"i'm a photographer."

Let's get this one out of the way.  You're a photographer.  Yes, repeat after me, "I'm a photographer."  If you love this craft and you make images with a camera, you're a photographer.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  You don't need to be winning awards or getting paid to be a photographer.  You don't need to know all the full stop aperture numbers to be a photographer.  Or be Spiderman, although Peter Parker is a photographer.  ("I'm Peter Parker.  I'm a photographer.")    I've encountered photographers who had a little trouble identifying themselves as such.  Saying so is the easy part; learning the craft is the hard part.

There, there.