Location Taken: Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008
You know one of the ways you can distinguish a “Real Photographer” from someone just taking a photo. The regular person will be standing next to the horde of other people taking the picture of the fantastic mountain or statue or whatnot, while the “Real” photographer will be off in the corner taking a photo of a weed. Or a ceiling. Or whatever caught her fancy.
Not that I really subscribe to the “Real” vs. “Fake” photographer thing. In a very real sense, if you take photographs, you’re a photographer. Any division, even the one I just stated, will place some people in the wrong category.
For instance, I’d fail the “Real Photographers have fifteen lenses and can tell you exactly what each is used for” category. I’ve got one camera with one lens, it’s more than five years old, and it’s on the cheaper end. And yet, given that you read this blog, I doubt you’d dare say I’m not a photographer.
I, on the other hand, might say just that. In the list of qualities that make me who I am, Artist is on the list but Photographer is not. To me, photography is just another aspect of how my Artist quality comes out. Which is why I’m far more concerned about what I’m photographing than on the technical side of making the photo come out the absolute best it can, I guess. Probably part of why I haven’t gotten around to setting up an online store, either, since on a deep level I just see my photos as a hobby.
But still, someone who’s taking a picture of some strange object because the lighting caught their eye or whatnot is far more likely to think of themselves as a photographer than someone who’s taking a photo of their friend standing next to a giant Prairie Chicken or whatnot.
So I guess this photo was part of my photographer side, wandering to the side of the road to take a photo of the wildflowers rather than the fantastic view we pulled over to look at for a bit…
