As I started to post on Instagram, I felt very self-conscious as I began to notice others posting what cameras they were using. And of course, most – or at least the most I noticed – were all the top-of-the-line Canons and Nikons. I knew I had bought a starter camera, but did I need to let everyone else know it? Would they notice? Would they comment about it? Was my gear going to be the reason people didn’t start following me or liking my images? Yup, camera envy kicked in hard early on. So, I had to make a decision: Stop posting because I didn’t have a camera that might not be “good enough” for others. Or not post the info, and stop worrying about it. Considering I was not in any position to change cameras, and I was really enjoying photographing and posting, it came down to: I had to stop caring about what I had versus what everyone else had.

A few other things came about during these early years on IG. The first was it exposed me to many other types of photographers and photography. Second, it helped me establish my photo work habits. One of the trends I was drawn to was what was called “dark macro.” This was something small and interesting that was set against a black background. Most photographers I followed would either find something interesting and take it into their studio to light it and get the effect. Or they would just drop out the background in Photoshop. Since I didn’t have a studio with lights, and I didn’t want to spend that much time in Photoshop, I went out and bought some black posterboard. I would carefully set it up behind my subjects and right away, out in the field, I was making some dark macro work. I still keep some black posterboard in my car to use, because I still really like the look it creates.