my name is blair and I am a photographer

I am off this morning to remind myself that, yes, I am still a photographer. The last few months have been abysmal in this category of my creative life. One of the culprits for this phenomenon may be that my current camera actually had something gradually going wrong with it. Where this left me was akin to the frog in the frying pan metaphor, only instead of getting fried, I just gradually lost confidence until I wondered how in the world I ever thought I could take good pictures. I have never been technically inclined and my cameras have always served as a tool for my ability to create good composition. If you asked me to rattle off what shutter speed I used for a given shot I would probably look at you like you had ten heads. This fact (which I have never been proud of) helped contribute to that lack of confidence and just had me doubt myself even more, instead of the camera.

My husband, observing that I took approx 200 pictures (instead of my normal 2000) on our trip to Arizona realized that something was up. While I spiraled down into creative self pity, he dug into consumer reports of the latest technology.

He's a take action kinda guy.

Days later he had me in a RITZ store putting the results of his investigation in my hands to test out the feel and function of these new machines. This was a big deal because frankly, some cameras would just be too big for my little hands. Like not being able to see over the dashboard being a reason not to buy a car, having a camera body that I couldn't hold would make no sense. Other issues for me included being used to the view screen on a strictly digital in contrast with actually looking through a viewfinder in a digital SLR. Hey what can I say, I am one of those people. Half of the work that I created for launching avisualplanet.com in 2001 came off of the little nikon 990 coolpix. Like I said, the camera is just a tool. In my creative funk I completely forgot that I have done some really good work in the past. It just goes to show you that I am a "now" sort of person and don't tend to rest on past accomplishments. In this case however, I needed to give myself a kick in the head and get out of the present funk.

Bryan compiled his info and ordered the stuff. Honestly, what would I do without him?

So today I am walking the streets of Baltimore to test out my new Nikon D80. A week from today I will be on a plane to Mexico to photograph a gathering for women of the Chinotecos, so I better be comfy with this new camera. My husband in his wisdom also thought it best to supplement this camera with the Nikon coolpix S10 the latest generation of my beloved 990. The contrast of these two cameras will allow me the flexibility to take serious planned shots with the D80 and those candid shots with the S10 which fits in my purse. It also takes great macros too.

So by the end of today I hope to have a restored confidence so that I can say...

my name is blair and I am a photographer.