Originally posted by TYOsborn
So, my question is to you all... What are you going to do with the photos?
90% or more of my shooting is purely recreational. Personally, I don't feel the need to justify my hobbies or passions to anyone (though my wife likes to be informed when I make a heavy equipment purchase).
Hobbies are what we do for fun. It really doesn't matter why we are doing it beyond that.
I'm not expecting my pictures to hang around after I die, and I think anyone who believes they are going to have their pictures fawned over by future generations is showing a hell of a lot of arrogance and hubris, and a very shallow connection to reality.
There aren't that many "important" photographers taking "important" pictures in the grand scheme of things.
Never have been, never will be, and with digital making everyone a photographer, the potential for being one of the important ones taking important pictures is even more remote.
Some people build model railroads, others collect recipes. Neither of these pastimes have much possibility of making a person rich and famous, outside of the very small ponds that the practitioners of these hobbies inhabit, but they do it anyway, for the sheer pleasure that it brings.
I enjoy photography, I enjoy bringing pretty pictures home, but more than that, I enjoy being where the pretty pictures are, at least as much as I enjoy capturing them.
If my pictures please other people, that's really their problem, not mine, and I take very little interest in how they feel about what I do. I rarely show my pictures in forums, I think my entire website has less than 50 public pictures, and few of them have garnered any comments, favourable or otherwise.
So go out and enjoy your photography, don't worry about whether your mother approves, and don't bother justifying it to her, or anyone else.