You know my type.
When I go to a social function, I’m the weird guy with the camera.
Oh, I represent. I dance at weddings. I play games at parties. I help with the dishes at the holiday dinners. I’m not just the guy with the camera, but—yeah. I’m usually the one taking photos.
I call it a type because like every artistic pursuit there is always a cliché. There is always a tell. There is always a secret handshake that isn’t a handshake but maybe just a really nice camera that never leaves the hand and—shake: you recognize the other weird guys from a mile away.
Weird camera guys find other weird camera guys at social functions. We talk. We compare equipment, stories, and frustrations.
Because… that’s community.
That’s the thing you want but you never recognize it until you’re driving home later that evening thinking you should have connected with that other weird camera guy on instagram or something so you could maybe turn an awkward social function conversation into something creatively productive—a collaboration, or maybe just someone to talk to about that thing you love to do.
I know my type. I’m the weird camera guy, and these hobbies are often lonely enough without pretending that we don’t see each other.