Allow me to get personal for a minute.
I have a constant battle in my head over my own identity. How do I see myself? What label do I give? How do I answer the simple question, "what do you do?"
I realize as I'm writing this how silly and contradictory this sounds.
"Um, isn't this site about Lee Tucker? You know, photographer? It even says it in the title! Duh!"
Fair point.
Well, let's start with the simple answer, first and foremost I'm a husband and dad. This is the easy one. I'm lucky to have a supportive family in Raquel, Robert, and Christopher who back me up every step of the way. But beyond this, the question about identity becomes a little more cloudy for me.
As I've said before, I started my career in television. I found I loved creating video in high school and followed that path through college. I landed some nice gigs along the way doing everything from shooting to producing but learned that my particular niche in that world was editing. There was really nowhere I was more comfortable than in a dark, quiet edit bay. I'd spend countless hours in there, often forgetting to eat or sleep. That said, I never wanted to title myself an editor. I just didn't want to exclude everything else.
Then through a few interesting twists, I found myself a graphic designer. You see, when I joined the Air National Guard, there weren't any video production positions available so they put me in a graphic designer slot. This wasn't a big deal for me since the same office housed video production, graphic design, and as fate would have it, photography. So I found myself being sent off to graphic design school.
I was scared as hell about this since I had no previous experience in the field. But, soon found I was decent at it and actually enjoyed it. Thus adding to the list of identities, Graphic Designer.
Fast forward a few years and I discover the world of photography. I've written about this before so will spare the details but this soon became my passion.
So now, I'm a photographer. but what about everything else? I still love television. Still love edit. And I know my way around a layout or two.
But later found I had a passion for photography
But what kind of photographer? Everyone wants to pigeonhole to a speciality. Wedding? Portrait? Commercial? Product?what are you?
I didn't want to choose. Not because I didn't like or wasn't particularly good at any specific category or thing, but because I loved it all.
Jack of all trades, master of none.