Wanna trade?
I grew up trading. I’m a nerd. From Pokemon cards to Yu Gi Oh to Magic the Gathering and everything in between. I love to play games with my friends and there’s something infinitely satifying about the trading card game experience. A buddy has a card that you need for your deck and you have something he wants so you trade which improves your ability to play the game and makes your matches from that point forward much more challenging and exciting. Its perhaps this philosophy that has in part led me down the career path I’ve chosen and its starting to pop up around my new hobby in photography.
The barter system is something that’s always appealed to me. By its very nature it rewards skilled trades and crafts. It pushes us to get better at what we do so we can trade for bigger and better things which I think is much more exciting than a monetary transaction. It forces both parties to haggle and adjust their perception of the value of a thing versus that of another and I’m much more inclined to scale my contribution to a transaction up if its made by a hand, calloused from practice. Too often do we overpay our hard earned dollars for a thing that’s been made in a factory hundreds at a time. There’s no love or soul in that product. Each one carefully hung on a rack with multiple carbon copies only slightly differentiated by color and size. How much more interesting would life be if instead, when we needed a new pair of trousers, we walked across the street with a freshly baked pot pie and knocked on our neighbors door.
Craft beer to a small degree has built this principle into the fabric of its community. From conversations that I’ve had with my peers I’ve come to the conclusion that most of us started as homebrewers and in most larger towns you can find a community of these stove top heroes that gather to trade the fruits of their hobby. This doesn’t stop at the professional level. Whenever Honey and I travel, or when I take trips with my co workers, there’s always a plan to stop at the nearest brewery and we always try to bring gifts. I love our beer and I bet I’ll love yours to, lets trade!
I’ve chosen to write on this topic at the recommendation of Honey. Kind of. While remarking to them during a hair cut (thank you for keeping me clean Honey Badger) that I was at a loss for what to write about, they remarked that I should write about working in a trade and this got me thinking, why do we call it a trade? What are we trading? Aren’t these really just occupations like any other at this point in human history? Yes and no. While the barter system isnt a particularly fiscally responsible pursuit in modern society, it does still thrive and help to establish personal connections within those who participate in a trade. Honey does this relatively frequently. A fashion color has been levied against a custom sign to hang next to their booth at the salon. A color and style was used to trade for a crocheted stuffed viking doll as a gift for myself. Tattoos, business card designs, cookies, and other things have all been trade fodder for their hair services and I think that’s great.
This brings us to my camera and why a quick writing on the importance of skilled trades evolved into a treatise on the merits of trading things. I have not been taking photos long and I’m not particularly good at it. I’m fine with this for now. I’ve only been in posession of my beloved 60D for just a few months and I’m more than comfortable with the time and energy it takes to learn a skill. In fact I find that it can be the most exciting part. The uncertainty of trying something new and the elation of achieving any measurable amount of success early into a venture is intoxicating. However, just this last week I walked to the tattoo shop across from the brewery owned by my bosses wife, camera in hand to take photos of some of their new merch line. We have a couple of other sessions planned for later at the conclusion of which I will be recieving a tattoo. A skill and a product for a skill and a product. While I never intended to embark as a freelance photographer when I pulled this camera out of Honey’s closet it would seem that path has opened up for me and I find myself excited by the potential for other trades in the future.
Thanks for hanging out!
-Cheers!