Post your photographs

"Who's a photographer?"

Bah.

I take photographs as a hobby - it is not a profession. Otherwise you could also call me a calligrapher, an origamist, a cyclist, a walker etc

You are a man with a talent and a keen interest in photography. You are very good at it. You are a photographer. That you don't do it for a living doesn't really matter.

Seriously, don't undersell yourself.

And do do it for a living. What else do you do in your life that is more interesting?

Okay... Calligraphy, origamy, cycling......

I don't really have any specific thing in my life which I consider more interesting than any other to be honest. Perhaps I just have a short attention span, but one day I can be out and take 300 photos and the next I might sit and design a website, and the next I might be making origami pieces, the next I might be writing poetry etc I like to vary things in my life to make it more interesting.

I know that I'm getting pretty good at photography, but I'm not sure about taking it up professionally. I only have basic equipment really, and wouldn't even know how to go about it. I've put a few photos up on stock selling sites, and only sold a couple. It's all about demand, and I've no idea what demand there might be for the stuff I shoot.

You could try

- personal/wedding photography
- press phtography
- design companies (there are loads of small firms that would be looking for someone with your kind of skills)
- Selling prints through local art shops/craft fairs/website - seriously, look in gift shops and the like and you are way ahead of the stuff that gets sold
- local gig venues
- corporate services - loads of small companies would pay to design newsletter & marketing stuff. Just a matter of putting a service out there.
- exhibiting in competitions to get yourself known

Seriously, you are good enough. And life is definitely better the more you can spend it doing things you love. Even if it's just part time now, that it could grow into something more would be a cool thing to have.

[I work in careers training]

I've been working on a new website lately and am putting in different sections of portfolio, including photography -

http://www.blampish.co.uk/new/

I'm mostly doing it so that anyone who looks at my CV will be able to check it out - I'm mostly looking at website/graphic design jobs at the moment - but I'd put the photography stuff on there too purely because, in my opinion anyway, showing that I have a good eye for a photograph can help in demonstrating that I am a good designer. There isn't much on there yet though, mostly only some of the photo pages.

I have looked at photography jobs before sometime too, but never too seriously. I suppose that I wouldn't want it to become a chore, and I always thought that having it go from hobby -> job might take the fun out of it for me - but, after 55,000+ photos in the last 4 years, I'm starting to run out of ideas anyway, so perhaps shooting to someone else's specifications might be a bit of a new challenge. I'll keep an open mind at least.

..and here's one I just took outside...

It's been so lovely lately, makes it easier to get shots of insects like this. A couple more...

This is an equirectangular panorama which took 80 seperate shots to make.



I know that it looks weird but that's because it is meant to be viewed interactively. It works best in Quicktime, but there's a cool viewer which can be used in conjunction with Flickr, so check it out -

http://www.fieldofview.com/flickr/?p...sh/3475466055/

(You'll need the latest Shockwave Player plugin)