Great job with the photo of Nero!

Like so many others, the photog thing started as a coping mechanism for me too. I'd have shitty, ugly days at work with neverending problems to solve and a bottomless brain entanglements in the extreme technical nature of my work.

At the end of the day though, I'd find a way to go out and make an image. You take chaotic elements of an environment, study them, then organize them to make something pleasing and beautiful. So it became how I'd unwind my brain and find a zen moment after work. Set problem, find solution, leave with something lovely. Definite coping mechanism.

Then it became something else entirely during periods of emotional turmoil.

Then you keep living with all of this junk, and the camera has become a giant portion of your life. And while it too now delivers some amount of stress and frustration, it's otherwise a beautiful shade of yourself borne out of things that are otherwise ugly.