“I am a photographer!”

Can you say that? Can you mean it? What would it take for you to feel like you're worthy of that statement? 

When I look around at the beautiful images "real" photographers share on their blogs, on Pinterest, on the photography forums I follow, I feel ridiculously tiny and inadequate. For me to claim being a photographer feels like a hoax. Like I'm playing dress-up with my mom's high heels. 

But very very slowly, I'm starting to come to terms with being able to say that phrase and, more importantly, to mean it. 

Last December, ClickinMoms put the call out for it's members to submit a self portrait to be included in a social media project benefitting RAINN. Women were supposed to pose with a single word that completes the phrase, "I am a X" with the only rule being not to use "photographer" or "mother". I thought long and hard about what word I could share, which one I felt comfortable with as my "label." 

After a lot of thought my word came to me but I was just as nervous to claim it as I am to claim "photographer." But the more I sat with it, the more I knew I had to use it. My word is my driving force for 2012. It sums up exactly what I'm striving to do with this blog and with Project 2012. I feel a sense of responsibility for claiming this word so that I may help some of you to claim the word "Photographer" for yourself by the end of the year. If you feel a gut punch at the very thought of that, I know we're on the right track.

Take a moment to click through and see the video ClickinMoms released today. You just might see a friendly face smiling from you towards the beginning. Then let me know, what would be YOUR word today?