I started photography because of a momentary splashing in a Central Park fountain with my best friend and her sister and their joy and beauty and excitement, and mine along with theirs, being depicted very accurately by a point and shoot digital camera. I figured if this cheap thing can register feelings, there is much more possible.
I hate to say this, but at the beginning everything was clear and simple. I was busy photographing what I saw and was very happy if it came out as I saw it. I see many beautiful things, so it was a lot of work.
Then came the long, never ending period of technical deficiency, trying to figure out what in-between technology will trick things into coming out exactly how I see them. And then it became even more difficult; I forgot how I saw them in the first place.
There came a question of what do you want things to be. And the insecurity of it being "appropriate" with others.
Learning on your own forces you to make great leaps, but also sometimes makes you spend more time on one letter than others spend on the entire alphabet, especially if you get attached to how things worked so well last year.
And then people start to ask what context do you put this in, and you say you just like it.
Then I started differentiating between the genres. First it must have been travel photography, and then portrait if it was a face, and then fashion if the girl was skinny enough, but you were not quite able to get a designer piece for your test.