The First Hundred (Hopefully Not the Last)

On Sunday the number of  the followers on my photoblog reached the threshold of a hundred. (As of now it's 104 but who's counting?)

One hundred followers.

Every tumblr blogger says this, but I never thought I would ever have a hundred followers.

I could only hope, I could only dream about it. 

But somehow, with persistent, hard work, and a whole lot of patience, somehow the number of my followers reached 99 + 1. (well, actually, 99+5, but who's counting?)

It would be easy to say that it does not mean anything, especially since there are hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of blogs on tumblr with as much as thousands or tens of thousands of followers. Compared to them my achievement is nothing. But most of those other blogs reached such high numbers by the constant reblogging of other people's utterly popular posts. Now that, I do not consider very original.

Neither do I consider my own photographs that much original, for that matter. Still, they are much more original than reblogging other people's images. They are my own creations, the precious fruits of my not always blooming creativity. My very own babies, to whom I gave birth. I took all those steps, all the many miles, came up with the compositions, shot them, deleted most of them, edited the remaining few, uploaded the even fewer I thought were worthy of publishing. And, very most importantly, had a lot of fun while doing so. This is why I keep taking the steps, doing the shooting, the deleting, the editing, and the uploading. Because I love it, I still believe that the art of photography is magical. (There goes the cliche of the day, if you haven't noticed.) I am still amazed by how cameras work, but how it actually depends on me how I capture the moment. 

So I am happy to have reached this not so high but quite round number.

Because it means that there are a hundred people who:

a, do not know me at all (well, most of them)

b, therefore, do not feel obligated to look at my photos, but they still do

c, neither feel obligated to like my photography, but they still do

d, hence judge me only on my photos

e, think that I am talented to some extent

f, and it is worth to follow me

g, because my photos evoke some sort of emotions in them, hopefully positive ones. 

And that's a good thing. A damn good thing, if you ask me. Even if it's only 99+1. 

Still, let's hope that more 99+1s are to come in the not so distant future!