What makes photographer a photographer? Is it technique, knowing anything and everything about lightning and composition? Knowing all the ins and outs of its camera? Or, is it just owning a camera and use it?
Me personally, I don’t consider myself, nor would I even dare to call myself a photographer. Not even a photography enthusiast, I am just a fan. I am a fan of photography itself and, of course of many photographers that in one way or another, inspire me.
I have been a fan since my early years of college, actually, even before then taking random pictures of my friends in school with one of those disposable cameras. Then on my first or second year of college was when I got my first point-and-shoot digital camera. I don’t even remember the brand but I do remember it was 5 Megapixels and that was the shit LOL. Then I remember getting some Olympus one and those were the good years. I say that because it was now my 3rd or 4th year and I was attending this environmental sciences class and we were doing field trips all the time. The photos I got to take during that time in Puerto Rico, before moving to the States, were so amazing (to me). Yes, they probably weren’t the most crips or high-end pictures ever taken but they were pure and of course, no editing whatsoever back then. I need to find them, there are probably stored in some CD. Remember CDs? I was also very obsessed with sunsets in my hometown. I recall one picture that apparently I, by accident, caught a UFO in the sky. That picture mad eme famous for a week in one of the local UFO forums in the Island 😅
Long-story-short, After moving to Idaho my thing for taking pictures fizzled a little. It was a very different environment for me and I lost my eye as it were. Then I picked up again using my smartphone and when Marley was about to be born, it’s when I had decided to get a better camera than my phone, this was back in 2016 mind you. It was then when I started to be a fan again. Found new things to take pictures of, new ways to see my new world here in Idaho.
Just the way I blog, I have very little to no technique, I think. When I write or take a picture, I do it for the fun of it. That doesn’t mean I don’t put some effort into it and or that I don’t look into learning more of or care. But I am also aware that I can’t call myself a pro on either field and that is fine. What I can say, is that both things give great satisfaction, doing them, moreover practicing, and I am having the time of my life.
