Are you a real photographer?

 Here are twelve ways of telling.

If …

•  you’ve created thousands of images, but you don’t appear in any of them

• your camera is worth more than your car

• you’re the official photographer at your daughter’s wedding

• when travelling, you take one change of clothes, but 5 lenses, 2 camera bodies, a flash, a tripod and 3 different filters

• people look at you as though you’re crazy because you use flash in bright sunlight

• you get left behind on family strolls

•  your partner doesn’t call the police when you say you’re going to shoot the kids

• you’re the only one in a group not photographing a magnificent landscape because the light is lousy … but you’re back at the same spot, 4:30 the next morning

• you accept that dust – like death and taxes – is inevitable

•  you switch off autofocus

•  you’ve taken a photograph with a shutter speed of 30 seconds (No. Not 1/30th sec. Thirty. Half a minute. A long time)

… then, congratulations (or comiserations) you can call yourself a real photographer.