Photo Phred.

When I was a young lad I took a couple of aptitude tests at a local college to discover what my perfect career would be. I expected at least one, if not both, would come back "Nobel-prizewinning author." Or maybe one would say "Pulitzer-prizewinning author." I would have settled for that.

"Photographer" and "Greeting Card Store Manager" were not what I expected at all.

I was disappointed at the time, but not because I thought little of those jobs---or indeed that I think little of them now. I just wanted to write more than anything.

Also, photography is very mechanical, and I am not mechanically inclined. A friend of mine took up photography, and I couldn't talk about it with him for more than a minute before he started to baffle me with F stops and aperture speeds and God knows what else.

Maybe it's simpler now in the digital age, but probably not. Light is light, and photography is all about the science of light capture. I also have never understood enough about photo composition to tell a museum-quality photography from a good vacation picture. They all look good to me. Here's a shot I took with my phone.

I call it Commuter Bus with Sunrise. Or, Antigone.

Pretty awesome, huh? Or not; I wouldn't know.

Photography is the kind of thing I would take up as a hobby, spend a thousand bucks on, and in a year the camera would have collected so much dust you could write "SAY CHEESE" on it with your finger. Probably not a career move for me.

I suppose those aptitude tests can be helpful if you really don't know what to do or what you want from your life, but they probably have some weaknesses.

As for managing a greeting card store, I think I would have to like people to do that job. Yeah, probably not a good fit either.