Topic Four.

I'd been taking pictures on my dad's camera for hours outside when I finally decided to call it quits and load them onto my computer. I searched for the USB cord, loaded them, resized them, rotated them, everything I could to do what I thought was improving my new masterpieces.
Thirty minutes later, they were posted online where people could comment what they thought, offer their advice and what not. I must have refreshed the page every two minutes to see if anyone had anything at all to say about my art; sure enough some people did. "There are too blurry", "these are too out of focus", "these are too enter whatever you wish here". I, of course, was new to this form of criticism, though it was meant to be helpful I just found it to be hurtful.
I was quick to blame my dad's 3 year-old-now-out-dated digital camera by saying "well I did the best I could but, my camera is a piece of crap..." I got a few comments back with others saying that they could relate and couldn't wait to get such and such a camera or lens or flash. The only comment someone made to me that actually helped me become better and not just fuel my excuses was "It doesn't matter what camera you have it's the person behind it."



Since that day I have looked at a lot of things that way, even though the comment was only directed at my photography skills. To me it means that you may be thrown into a tough situation but it's up to you to make it better. There are a lot of things in life that aren't easy or pretty but it's totally up to me to improve that and do what I can with it. People surround themselves with expensive belongings that may help but in the long run it's solely up to the person who's buying every un-needed item to fix whatever is going on.
Of course now I'm also able to take someone saying something about my work because I know it's helping me and that you can't blame anything other than yourself in many events.