

And you learn to know when it is time to clean the mirrors (lens), put the camera away and give it a try another day.

#31SRW Photography Challenge Day 22:  Photographer – (read challenge rules here).  Post prompts joined today:  Word of the Day: Esthete;  Nancy Merrill’s: A Photo from Above; One Daily Prompt: Classification and Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge.

PS – Are you an esthete photographer and blogger?  Share your link so I can learn from you.  What is your favorite topic to photograph?  What sparks your writing each day?