Comedy
Hey, I don't know who needs to hear this but just because you have a camera and like photography, you don't ever have to go pro no matter how many times your friends tell you. Look, your reasons are your own. I certainly have mine, and chiefly among them is that I love photography and don't ever want to put myself in a position where I hate it. One of the reasons I like talking about several different platforms that I'm interested in is that I don't spend all of my time on just one. I can work or play in the photography space for a little while, and when I get to a natural stopping point with a project, I can move to writing, podcasting, or anything else. Now, would I love to have this effort at new media become a full-time business? Yes, I would. I would also like to hire or contract people who are better at photography than I am. I would also like to know some people manage to squeeze 27 hours' worth of work into a 24 hour day. I'm not very good at time management. If I were, I wouldn't have to take so many breaks in podcasting, would I? I think a pro needs to be mindful of deadlines, both personal and professional, and perform against them. I used to think that my photos don't cut the mustard, but when I've had people buy photos from me, it's hard to keep believing that. I think I'm good enough to be paid for what I do; I still think I have a long way to go before calling myself a professional photographer and being comfortable with it. I don't know if you can call that a true case of impostor syndrome, but I like to think it's keeping myself humble. I'm good. Not sure I'm good enough.I know what I don't want to do with my photography, I can tell you that for sure. I do not want to do marriage or portrait photography, where I have to work closely with people. I like street photography and a slice of life photography as an art form, and I've found myself gravitating towards taking pictures of life by the ocean as a theme. I want to continue doing that and finding my style that way. I suppose that I will have to take pictures of willing subjects as part of that style at some point. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. All in all, I would love to stay in love with photography, as I remain in love with the other things I do because I get to do them all and do them how and when I want. Yes, I'd love to make money doing it, but I'm having fun being able to practice all my craft until then.