Self Accomplishment is Priceless

I just got back from a weekend in New York City. I did a similar trip last year, and had a similarly good time, but the difference was, this time, I had my camera. Even though the battery didn't quite last as long as we did, I anxiously sat on the plane, hungover to the wall, waiting for touchdown, knowing how close I was to charging my battery and uploading my pictures. I took 160 pictures and 9 videos before my little Casio called the quits, and I could not wait to see what the 17" of my laptop screen would reveal. Obviously I was excited to post the pictures for the world to see, but I wanted to validate my naive, amateur, basic level of photography as something that could be appreciated by both ends of the artistic spectrum. As I cycled through, laughing at the shenanigans, cowering at the embarrassment, and cropping the excess, I realized that I have a legitimate chance, between the resolution of these pictures and the megapixels of my camera, to produce something that might end up looking relatively, well, professional.

Having a camera with enough megapixels to take wide enough pictures to crop when you get home makes all the difference in the world. And cropping the crap away from the target in a picture is something that goes overlooked in the layman's photo album. As most of you know, I am a freak with a camera. I figure snap happy now equals real happy later. And so that's what I did while I was in NYC. I think I took 25 pictures just walking the Brooklyn Bridge. That's 2 pictures every tenth of a mile. I guess when you break it down like that, it's not nearly as impressive. But the point of the matter is the more I took, the more I had when I got home, and the greater opportunity I had when it came time to do something more than make my facebook creepers happy.

I've almost settled on three pictures: Three pictures, three skylines, three different parts of New York, and all taken within a few thousand feet of each other. So what's my plan? Well I want to take these three pictures, cropped as they are at a 12 x 36 ratio, print them (on some nice poster paper), frame them (in something more than four pieces of skinny aluminum), and mount them on my massive living room wall. You know what it will cost me to take three pictures, get them printed, buy three frames, fit the posters in the frames, and get them on my wall? Probably over $100, depending on how cheap I go and what kind of deal I can find. You know how much it would cost if I went to allposters.com, picked out a random picture of a New York skyline, scooped up a cheap-o frame from Wal-Mart, and tacked it to my wall? Probably less than $10.

So the question is, why?

Well there's two reasons, and both reasons are selfish.

1.) When people walk into my apartment, I want this display to be one of, if not the first things they see. It will be hard to miss. And hopefully, if done well, will draw enough attention to it so people forget about the off shade of urine that my living and dining room walls were painted before I moved in. So my goal is that my little ensemble will be a conversation piece. I envision a new arrival to question where these so similar yet so different pictures came from, at which time I can gleefully claim that despite their professionalism, charm, and beauty, they were all taken by an un-charming, mildly attractive, amateur. Then I get to watch their transformation from appreciation to reasonable astonishment, and receive a bevy of questions about when I took them, where I was, etc, reliving the masterpiece that was my trip to NYC and basking in the moderate glory of my photographic skills. AKA I want to brag.

2.) While bragging is important, the basis of this rambling was to bring light to the importance of self accomplishment. I couldn't imagine anybody in this world walking into a store, seeing what will be the result of my hard work, and thinking that what they see is worth the ~$40 it would cost to take each piece home. It's not that I believe people don't overpay, I just know that there are more professional, better looking, more awe-inspiring pictures of New York City that deserve to be on a wall, and for less money. But the idea of decorating my apartment with things that I have experienced, documented, and created, makes me love my apartment more than anything else. Sure, it would be nice to have great taste in decorations with a deep check book, but where's the sense of accomplishment in clearing out a few aisles at Target? Sure, it would be nice to have great taste in fashion with a deep check book, but how much more significant is your favorite scarf that you made for yourself?

Now, I am definitely a hypocrite on this topic. There's a sense of accomplishment in changing your own oil, but really, if it costs the same and takes less time, I'll continue to have NTB do the dirty work.

But the closer you can come to self accomplishment, self sufficiency, self autonomy, the closer you will be to your own identity, your own life, one that you created, and one that you and only you will occupy, and that feeling is worth more than any dollar or credit card can buy. No one can take it from you.