Passion & Pitfalls
I don’t know any good photographers who are not passionate about photography, do you? Sure, there are average photographers who make lots of money, but they too have a passion, the passion of doing business. But I would like to talk about the passion for photography.
The Maniac
I eat, sleep and breath photography. there’s no switch to turn this passion off. Even if I go to sleep, I dream of pictures. I believe that there’s something like ‘talent’ but I also believe that many people have enough talent to become good photographers, be it as a pro or an amateur. I don’t consider myself being extremely talented. The pictures I made before starting to take photography seriously are just ordinary snapshots.
Without working insanely hard and thinking about photography all the time, you won’t get anywhere. This is where the passion comes in. Passion is what drives you to keep investing such a crazy amount of time and energy into getting better. I have a laid back personality and I guess you could even say that I’m a bit lazy. I’ll settle for ‘good enough’ instead of ‘perfect’ if that buys me an extra hour with a good book or with my family. But when it comes to photography, I become a maniac. With an evil grin on my face and a determination that comes close to madness, I want to make a picture that is perfect. And the next picture has to be even better.
The days when I was a student with lots of time on his hands and the energy of a 20 year old are long gone. These days I’m the proud father of three young kids, a husband who loves his wife dearly, part of a network of fantastic friends/relatives and a clumsy idiot who tries to convert an old house into a comfy home. Without passion I would be barely able to work a standard 8 hour day. The love for photography is what makes me invent the time and energy to become a better photographer.
Passion vs Obsession
Now here comes the ‘but’. Passion is necessary but be very aware of the fine line between passion and obsession. Obsession is where a passion becomes unhealthy and even dangerous. I walk that line and sometimes slip into the dark side of passion. Being very aware of the pitfalls is what makes me climb back to the good side every time but I can imagine how easy it can be for some people to loose themselves in the obsession.
I know people who’ve been there and destroyed relationships, damaged their health and lost themselves. Don’t let that happen to you. ?A few days ago I had a short but nice chat on Facebook with someone who admired the way I balance my passion for photography with my personal life. My ego likes it when someone likes my pictures but what he said was a much bigger compliment to me. I refuse to believe that it’s impossible to have a career and a healthy personal life at the same time.
Keep the Balance
It’s a constant struggle to keep the balance, but I’m slowly getting better at it. It’s good to have a network of friends with the same passion. It’s so refreshing to be able to talk about gear, photographers, influences, styles, … with someone who doesn’t fall asleep after 10 minutes. But I believe it’s also important to have a network of friends who have nothing to do with photography. A few weeks back I had dinner and drinks with two dear old friends. We used to hang out together all the time during our teenage years but hadn’t done that ever since. It was so great not to talk or even think about photography for once.
Your passion may seem perfectly normal to you but it may be very hard to understand for the people around you who don’t share that passion. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. Give them an insight in your world and let them participate if they want to. They will still not have the same passion but it will be a lot easier for them to understand yours. Don’t lock up that part of you because you think that they won’t understand anyway. I’ve taken my kids with me on a few jobs, so they understand what their dad is doing when he suddenly has to disappear on a saturday. I’m not pushing them to take pictures themselves, but whenever they feel like it, they can use the compact camera. My wife may not be the most avid photographer but she likes to assist with make-up and styling on personal shoots. ?Seeing how much you enjoy what you do, will make it much easier for them to understand how important photography is to you.
In the beginning of this article I told you there’s no switch to turn the passion off, at least I haven’t found it. But I found out that I can put my passion in idle mode by turning another switch on. It can be anything, as long as it’s something that requires your complete attention: playing music, learning a language, doing sports, …
Last week, I had the chance to shoot with an airgun for an hour or so. After that I realized that I was so concentrated on aiming at a dot 25 meters away, that I didn’t think of anything else.
Don’t become a slave of your passion but do embrace it with a bit of caution, it will take you on an incredible enriching creative ride.
I’m very interested in reading how you manage to balance your passion for photography with the rest of your life, so hit the comments.
Bert Stephani
Great article!
I have to watch out for my passion not to cut too much time from my studying(computer science). Trying to do that is not
always easy. Often I find myself restricting me rather to not shoot at all for some time, to do all the study-related work,
and after that I’ve always got some days on which I can solely concentrate on photography. That includes reading up
on blogs(LIME! ;)) and equipment details ;). Maybe not the most efficient way as sometimes my feedreaders inbox piles way
too high, but I think I have more freedom like that and I don’t need to worry that my studies are coming too short.
greetings
On a side-note:
the clock of the comments is about 7 minutes ahead of time *G
fab
Great article! I can follow your flow of thoughts. I think of myself as passionate and am normally laid back and lazy except when it comes to photography, but I can also ignore my gear during the week (I’m a hobbyist) to not neglect my money making job.
I mostly agree with the friends part, one night we were visiting old friends and the man of the couple happened to have developed a taste for photography The next day my husband wasn’t happy because we talked about gear and techniques for more than 3 hours while our other halves were very bored… definitely a pitfall!
It’s very hard to manage passion for photography (that Im trying to transform into my work), “normal” work (that you don’t like much, but hey.. you need the money), and life.
I found the best way to balance it is having my gf that is strong willed as me and that can litterally take me out when I’m falling into obsession and need to clear my head. Or when Im starting to loose the will to make my change work came tru she pushes me. Or she just remind me that I need to do the laundry instead of gettin my morale low!!
I know exactly what you mean here, I can relate as I am a husband and a father and there is most certain…..a Fine line between the family and the career as a photographer……
Sometimes I feel like it may be a impossible venture cause I am running all the aspects of the business and doing all the shooting and research….
Which is part my fault cause I am a control freak, and I just recently I have gotten my wife in on it and she is ready to learn so she will relieve me of some of the duties.
I managed to get her to be a second shooter at a wedding with me and to my surprise she did really well, her composure’s were probably better then mine. But she does not have the passion to want to learn all the functions of the camera. She wants me to set it up and let her shoot , lol
So Yea its hard to talk to her about the new cameras and lenses coming out and all that stuff us photog’s like talking about. But thats why we have each other. heh
Thanks for the post , it gives me alot of hope .
-Shane
Wow, another great article!
) ) and i am giving all things i do the time they need.
Balance is important, but I in my opinion (or from my experience ^^) it is even more important to keep that passion living
and to never give up on it.
My “original” Passion is dancing. I’ve been a dancer for years (and somehow my sport made me realize my “other passion” for taking photographs) but one day my “real life” at university became so consumpting, that i had to give up on dancing.
it worked for a couple of weeks, went hard after some months and not half a year after having given up, i felt like some kind of zombie, having lost some part of myself.
things did not turn out well those days, my marks became worse, my photos didn’t tell nuts and my private life… …hmm. no comment on that ;).
as a dancer i should have known better on “finding the balance”.
today i’ve got a new partner to dance with (when i quit, my old partner continued with another guy, but that’s good, since she’s way more talented than I would ever be! (we’re still in contact though
That is, as I realized, the most important thing on “balance”.
You can’t force balance. Sometimes you’ve got to let lose on things to keep others up to an -at least- acceptable level. If whatever you’ve worked on becomes stable, you can still focus on the other parts of your life more intensely. But you may never forget or abandon any parts of your “inner life”.
Balance somehow is like water in a bowl. It is fluid. It is not necessarily everywhere at the same time. The bowl, representing your life, doesn’t always stand straight, but whenever you force it back into “Balance” too hard, or let too lose on it, all water will run out. And as regards the amount of water it may throw you from your feet.
Today I can even combine my passions if I want to. My knowledge I gain at university helps me doing my job (jay! hehe) and sometimes even in real life. My passion for photography is the most easy thing to share with all friends, since none of them minds the (almost omni-) presence of my camera (especially those of them who are dancing either ^^). And whenever I need time for myself I go out and shoot on my own.
It is all about “balance”, Bert, you’re completely right! A great and motivating article!
Nice article. Here ’s another perspective, what to do when you are passionate about photography but can not find the time to photograph as much as you would like next to your job & 2 kids? It sounds like luxury to me when photography is your work, that’s at least 32 hours of time to spend on your passion! Or does the passion fade when it is a working thing?
cheers,
Esther
Great article. Photographers don’t talk about this enough, so I’m glad you started the discussion. I can relate in that I don’t feel I don’t have the natural talent that others possess, but the more time and passion I put into photography, the better I can be. But along with learning to art, I have also learned when and when not to bring my camera with me to a certain event. Even when I do have my camera, I’ve learned when I should cool down with my shutter finger and take only a few shots at opportune moments. It’s not cool to leave your friends waiting for 15 minutes while you try to get the perfect shot of pigeon on a lampost during sunset.
Hi Bert,
Thanks for the great article. I have a problem in finding that balance. I started with photography April 2008 and since that day I feel the need that I have to improve every day. Sometimes when I have an idea it keeps me awake or I feel the need to finish post processing during the night etc.
My girlfriend tried to warn me a time ago and I reacted that she should be more interested in my “hobby”.
Since a short time I realized that I want too much in a short time, but it’s still hard to control the passion and creativity.
Nowadays I have a hard time to disappoint people that want me as a photographer (since I don’t have enough time)
This week I planned in for finishing all my post processing so I don’t have any pressure anymore and to think about what’s really important to me to improve my skills instead of wanting to learn everything. If you can have a look at my website and can give a hint on what part I should concentrate I would really appreciate that!
Thanks, Kind Regards, Sander from The Netherlands.
I balance my photography passion with another passion I have… skateboarding. Skateboarding has been a passion of mine for about 14 years now. The nice thing is I do photography professionally, so I need to stay very focused on that to stay on my game, but I also love doing it so it’s not that hard. Skateboarding on the other hand is purely for enjoyment, and some times to keep local emergency rooms busy. But it’s good to have something I do that I enjoy equally as much as photography, but there’s no pressure.
Yep… this is a constant battle for me as well…
I have a job I hate… but one that requires my full attention… a girlfriend I can’t stand to be away from… and photography…
I’ve been thinking quite a lot recently that I need to switch off the photography every now and again… but it’s so hard to get it out of your head…
Something that helps me is time with my girl… doing something else together, not photography related… it’s hard to put the camera down, even at these times, though… obsession?
Great article!! I find balance (sometimes) because I have so many different passions. I can’t obsess about just one, I need so many different things as you might notice if you visit my blog. I have thought a lot about passion vs. obsession and I think you’ve got some great points here, thanks for your tips.
Passion? Obsession? Yessirree in a sense that everywhere I am or everywhere I go I ’see’ photo’s.But that’s a good obsession, although sometimes an overload.
super, I needed that
very very very nice sir bert! I had the same problem going through my mind.. but in time i realize how to manage it! after reading this article it made my mind clear!
great mentor!
Hello Bert,
Don’t know if you remember me or not, but I’m the nut from Mexico who complimented you about the videos last December.
I’m in Cabo, Mexico and after reading your article about “Passion for Photography” I thought of how incredible it is to have people who really enjoy photography. I’m still a terrible “seller” of photography and sometimes it gets me ticked-off how other photographers here make tons of money and are mostly jerks and I say so because they can see me struggling and they don’t move a finger. But I decided not to follow that awful example once I’m better known.
I agree with you that I think on how to perfect my next shoot and even if it is good, I wonder how it could be better and the things I missed to do. I get upset after a good shoot for not doing this or that, but it is such a burning passion inside of me and my body boils every time I get behind the lens. Just love it!
Thank you for this inspiring gut-feeling article!
marTin