For more than 18 months, I’ve belonged to the online photography community Viewbug.com that was founded by and for photographers of all levels and abilities. Viewbug includes contributions from photographic heavyweights like Skip Cohen, Peter Hurley, Jessica Drossin and Rick Sammon and is geared towards raising the level of photographers everywhere.
Yesterday, I received an email with the headline, ‘Top 2015 Photographers – Find Out Where You Ranked”, and when I followed the link I learned that I am one of the Top 10% of Most Popular Photographers of 2015. On Viewbug, I have a network of close friends, photographers I know by reputation only, but the vast majority are complete strangers to me. These people, along with others are my peers. It’s an honor to receive this recognition from peers, and I was proud to share the news with family and friend and even posted the screen shot of my status on my personal Facebook wall… that’s when it hit me. I’m completely stunned at the outpouring of support, encouragement, and genuine praise for my achievement from those who really know me. In less than 24 hours I’ve gotten more ‘Likes’ and messages of congratulations than any other post I’ve ever made. I thank each and every one that takes the time and effort to inspire me with hope and confidence to continue to pursue my vision of visual storytelling.