Mountain Goat
captured by F3HP / 300f2.8
I receive an email saying this probably once an hour. Ok, maybe once every other hour but it’s pretty much none stop. Over the years I’ve had all sorts of comebacks to this but of late, I tend to stare at the question wonderin how I should answer it. Why, what’s the change? The change is I’ve gotten older and with that some knowledge has stuck in my thick head that in part stops me from saying my first knee jerk answer. And the other is, wondering what gave birth to this question from those who ask it. What do they think they are missing in their photography to seek or ask this question? That brings me to the photo you see above and perhaps my current answer to the “big” question.
This photograph of a Mountain Goat billy was taken a couple of lifetimes ago. I remember clearly seeing the opportunity, the panic to get parked and to the billy before the photograph would disappear. I remember all the great things I believed would come if I got “the” photo I foresaw unfolding. And then the billy was in the viewfinder, a much better photograph than I previsioned and I went click and then I said, “I’m a professional!” with great pride (inside words of course, been really stupid if I yelled that out). And while I still love this photo dearly and all that led up its making, it’s not for any other reason than it was a great lesson taught to myself.
You see, being professional has nothing to do with one great photo or a thousand of them. Being professional is being serious about your craft inside, in your heart and mind, so you keep pounding at it day after day always putting your best foot forward. No one, no camera brand, no one photo will ever elevate you to being a professional. And that old adage, if you get paid for it makes you a professional couldn’t be further from the truth. Professional is a state of mind that all of this combined and so much more grants you.
It’s truly great to have the desire of wanting to be a professional! Redefining what a professional is, the commitment in what it takes and the long road to get there just needs to be not only better defined but understood. If you were to be truly, truly board and read through all I’ve written over the decades, the one thing you’ll be hard pressed to find is my calling myself a professional photographer. Whenever that thought even begins to emerge all I have to do is look at the billy and I’m instantly brought back to what it is to be a visual storyteller. Now there’s a title I can latch onto!