“Because tonight I can’t tell friend from foe. Live fast (but don’t die young). Slow down, but never, ever stop.” – Paint It Black

Lately I have been down on myself about my photography. At a point in time I was happy and felt like I was continually learning, getting better, and pushing myself, but this last 6 months or so I have felt like I was in a rut. Once in a while I shoot a photo, or set of photos I am really amped on, but nothing like a few years ago when I was fresh out of the Marines and had just picked up my first DSLR. It was awesome, seeing instant results felt so much better than when I was in high school and waiting to develop film. Three years ago this month I joined flickr and started posting everything I did to it. Not just for the world, but for me to catalog my progress and things I’ve done. Every now and then some flickr photo elitist/snob would say something rude or completely non-constructive at all on one of my photos and I would get a little down, but I kept going on. Tonight though, one of those photo snobs managed to really get to me. It’s sad because recently I discovered his BMX photos and really liked his stuff. I’ve been seeing more and more BMX kids around town and thinking about approaching them about shooting some photos of them. I even contemplated when the time came to shoot the photos to email this individual with some newbie BMX photographer questions. I commented under him on someone’s photo earlier in the night, disagreeing with something he said he disliked about a photo, and he then made it his personal mission to rip apart my photos. He assaulted my flickr photostream with sarcastic remarks from all angles. It got to a point where I sent him a message that simply read, “Hey ass hole, If you want to leave non-constructive, ass hole remarks on photos, do it elsewhere. Everyone is a tough guy on the internet I guess though.” This of course only provoked the individual to bombard me with more and more sarcastic remarks. I sat at my computer enraged thinking of how I could get revenge. I got as far as finding out his real name, where he lives, who he’s friends with, and even alternate ways of reaching him outside of flickr. My brain was storming with ways to rip this individual to shreds, but then it occurred to me there was only one thing I could really do, and that’s to just continue to shoot and grow. No matter what I could say or do to this guy, nothing would change the fact that he is a negative ass hole who is so insecure with himself that he has to resort to picking total strangers apart via the internet. The only thing I can do is just move on and continue to grow for myself as a photographer, and that’s exactly what I plan to do. In all honesty, I don’t know if the individual who provoked me will read this, but if you do, thank you. With that said, here are a few photos I shot tonight while walking around on my night off.

Photos after the “read more” link.

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