Blog Post #5100

I've been blogging over 10 years and photographing even longer. Here's a picture I took in 1978.

This is my sister Peggy and her daughter Meadow. They lived in Maryland then.

This is just a photo of a photo. I copied it using my iPad after I could not get my scanner to connect. Perhaps I should go back and scan it properly, but her friends responded positively to this version so I will resist my perfectionist tendencies for now.

Even though I've taken many photography courses, I consider myself to be more of a blogger than a photographer. I shoot on the Auto setting much of the time and don't carry much equipment. In classes I learned about different lenses and different settings and all sorts of technical stuff. But I like the spontaneity of a point-and-shoot and don't like lugging a tripod around. I also like being inconspicuous, and you cannot be that if you carry use a large lens.

I did work as a photographer of sorts for a while. I was an assistant in a professional portrait studio for almost a year, and worked as a weekend department store photographer for three years. (I also had a full-time job.) That was fun, and not very technical since their set-up was standardized. The talent that was necessary there was an ability to work cheerfully with all sorts of clients, and that could be challenging, especially when tired, grumpy children were involved. 

At one time I pictured myself becoming a nature photographer, but I've seen so many people who do that better than I. They are willing to do uncomfortable and dangerous things, and I'm not that brave. And frankly, most of the shots they get are just repetitions of what has been done before. 

I like having a reason to create so blogging is a good outlet for me. I can write decently, although sometimes too choppily for a book. But in a blog that seems to be acceptable, since it's a journal of sorts, one that is constantly changing and growing. 

My audience here is mostly other bloggers and people who find a particular entry through a search engine. 

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