I'm a photographer, or so I've been told. I have a photography business and a partner. My partner and I met a few years ago and became fast friends. Photography is just one of the many things we have in common so when our Home and School Committee needed a new way to raise funds for our local elementary school we thought 'family portraits' and from there our business was born.
     I've always dabbled in photography since buying my first camera to capture the life of my first born son. Over the years I've gone on to capture my 3 children, sometimes to their dislike...you've always got a camera in our face MOM, grumble grumble. So when I needed to take photos of something that wouldn't give me such a hard time I took to the road with my camera in the passenger seat and in doing so I found a 'get away' from life's stresses. Trees, flowers, old houses that used to be someones home but for whatever reasons no longer have a family, fences...you name it, 'still life', quiet life I like to call it. I travel the highways and backroads alone with my thoughts and my camera scouting out anything that catches my eye.
     So over the years I've accumlated quite a portfolio of images. Images mostly just viewed by me until recently when I've started to share them. I use the term 'photographer' to describe myself lightly because of my discomfort with that description. I'm completely self-taught, except for having taken a few day courses at a local camera store, and as in all things in life I'm not done learning. My photography partner is an 'educated' photographer, she went to school to learn her craft, she was/is a photojournalist.
     I'm not entirely sure why I'm reluctant to call myself a photographer. Is it because I'm self-taught and therefore maybe without the 'formal education' I feel I'm not qualified to be called a photographer?! I'm so comfortable on the road with my camera snapping pics of long dead trees and landscapes, etc., but put me in a room full of people, clients wanting that perfect family photo and I become unsure of my ability. My partner on the other hand is so sure of herself so good at 'looking' the part. I also work for a local newspaper in the layout department but because it's a small, bi-weekly with a small staff I'm occasionally called upon to cover an event which means - taking photos - which means at work I'm also called a 'photographer'. I've snapped thousands and thousands of images...the count is well over 70,000.
     So since much of what I do revolves around my camera and taking photos maybe one day I will feel comfortable with the term 'photographer' but for now...you decide.