Here's what I learned

about the crazy world of photography:

There are eggshell tender feelings out there with photogs. I see these words all the time " Be kind when you judge my photograph", I simply don't understand the concept of that. Buy a crib and sleep in it if you want to be coddled. Seriously.

Some people hog space for the day's assignment. Yes, Harold, you posted a picture for today but honestly, 20 is overkill.

A question I am asked regularly, "What kind of camera do you have?" It's not the camera, it's the perception of the eye behind it.

It's a very egotistical field. Egos are inflated to bursting point. Actors have nothing on photographers. Mind you, writers beat shutterbugs but not by much. ;-)

I shoot for the layman's enjoyment not the professional's opinion.

Be brutal. Take the picture but delete right away if it's no good. As much as you think you've taken the next best picture ever, you really haven't. Get over it. I delete much more than I keep. Look at your work with a critical eye. Don't be shy, it gets easier the more you do it.

We all get ideas from looking at other photographers's works. Here's the key word, 'ideas'. Incorporate it into your own works but for pity's sake, don't copy cat. Most of us recognize it and honestly, you lose strength to your photographs.

I have never been a very competitive soul, it doesn't 'push' me to do better. In anything. And photography is in the same mix. I only follow a select few sites, a few favorite people who's works I admire. ( Erica & Don )  The competitiveness of it will kill my desire, my originality, my ideas, my very enjoyment of it.

The comments that matter the most are those of my family. They rarely react to my photographs so when I hear an intake of breath, or an 'Oh wow, Mom!' it is what gives me the deepest satisfaction. It is my husband's insistence on downloading the pictures I've shot the minute I step foot through the door. I might not hear ooohs and ahhhs from him but that's not what I need. That simple request is all it takes. This is what stokes me at the highest level. It's what pushes me to challenge myself beyond my comfort level. And take it from me, the technical aspects to photography is like calculus and fractions, bloody daunting.

I have oh so much more to learn and at times I question my ability to do it. Especially when I delete a day's worth of .. crap. And believe me, I can shoot crap. I'll walk away from my camera for a while but  I'll start to miss it and my fingers will itch to pick it up.

I don't have Photoshop to work with or a wide angle lens, nor a crackerjack macro lens for that matter. I lust for them but I refuse to put the money towards it. I take pictures for pleasure, maybe if I made a living from it but I can't justify the cost based on pleasure alone. ( upwards of 4 grand for those.) I sigh over photographs tweaked by Photoshop, photographs taken with those two lenses. How I wish... but I can't so I try to do the best with what I have.

And that's some of the things I've learned/observed about photography.