Celebrating small victories!

 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

 This picture won a place for October 2024 in our local calendar. I love this image, the green bench and the pretty fall season. 

I won a raffle for this photo, the grounds of a certain Prestigious University .

And how beautiful is the poetry and the apt images.