I am a photographer because (Insert YOUR answer here)

<p>I'm a photographer because people call me that!<br>

But also because I had the luck to find out that I had the ability, capability, hunger for learning, passion, and the enough brains to learn something that I had in my blood.</p>

<p>Because after all the $%#@! money I've spent on this crap I'd damn well better be!</p>

<p>Life was a lot easier when I was working as a painter/artist. Then all I needed was a pencil and a piece of paper. Maybe a beret.</p>

<p>I'm not. But I play one on the internet.</p>

<p>I like women with tattoos.<br>

<center><img src="http://www.spirer.com/weighinsept182009/slides/IMG_4231.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" /><br>

<em>Weigh-In for Female Fury II, Copyright 2009 Jeff Spirer</em></center></p>

<p>I take photos because since my dad gave me a Ricoh 500 G when I was 12 or 13 it just came natural to me, although back then I had no clue about how I should do it (you may say I still don't have a clue). Mankind, and its signs on the world, attract me and I have always the feeling that something significant is there, hidden in plain view, which will come out by framing it properly in a rectangle, and sometimes taking away the colors.<br>

Photography is a way to see aspects of reality which I would not see otherwise. Away from uncontrolled reality, it loses its interest for me: if it were all about shooting fashion models, nd-graded beaches at the golden hour, or carefully arranged still-life, I would not be doing it, most lilkely (of course, I can say this because they don't pay me for photography, so I can do what I like).</p>

<p>L.</p>

<p>Because I also love music...to me music and images are two sides of the same coin...Fellow ECM enthusiasts jump in and back me up here!</p>

<p>Because I'm addicted to hearing strangers saying "why are you taking a photo of that?"</p>

<p>Seriously though, back in the late 70's after three years at art college I got a job printing photographs and one day the boss put a camera loaded with b&w film (an Oly 35RC I think) into my hands and said "go outside and play with that, and don't come back until you've shot the whole roll" and from that moment on I was hooked!</p>

<p>Because I own a camera.</p>

<p>... apart from sleeping, it's what I do best.</p>

<p>I am a photographer because I was seduced by Canon's marketing department.</p>

<p>I am a photographer because at 19 years old I saw the movie "Blow Up" and thought "Yeah I"ll have some of that"..........still searching!.</p>

<p>What! I'm a photographer?</p>

<p>...because.</p>

<p>Because it takes me outside myself and is my relaxation time. (purely a hobby for me)</p>

<p>Because I can't seem to knock it off. </p>

<p>Because I want to keep memory of my little ones while they're still little.</p>

<p>Stephen made me laugh out loud! I can't stop either! Because I can document, contribute, affect, show love, make an impact, assist, etc. What's not to love about being one?</p>

<p> I wanted to be pornographer, but I suffer from dyslexia.</p>

<p>I like doing it.</p>

<p>I am a photographer because I am still moved by a photograph in ways that I'm not moved by videos or films. A photograph is a frozen piece of time. Although I had played with photography since college years earlier, it was the images in American Photo magazine of the events in New York, September 11, 2001 that moved me to take the medium more seriously. The photographs in that and other magazines hit me at a spiritual level. Yes, photography is an instrument of change. Photojournalism and Lifestyle photojournalism are my passions. That's why I'm a photographer.</p>

Because I want to print somewhere what my eyes have seen and my mind cannot hold for ever.

<p>I can't draw</p>

<p>Ben, I love it! I haven't heard that one before. I would add it to my collection of great sayings, if I could just remember where I put them.</p>

<p>Thanks mark, I can't find things either often these days, but I'm old, what's your excuse ?</p>

<p>Hey, Joao...love it! Mark (great name) Chartrand, have a look in the bottom drawer behind the socks.</p>