Leave the Ego at the door, please

My new-to-me light meter

I find the photography community absolutely amazing.  There is an incredible wealth of information provided by well known photographers, experts in their respective fields, distributed free of charge or for a very small investment.  This information exists in blog form, social community sites, and/or online classes/presentations.

I've been blown away by the willingness to help those less experienced, the eagerness to offer critiques and the overall ego-less community as a whole.

As an architect, I'm not used to that.  I think we tend to treat our intellectual property as gold, protecting it at all costs from prying eyes.  We mock those who are less skilled and less published.  We turn away from those asking for guidance and instead look for the next stepping stone that will increase our standing on the ladder of greatness.

And to what purpose?  Are we really afraid that our own credibility will be diminished if we lend a helping hand?  What could possibly happen if we share some of our own thought process, some of our own insight into how we see and do what we do.  Is what we do really so sacred we need to keep it mothballed from the rest of our profession?

I don't think so and a big 'thank you' needs to go out to everyone who has decided to engage so actively with the rest of us, whether we're hobbyists, amateurs, semi-pros, etc.  The photo above is the Minolta Light Meter IV I recently acquired from EBay after being inspired by +Don Giannatti 's free Udemy class on using and understanding light meters.

Thanks Don, and to everyone else, for leaving the ego behind...