almostfearless.com

---

Everyone’s a Photographer and That’s Okay Posted: 01 Aug 2011 08:42 AM PDT Hello everyone, it’s the husband again, hijacking Almost Fearless for a week so I can talk about my new favorite subject – Photography. We are incredibly pleased to announce the new ebook from Bethany Salvon – Getting Out of Auto (see sample pages at the link). A guide to taking awesome travel photos for the relative newcomer to their DSLR camera, or for those who simply want to know how to maximize the potential of the camera they have without relying on auto settings to do the work for them. In celebration of the book’s launch, I had the nifty (I hope) idea of highlighting some great photographers and having them talk briefly about photography in their lives. We have a wide range of experience levels featured this week, so I am inclined to start with the total noob. Me. I like to think of myself as a creative dude. I was drawing seriously in fifth grade, went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia and studied animation, and have had the good fortune of spending my adult life working as an animator, graphic designer and very occasional comic book artist. However, while I have gotten functional over the last year or so, photography has always been a painful, harrowing ordeal, something that has never come easy to me, despite my other creative tools. I truly seem to have no eye for it naturally, it’s something that has to be worked on consciously, and constantly. As a result of having to work so hard at it, I have rejected the very idea of calling myself a photographer. No one that has to work this hard to get bare minimum quality results deserves such an excellent, high status title associated with their name (actual logic doesn’t really follow my last statement. Clearly, I have self esteem issues.) Plus, everyone calls themselves “photographer” these days, regardless of the quality of their output. As a guy struggling mightily to take the pretty pictures, I resented seeing another person calling themselves “photographer”. That is, until I took that train trip around India. All I had was my iPhone4 and a simple job – document the experience. And I did. In 16 days I took over 1300 photos and videos. It was an endless amount of camera-holding. If I hadn’t already agreed to take my iPhone4 as my second wife, it was a done deal after that trip (Sorry Christine, we uh, need to have that conversation now, I guess). The trip made me realize that for me at least, it isn’t necessarily the camera that you are holding that makes you a photographer, and often, it’s not even the quality of the image that you get. What matters is that you keep looking, sometimes HARD, for what is interesting or beautiful around you, and you do your best to document that to share with others. So this is sort of my coming out party, if you will. I’m going to do it. Here I go… I’m a ph… phh… pppphhhh… photographer. There, that wasn’t hard. So bear with me as I grow as a photographer. My newly self-appointed moniker comes with the responsibility of having to continue to work at improving in all areas, occasionally ditch my beloved iPhone4 and pick up the wife’s Canon 7D, and most importantly, to keep looking for what is beautiful and interesting in the world. This is why it’s okay to suffer the low quality you might see from people calling themselves “photographers”. Try to remember – they are attempting to look at the world a little harder than most people (or they are just doing it way, way wrong). Pick up a camera, start looking at the world more carefully. Call yourself a photographer. I promise I won’t give you a hard time. I hope you enjoy the rest of the week, as we showcase a few more photographers (really great ones) that we like, and wrap the week up with our esteemed author Bethany. Happy picture taking! This has been a part of Photography Week at Almost Fearless, a week long look at photography to go along with our announcement of Getting Out of Auto, by Bethany Salvon of Beers and Beans. With a BFA in photography, a 10+ year career as a professional photographer, and an awesome portfolio of photos from around the world, there is a lot you can learn about getting the most out of your camera with Getting Out of Auto. Thanks for reading!

You are subscribed to email updates from AlmostFearless.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610