

Trust me I’m a professional…Or am I?

In another guest post from Jonathan Wicaksana, he shares Some thoughts on why you should be happy with your status as an amateur photographer. Read on.



A lot of you esteemed readers must have taken a picture or get your picture taken somewhere along the line. Did you enjoy taking a picture? Digging through your old disk drive (or your hidden stash of Kodachrome slides, depending on how old you are), you may find pictures from the last big family dinner, pictures from your holiday to Vietnam, or maybe of your high schools mates; chances are, you will find things you love captured in a media called photographs.

So you shoot film? Why would anyone waste money on film and film processing these days? Do they even still sell film rolls? The skeptical might ask a question or two. Sure, all they talk about is the latest and greatest innovation from Canikon with their high ISO and megapixels race. Some even go as far as saying that with film every exposure costs money, whereas with digital you can always delete it if you don’t like it. Duh. Why shoot something just to delete it? The exact reasons we shoot film and why we take pictures are because we LOVE film and we LOVE the things we shoot, don’t we?

Ah, forgive me, gents, I tend to digress whenever I talk about these things. So back to why we should be happy as amateur photographers. I don’t want to start a war on what defines a professional photographer. But I do know, that the English word ‘amateur’ is derived from the Latin word ‘amator’, meaning ‘lover’. I’m sure you knew that ‘amor’ means love, right? So as simple as that, ‘amator’ means lover! Amateurs do their stuff with love, and in our case, we love the medium- the magical emulsion we call film, and we love the things we shoot, I mean it makes a perfect sense, right?

So, bottom line, folks: be proud of your status as an amateur, love your cameras, love the things you shoot, and don’t forget to spread the love to others, too!

Interesting thoughts from Jonathan. What is your take on this? Comment and tell us how you feel about your status. How do you define yourself?

Thanks

Japancamerahunter