Fuel Your Passion - Oct.2012

Fuel Your Passion

I see a lot of websites by photographers with the phrase: "I'm passionate about photography." What does that mean?

Are you passionate about carrying around a camera and clicking the shutter to capture whatever person or object happens to be in front of you? What do you do with the images you create? Is there some purpose in capturing those images beyond just doing so?
Do you sell them? Is that what you're passionate about? Making money with your camera? (I've heard the fastest way to do that is to sell your camera?)
Are you passionate about hearing all the positive comments from family, friends and clients about what good pictures you take?
Have you been emotional touched or inspired by a photographic image, and now you want to help others experience that?
Do you like creating beautiful art with your camera? Do you love editing photos to enhance them further and make something artistic? Is it about the art?
Do you just like running a business, all the paper work, marketing, advertising, selling, bookkeeping, etc.? And you happen to be decent with a camera, so the photography business is your business of choice? (After all, it is about 80% business & 20% photography.)
Do you enjoy the relationships you build with your clients? Do you enjoy seeing the relationships they share in their families and capturing those images in emotional, life-affirming images?

This is a challenge I'm putting to my fellow professional photographer in the coming year. As current president of Professional Photographers of Oklahoma, I'm hoping to, first, help our members identify their passion, to find it.

But then what do you do with it? What does it do with you? How do you maintain it? For most of it, it certainly is not the 80% of this business that is business. So how do you keep going when it becomes tedious, or even worse, when the economy, or some other crisis throws you for a loop? Your passion can help sustain you. It's important to feel your passion. Pay attention when you have those moments that make you say "YES." Remember what brought about that feeling, what you did. Then repeat it. If that feeling of "YES" was strong enough to make the challenges worthwhile, pursue it. Persistence pays. (Just ask Flower).

 Finally, you need to Fuel Your Passion. Find things that reinforce it. Find ways to grow, to get better. Find other photographers with whom to fellowship. Find mentors. Continue your education. Don't just take snapshots and hope to get a good one here or there. Learn what takes an image beyond what anyone with a good camera can do. Learn to create images in camera that need little or no editing after the fact. There's only so much Photoshop or any other program can do to make a weak image better. If it's important to you, if you are truly passionate about it, it's worth being the best you can be at it.

In 2010, I was asked by Professional Photographers of Oklahoma to finish out the term of the Secretary of the organization, because of another executive officer's resignation. Generally, when you take the role of Secretary, it's the beginning of "going through the chairs." Unless something unusual happens, or you back out, you will likely be elected as 2nd Vice President the next year, then 1st Vice President. When you get to 1st VP, you are also President Elect, because it takes most of your 1st VP year to plan the programs and events for your year as President. As of this past Sunday, I am now officially president of Professional Photographers of Oklahoma. It's almost overwhelming in several ways. For one thing, there's still much to do to complete and implement the plans I've been working on. For another, there are a lot of really great photographers in our organization. I feel my day to day work for my clients is strong, and I'd put it up against just about anyone's. However, I've seen some really remarkable work, especially in print competition, from some of our members - images that awe and inspire and amaze. It's an humbling honor to be leading this incredible group for the coming year.

Lessons from Flower the Cat

Flower gets up every morning about 4:00. I suppose the timing is our own fault. We have a clock with two alarms. We set one for 30 minutes to an hour before we want to get up. We call it our snuggle alarm. Flower sees it as an opportunity. He assumes someone's awake enough to get up and feed the cat. There was a period of time when we needed to be up around 4:30 or 5, and apparently Flower got used to that, Now, even though the clock is set for a later time, his internal clock goes off and he's ready for breakfast at 4 a.m. He walks around our waterbed hoping to encourage someone to arise. Sometimes he jumps over a random arm or leg, landing with a bit of a thump. Amazing how pronounced the steps of a cat can be when he walks on a waterbed. And he's persistent. So, I usually get up and feed him, then go back to bed until the alarm actually goes off around 5:15.

Now, he's getting used to that, and has taken it upon himself to be our snooze alarm. He jumps up on the bed again about the time the alarm goes off, apparently to make sure we don't hit the snooze button too many times. After we are up and dressed, when I'm ready to leave the bedroom and head to the kitchen, he darts from under the foot of our bed, ready to race me up the hall-way. We sprint from the bedroom to the kitchen and back a few times, then sit on the living room floor and tussle for a few minutes.

After Trish & I have had breakfast, taken care of outside animals, and Trish leaves for school, Flower's ready for a nap, usually in my lap while I get started at work at my desk. He'll stay there an hour or two if he's not interrupted, before wandering off to look out windows, play or nap somewhere else. For those "dog people" out there, lap naps are one of the things cat owners like about their pets. It's good when your cat curls up in your lap or next to you and purrs his/her contentment.

When you wake up, get up, with enthusiasm and a bounce in your step.
Have a plan for your day - a schedule or routine that will accomplish your goals effectively.
Don't take no for answer, and don't give up too quickly on your goals. Persistence pays.
Be sure to return a kindness and say thank you to others.


And, for those who've never met Flower, & may be wondering how he got his name:
When he was a kitten, he had a streak of white fur from the middle of his back partway down his tail. That, coupled with loving to play in the flower bed, he was named after Flower the skunk in "Bambi." After getting stuck with the name, and learning to respond to it when called, his white streak disappeared.