Tracey has a post here about how we should feel good enough to call ourselves photographers. “Good enough” is quite the phrase, isn’t it? Do we ever feel good enough to bury all that self doubt? The doubt that plagues us and allows us to hide away under the guise that we have failed at perfection. Do we ever expect to achieve that, realistically? What holds us back?
I do not call myself a photographer in a professional sense. I would call myself a hobbyist, my children’s personal paparazzi and insane documenter of their lives. I go through my life taking so many photographs, trying to perfect my exposures, watch the lighting, learn my camera’s little hiccups and learn how to properly process them as a professional would. I strive to achieve professional quality photographs, but yet do not feel I could take that title. I do not make a living at this hobby of mine, so can I be called a photographer?
I do not call myself a designer in the professional sense. I would call myself my daughter’s personal seamstress and dressmaker extraordinaire. I can take a few pieces of fabric, some notions and ribbon, and envision how it would look as the creation in my mind’s eye. I can make it a reality, but still perhaps not perfect. It could always be better. With 20 years of experience do I call myself a designer?
No, it is not what I “do”.
I am a CPA, so I call myself an accountant. That title is not what I love, but rather what pays my bills and what I have been successful at performing. In that, I am a professional.
Do you have to be a professional in your area of love in order to claim that title? Can you just “be” it, regardless of your skill level and payment received. I have taken a walk through websites of photographer’s in my area and can’t believe that they are charging people. Why is it that I do not think I have the skills to call myself a photographer and these individuals are so comfortable with it? I have also looked at custom clothing designers and say, “I can do that, too”…even, perhaps, better.
But, yet…I do not want to be a professional photographer or designer, at least not at this point in my life. I want to enjoy my hobbies with no pressure to produce, to create on my own terms and timetable. I am not setting limits on myself or my dreams, but rather living my life as I want…having a good job with time to engage in my enjoyments. I am content with that.
There is no title that I claim for myself. At least not yet.
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards:
they try to have more things, or more money,
in order to do more of what they want so they will be happier.
The way it actually works is the reverse.
You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do,
in order to have what you want.
~ Margaret Young ~
You said it just how I wanted to say it. I don’t call myself a photographer because it’s not my profession. I don’t do it for a living, although I think I am better than some who do.
stacy –
i’ve also looked at a lot of “professional” photog websites (i design websites) and YOU and your photos are WAY more professional than a lot of the so-called “professionals” can ever hope to be. someday i think if you wanted to hang a sign out and call yourself a professional, you could seriously make a good living at it.
just my 2 cents worth. 🙂
Alissa, I hear ya on that…and agree.
Carrie, thanks so much for the praise. 🙂 Sometimes I get a big head about my photography and then go to the websites of GOOD photographers and my little ego shrinks like a raison. I still have a ways to go, but I am enjoying the journey.