Lately, I have been listening to Melissa Clark ‘s writing pool podcast. In one of the episodes, she talks about celebrating, are you celebrating enough? She was of course talking about writing, writing victories. She inspired me to write this post, a celebration of small victories.
I am not a writer. I am what you may call a rising blogger,
mostly mom stories, my journey as a mom. However, my creativity involves pictures
and photography.
Not too long ago, someone I know in the community asked me
this question, why do I label all the pictures I post, who do I think I am? They
were joking but I was kind of offended by that remark.
Hmm. Who do I think I am? Not a professional photographer by
any standard. I don’t have formal training. Sure, I accumulated a lot of photography
gear over the years, but it has remained a hobby. I am not delusional. I am an
amateur. I label my pictures in the grim hope that someday they may go viral, someday
they will be shared by many, and the original source will be recognized for my
name will be on them.
For me, photography
is more than a hobby; it’s a way of preserving moments, emotions, memories,
stories. Most of the pictures I post are taken by me. If I am in the picture, a
lot of them are either selfies or I have used the self-timer mode. (believe it
or not, I was taking selfies before the word was even coined). Some are taken
by my family, and our friends and I always credit them. I however label them as
mine as the picture is composed by me, they are merely the button pushers.
Growing up in a tiny community in India, I don’t have any
pictures of myself as a baby or a toddler. My journey with photography began
the day I landed in the United States and discovered a disposable camera at
Walmart. It was my very first camera. It was very important to me to capture as
many memories as I could as my family lived thousands of miles away. And that
is what I did.
Over the years, my passion for photography has grown. It has
evolved from being a paparazzi mom to my children to a nature photographer. Partly
because the children are grown; now I have to ask their permission to take
their pictures, to share them (ya, I know, it sucks) and partly because I
started walking during the pandemic. Nature was my great motivator in keeping
me in shape, both physically and mentally. I started taking a picture a day and
towards the end, had a beautiful album of more than 400 plus pictures when I
stopped walking outside. I cannot pen down the happiness it brought me. Every
now and then, I still venture out, on our street to see what is blooming. I didn’t
share them publicly, only on my personal profile.
Now I have started sharing a lot of them publicly. I feel
seen when someone comments on my photo, about that picture of the sunset or the
pretty flowers or something from my travel diary. And sure, I am not a
professional; but last year, my photo won a place in our local calendar, and
another one won a raffle, both times I was compensated by money and or things.
I call them small victories. Who knows what’s next?
Sometimes I wonder, had my parents owned a camera back then,
would they be like me, take tons of pictures? I am sure they would. Perhaps I
am still trying to make up for what I didn’t have. This is my story.
Today I am happy as someone I recently started following on Facebook, a writer, a poet was inspired by my photos and used them to illustrate her writing. Eve, I started writing this blog a few days ago. Today, you helped me finish it. Thank you.
“It is brave to
create when the world could laugh at the soul you share. But we must, we simply
must."- Donna Ashworth
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