Just a guy making photographs

Weather: 26C, sunny, pretty windy all day

Somewhere along the way I started thinking of myself as a capital P “Photographer”.

It started probably around the time I had to (was asked to) leave my first-last tech job. I was thinking about what to do next and that’s when it started. Then I took a marketing job where I was also doing product photography and then I started taling side gigs that were mostly photography related. Bit by bit I forgot that the last time I did photography for work I ended up not touching a camera for years. I forgot that when I started slowly enjoying photography more and more was at a time when I did no work as a photographer, and had a stable tech job in an unrelated role instead.

When I had no work and the pandemic was supercharging my anxietes I defaulted back to the one specific, practical skillset I have: photography. It was a move I made out of fear and fear is never a good compass.

It’s time for me to re-learn what I’ve already learned once: I am not a photographer, I don’t want to be a photographer. I’m just a guy making photographs.

I think I caught myself just in time to not burn out. I will need to make some changes in my work, my life and my gear to set boundaries, to keep myself from slipping back.