I am NOT a professional photographer

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my photography. To be more specific, I’ve been thinking about my approach to it, the amount of hours I should dedicate to it, how should I communicate what I do. Should I post more photos? Should I post in Threads? Should I make reels? Should I…?

There have been some major changes in my life in the last couple months. I left my job and started in a new one. But the new one is in a different city so the first few weeks were chaotic. Getting up at 4.30 a.m., commuting 128 km, working 8 hours, commuting back home, eat, sleep, repeat.

Now we are already settled in the new city, Warsaw. I told my girlfriend that this is the last time we move at least in a long while because we have moved a lot in the last 5 years (Barcelona, Madrid, Wroclaw, Lodz and now Warsaw) and it finally takes a toll.

Anyways, these recent events changed my routine. I needed to be more focused on my real job, the city center is just a little further away than the city center in the previous city so I can’t go on foot anymore, I lost a little bit of my ‘mojo’ if you know what I mean.

So I invested some of my time embarking myself on an inwards journey. And I reached this simple conclusion:

I am NOT a professional photographer.

But hey, wait a sec. What does that mean? What does that imply? Am I a joke as a photographer???

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

I am not a professional photographer. My life doesn’t depend on my output as a paid photographer. I have no deadlines, I have nothing to prove, I can go ‘silent’ for a while, I can do exactly as I please because I have no masters. And that is wonderful. That is sheer bliss.

But to not be a professional photographer doesn’t necessarily mean that you are no REAL photographer.

I follow a lot of real photographers on Insta that have 9-to-5 jobs (or any other type of jobs for that matter) hence they are not professional strictly speaking and their work is amazing, inspiring, full of meaning, artistic, thoughtful…

I guess if someone paid me to take photos that would be great, but the fact that I do this ‘just for fun’ doesn’t undermine my passion, doesn’t take away my vision and my thoughts on the matter. I still wanna get better, take better photos, share my work with others, experiment with different settings both on-camera and in post, explore more topics, play with other rules or breaking the rules…

I honestly think that I feel more ‘open’ than ever having come to the realization that I am not a pro.

No one expects anything from me, so it’s just me, my camera and my vision. And that can go a looooong way.

Here are some photos of my last photowalks in Warsaw: