Thread: I'm no photographer.

"To a photographer, I'm no photographer..."

There's an old joke that goes something like this, "to my mom, I'm a singer, to my kids, I'm a singer, to a singer...I'M NO SINGER!"
To the point, I have two cameras currently, a Canon 1Ds Mkii, a Leica X1, In the past two years I've owned an Olympus E-P1, Sony-NEX5, NEXC3, NEX7, Fuji X100, X-PRO1 assorted Zeiss glass etc.
No, I'm no photographer. I am apparently a collector. Usually the things I'm drawn to are technology based. I have a basement half full of analog audio mixing consoles, a box full of really good, 200 lumen and up LED flashlights. Electric guitars and really nice boutique effects pedals. That being said, when it comes to capturing aurally or visually, I'm excited by the new, the smaller, the innovative. I strive to reproduce audio or pictures in a way that most closely removes the technology from the middle. When I listen to a recording over a really nice audio system, that system should disappear and you're left sitting there in a room with the performer (unless it's Tom Waits, in which case you'll probably want to have a bucket and mop on hand)
When we see what we envision as a great photo opportunity, you want not only to capture the light, but the emotional connection as well to share with others, to transport them, and place them in that moment. I'm no photographer, but I do like a good story and why waste the words?

I have 13 guitars but I'm not really a musician, certainly not a "working" one. Meanwhile I still manage to pop out some decent pictures sometimes, just as I get to hop on a stage somewhere with people once in a blue moon, and pretend.

Everyone is a photographer nowadays. It's like someone gets a camera and suddenly they are a pro. So many people in various groups I started out with are now 'photographers'. Not me, I am an avid hobbyist who likes to shoot a variety of things and collect old film cameras and if someone likes what I create [I will not refer to it as 'my work'] then I am elated to share and bring them some joy.

I know a few photographers. Real ones, I mean. That helps me to understand the difference. Those people bust their butts, and somehow manage to be consistent and efficient, while being artists. That's a rare skill set.

The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. The better a photographer you are, the more you appreciate how many far better photographers there are out there. My daughter has an artistic bent and is a damn fine musician, but she's no photographer. She and several other friends and relatives think I'm a great photographer. I always accept their thanks when they like a shot but if they start gushing I just tell 'em something along the lines of 'I'm OK, occasionally pretty good, but I know where I fit in the world of photographers and I'm FAR from being really good, let alone great'.

That said, I was a truly bad guitar player for many years in my late teens through maybe my mid-30s. I could play enough blues to fake my way through the occasional performance if I was sitting in with a good band (something I was lucky enough to experience several times). I had a few friend who thought I was hot sh!t, but I knew exactly where I stood. There were SO MANY INCREDIBLY good players out there in those days I wasn't even remotely on the radar of good, let alone really good, let alone great. On my best days I might rise to the level of semi-mediocre and could put some emotion across, but I never had any chops.

I'm a better photographer than I ever was a guitarist, but that's not saying much. But that's probably why I'm still at it with photography while my two remaining guitars hang on the wall and look at me forlornly. Hell, I don't even have callouses anymore so it hurts to play for more than a couple of minutes. I can take good enough photographs that I really enjoy the creative process and can look back at them with some level of satisfaction and enjoyment. I'm exactly THAT good, which is good enough, but not really all that good. I'd never make it as a pro...

-Ray

Photography is the only thing I persist at despite not being very good. And while I may get incrementally better over the years, I'm not too terribly concerned with it. I enjoy playing with cameras. And that's enough for me.

It's such an absolute joy being an amateur isn't it?

Even if you do happen to make money from it.

I'm retired. I like not having to go to work. I'm a hobbyist photographer. I like not having to please customers. I enjoy taking photographs, for myself, in my own time. I like life :-)

And the collector would say, "you're no collector, you're just a photographer!"