all.growns.up

Seriously. I just went to 3 different drugstores and they were all down. This has been happening to me my whole life. I’m starting to think there’s just ONE photo machine repair man in every state and he’s like REALLY busy ALL the time.
Maybe I’m in the wrong field.

yumwatch:

I find this conversation particularly germane to my situation because a) I am not a pro photographer, and yet b) I write for a blog in which c) I am occasionally called upon to “get a consumer camera and tote it around to a couple of shows and zoom in on some shots of some dude on a stage, post it on a blog, and call themselves a pro”.

So what am I to do? Not get a camera? Not go to shows? Not experiment, learn from other people, post shit on the blog I write for?

I know the difference. I have friends who are *serious* photographers, and I am NOT them. AND I have friends who are also not *serious* photographers, and yet still have a better eye than I do. I know I’m not that. But can’t I try? Can’t I learn? Can’t I aspire?

Ok, so I’m old, I’m pursuing a different vocation, I’m poor. I’m never going to be mareen or mitch or whomever. I’m going to get my economical DSLR and I probably won’t use it to its potential. I’ll take a lot of crappy pictures of bands at shows and post them and say “LOOK WORLD I AM COOL!!!” I get that.

But I also genuinely enjoy photography. It’s something my dad was passionate about, and he shared that passion with me. I was a photographer for our little yearbook in high school, and it turned out to be an important part of my self-identity as a teenager. (And the more I look back, the more I realize what a badass I was when I was a teenager, but that’s another story.)

So what if I’ll never be a “pro”? I’m looking forward to pursuing photography as a hobby, and as an important skillset that will serve me well in my career.

So what to do with me? Is this okay???

I’m about to give up because It seems that no one is getting it (and also that no one has comments on their tumblrs, sorry for all the re-blogging on my end). Buy a cheap camera, Go to shows, take photos, post them on 1,000 blogs and know in your heart of hearts that you are probably better than most of your “serious” photographer friends (although serious or not, are they professional, IE do they make a living from their photos?), all I ask is that you don’t go around calling yourself a professional. You’re a photographer, great!! Hooray! Photography is accessable to everyone and it is awesome! Yes!

What I don’t think any of you who are angry at me are getting is that I am the same as you. I own a bunch of various cameras, I blog about it - I’ve even been published in real actual books - I am not hating on you, WE ARE THE SAME. But I don’t call myself a professional, and you probably don’t either. No harm, no foul. This is specifically aimed at people who call themselves professional photographers but who aren’t any more professional at photography than I am at bathing. So before anyone else reblogs and starts being pissy, ask yourself “DO I CALL MYSELF A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAHER” That is all, people.

allgrownsup:

I think doing things digitally has made certain types of “art” generally easier and more accessible. Namely, photography. Bad lighting, bad framing, and a plethora of other rookie mistakes can now be caught on the spot thanks to the digital viewfinder and later corrected thanks to Photoshop.

While I’m happy that this new digital renaissance has opened up the door to many talented people who were maybe too intimidated to try to learn about apertures and f-stops and darkrooms and everything else back when things were on film and a single mistake cost $10 and an hour of your time in a red tinted room, I would like to say that buying a Canon Digital Rebel for $250 at Best Buy does not a professional photographer make.

Seriously. It reminds me of the time I asked that guy at the party wearing the Maiden shirt which album was his favorite and he didn’t know what I was talking about. Don’t be one of those people.

thegreatradsby:

This kind of rant makes me mad…It reminds me of a “ahh man, i liked that band way before they were famous” argument. Oh yeah….digital media is way different then working with film. So what. Maybe it is easier for some people, and not  for others. Even if it is who cares. It is inspiring a ton of people to be creative that would have never had the chance before. Who cares if there work may suck. I’m sure it makes them happy and maybe other people too. If you ask me the more creative people the better. It will just inspire more and more people. I’m a guy that makes a living working with digital media. and if it weren’t for digital imaging, i don’t know what i would be doing. But because I have had success and a lot of fun working with digital, i have slowly started going to film when i have the time/ money. Digital is just another way to make art. Just embrace the art and enjoy what you see. There is a lot of really cool stuff to find.

p.s. I’m not trying to start an online argument…or single out allgrownsup, I have just heard this before and thought id throw in my two cents.

Allgrownsup: Ok, I agree it’s inspiring and I also agree I’m super excited that the digital medium had made things more accessable and readily available for everyone (oh wait - didn’t I say that in my original post?). The only single thing I ask is that people don’t get a consumer camera and tote it around to a couple of shows and zoom in on some shots of some dude on a stage, post it on a blog, and call themselves a pro. THAT IS ALL. Not trying to open a big can of worms here, people - it’s simple: Cameras for everyone! Cameras abound! Just don’t call yourself a professional unless you are. And I say this as someone who is NOT a professional. If it doesn’t put food on your table, just call it a really fun hobby. If it buys you a steak dinner now and again, call it a fucking great hobby - but still, a hobby.

Listening to The Mae Shi kindof freaks me out. The melodies are great, but I feel like I’m being preached to with all of the god talk. I’m an athiest, like a million percent unwavering athiest. I grew up Southern Baptist and even attended a Christian elementary school, so it’s not like I’m not familiar with how the whole organized religion thing works - I am quite familiar and I want absolutely no part of it.

Have you listened to the lyrics? I can’t sing along. I think it might have ruined it for me.

I waited an hour. A FUCKING HOUR in line for the dressing room. I could see the line for the registers which took up half the store and looked twice as long, and it kindof made me hope that nothing fit right so I could just leave and get the whole thing over with.

Luckily, the people designing for Forever 21 not only have a penchant for really boring clothes made with plain solid colors, but also for making the most un-wearable cuts EVER. The shirts looked like boxes - I may as well have put a plastic grocery bag on and drawn some buttons on front. It would probably last longer then that crap anyway.

One of the dresses was a logistical nightmare and would neither unbutton nor unzip far enough to get over my head. Then it got stuck and I had to use some serious willpower not to just rip it off of me. I guess I should have opted for one of those sweet maternity-core dresses instead, since they’re like one size fits all or something.

An hour and a half after entering as a cheerful girl with money burning a hole in her pocket, I left an angry, sweaty tangled-hair mess. And I stole some sweet technicolor headbands as payment for making me spend over an hour of my life which I will never get back in that godawful fucking store in that horrendous fucking line listening to some lame techno CD which was turned up to 11 and skipping the entire time. See ya later alligator.

I looked up “weaker” in the actual real-life Webster’s Thesaurus on my bookshelf, and there is no reference for weaker. There are however, entries for Weak, Weaken, Weakling, and Weakness, none of which draw a reference to anything even remotely feminine in nature.

So to the asshole who I won’t bother linking to who wrote the diatribe on how this thesaurus.com find shouldn’t be surprising to women because ““Weaker sex” is a perfectly good synonym for women as a whole, and has been used for centuries” - you can eat it. The phrase ‘The weaker sex” hasn’t been acceptable to use for 40 years, my friend. Saying that reference in thesaurus.com is no big deal would be like typing the word “nigger” in the search box and expecting a reference to black people. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

Thesaurus.com isn’t the urban dictionary - it’s something we use to teach present and future generations how to properly use the English language, and as such it should NOT have any outdated sexist references to women.