Are YOU a photographer?

[underlord]

I was about to post the following image in W/NW Boats but remembered a significant moment. I'm 64 but have used cameras since my teens. I never thought of myself as a photographer. That moment came as 'recently' as 2012. On sharing this image a friend of mine made a comment to the effect of 'You're a photographer' it hadn't dawned on me before. I just made pictures. I suppose I was being coy but I really didn't consider myself a photographer until that comment.
So does anyone here have a single image that made you realise 'I'm an actual photographer'?
This is mine, now show me yours.

End To End by Philip McAllister, on Flickr

 

[p.giannakis]

I had to think a bit about this. Going back to the slide shows in my garden in the 90s - when my friends (who had no interest in photography but enjoyed watching the slides from my summer holidays) agreed (at the age of 15) that I was a real photographer for taking this picture.

 

[AveryWagg]

Interesting topic. The picture that I enjoy and has helped move me into the 'photographer' role was this one. The printed version is now my the living room wall..

 

[Darthfeeble]

"A rose by any name......" If you feel the title fits you should wear it. I've been trying to figure out that question for nearly 50 years. I've felt that unless I make a living taking pictures I'm not qualified for the title. Still, there are several shots I feel pretty darn proud of, I don't take pictures for sale, just for satisfaction. This is one of my most satisfying.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

This is one of my 'Yeah, I'm a photographer' shots. A lot of my feelings about this is because of the circumstances it was taken under.

 

[chuckroast]

I was about to post the following image in W/NW Boats but remembered a significant moment. I'm 64 but have used cameras since my teens. I never thought of myself as a photographer. That moment came as 'recently' as 2012. On sharing this image a friend of mine made a comment to the effect of 'You're a photographer' it hadn't dawned on me before. I just made pictures. I suppose I was being coy but I really didn't consider myself a photographer until that comment.
So does anyone here have a single image that made you realise 'I'm an actual photographer'?
This is mine, now show me yours.

End To End by Philip McAllister, on Flickr

If you take pictures, you're a photographer. Whether you are a good one or not is a different discussion. That picture is superb. Pretty strong evidence that you are a fine photographer.

 

[chuckroast]

I was but a callow youth in 1971 right after I got my first SLR (but not first camera), a shiny new Nikon F Apollo FTn:

 

[peterm1]

My life in photography is spent in perpetual pursuit of beauty. (Admittedly, most times I fail - or perhaps, if lucky, I partially succeed - but mostly am still dissatisfied.)

I suppose that makes me an artist - photographer - or more correctly, a wannabe artist - photographer. Many other photographers see themselves as documentarists or rapporteurs. I seldom make an image of something just because I want to report or document it. Or because I think it is "significant" in some sociological way. I am certainly no Capa or Salgardo. Mostly, I make an image because I see something in it, that if I am successful, I know it will move me and hopefully do the same for others who might view it.

As John Keats said:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

It is an almost impossible task therefore, for me to pick one photo, but I suppose if I had to, the following is as good as any. Shot thru the window of tea room in Melbourne (reflections and all) it reminds me a tiny bit of the work of Saul Leiter. And that is enough for me.

 

[Bill Blackwell]

Northern California coast - July 2012 - Canon 5D MkII, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L

When I saw this thread title I immediately thought of this image (and a just few others). Once in a while - in a moment - a scene catches my eye and I turn toward it, raise my camera, and snap it into a photograph. It's those rare times that I realize I'm a photographer - just in that moment.

 

[underlord]

Interesting topic. The picture that I enjoy and has helped move me into the 'photographer' role was this one. The printed version is now my the living room wall..

View attachment 4879926

Excellent. Success to me is having an image of mine put up on the wall at home. Although, my wife some years ago, picked out one of mine for printing and hanging. I was flattered. Up until I was informed that said picture had the 'right colours' to go with the soft furnishings in the room.

 

[underlord]

If you take pictures, you're a photographer. Whether you are a good one or not is a different discussion. That picture is superb. Pretty strong evidence that you are a fine photographer.

Thank you kindly, although I wasn't fishing. Just genuinely interested if there was one image that changed how you thought of yourself. Prior to the Venetian boats I just took pictures.

 

[underlord]

It takes nothing away from my original point but I just realised my gondola photo was 2007 not 2012. I've been a 'photographer' for longer than I thought! 😀

 

[Ko.Fe.]

If you make single picture it doesn't make you photog.
If you are into it, people will ask you if you are photog 🙂

 

[Dogman]

Once they realize you're a photographer, they'll ask you to photograph their wedding.


............................

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Once they realize you're a photographer, they'll ask you to photograph their wedding.


............................

Happened to me while I was taking pictures at autumn fair. I was with two DSLRs and big lenses attached.

Changing to Leica and zooming by legs helped to avoid misunderstandings next time.

But local press already knew and kept asking for photos from events.

Changed to BW film, prints. No more requests were placed.

 

[chuckroast]

Thank you kindly, although I wasn't fishing. Just genuinely interested if there was one image that changed how you thought of yourself. Prior to the Venetian boats I just took pictures.

It's worth noting that art is done for its own sake and done solely for the benefit of the artist. If you like it, then that's all that matters. Sure, we want input from others to improve our craft, and love to share our work as you have done here. But, in the end, you and you alone have to be persuaded that the work is good.

And, yeah, that's a wonderful picture.

 

[santino]

Once they realize you're a photographer, they'll ask you to photograph their wedding.


............................

Wow, so I‘m a photographer too!

 

[chuckroast]

Once they realize you're a photographer, they'll ask you to photograph their wedding.


............................

<PTSD Engaged>

I was fortunate to get an onramp to photography by working as a PA and lab rat in my teens working for the local "professional". Looking back at that, it taught me several things:

• I never wanted to be a professional photographer - that is, someone whose livelihood depended on photography
• You do your best work working for yourself
• Good photographers know how to build and improvise things from sets to darkroom layouts to equipment augmentation
• People at weddings often are a pain in the <Biblical beast of burden>
• If someone is in any way unattractive, too thin, too large, or otherwise not perfect, they will always blame the person who took their picture
• Not everyone who claims to be a "professional" is actually good at it
• Beware of your employers. (The guy I worked for ended up in jail for life for doing evil things to kids, though never me.)

 

[chuckroast]

The bigger your camera, the more they think you know what you're doing.

I was photographing a castle in Southern Germany back in the 1990s with a Hasselblad on a tripod, and a German family of tourists shooed away their kiddos because they didn't want them interfering with der Professional.

Similarly, I had a bunch of tourists get off a bus on the top rim of BryceCanyon National Park while I was shooting with a Wisner field camera. Again, these were German folks who were fascinated to look at the ground glass and examine the camera.

Maybe it's just Germans, but I don't think so.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I don't get out of the city much now so don't get the opportunity to shoot landscapes. I took this shot while on one of my adventures in my 912. I use it as my desktop on my computer to remind me of what is out there. I was never really able to appreciate just how nice a picture I had until I upgraded my monitor which was about 10 or 12 years old at the time. I realized then just how much I'd been missing in my photos up until that time.

Coast line at Big Sur looking south towards San Simeon.
We got really lucky that day as there wasn't any fog to speak of.

I think I'm OK with saying I'm a photographer.