passion

Posts Tagged ‘passion’

Passion in photography part 2

December 8th, 2008 · 4 Comments

In my last post, part 1, I went on about how it can be difficult to actually separate your passions from the many things you like in life. Some signs of NOT following your passions reveal themselves in obvious ways. If you are working on something (a career, towards a goal, a project) and the work feels like a drudgery, mustering the enthusiasm or energy for the work is difficult, or the work is the means to the goal only. I’d venture to suggest that you are probably not pursuing something you are truly passionate about.

Q: How do you know if you are passionate about a thing?

A 1: The energy, commitment, enthusiasm, and desire to pursue the passion wells up within you spontaneously without effort on your part. In other words, it’s easier to follow this thing than it would be to ignore or avoid it. When you turn away it gnaws at your insides. In the morning when you are laying comfortably in bed the desire for it makes you throw the covers off. I don’t have to try and get excited about photography, I just am. I don’t try to muster the enthusiasm to do a photo shoot, instead there seems to be a boundless supply of motivating desire for it.

A 2: The pursuit of a passion is satisfying and rewarding in the present moment. According to my definition a passion can not be solely embodied in the future. I think it’s possible to be passionate about reaching a goal, but if you find that the process is not a pleasure then I think it’s time to reconsider. The best way I can explain this is a surfing analogy. For about 10 years I’ve had a vague goal of becoming a skilled surfer, but the first wave I caught was just as fun as the wave yesterday, and if I ever reach this nebulous goal of being ’skilled’ I don’t expect that I’ll enjoy surfing anymore than I did 10 years ago. That’s because my passion for surfing is not contained solely in the goal of being skilled, my passion is for surfing period. The process, the means towards the goal, is satisfying and rewarding in the present moment.

There is much more that could be said on this, so let’s look at some photos. The photos in this post are of a friend and kayak surfer with real passion, Randy Keller. The image at the top shows Randy trying to take his frozen hand out of a frozen glove after a surfing session during a winter storm. Notice the ice covering everything, including his one remaining lens in his glasses. The photos below tell the rest of the story that lead up to the top photo.

Randy makes it pretty obvious that when a person is following a true passion the endurance or commitment required to overcoming great obstacles is provided. He does not suffer through a session like this, he loves it. I don’t think he particularly enjoys throbbing cold hands and breaking his glasses, but he certainly has a passion for kayak surfing, and lives out a very obvious example of how a passion provides the energy and enthusiasm required for its wholehearted pursuit. The air temp was probably around 10F, it was snowing hard and blowing roughly 30mph. If you are curious about this Randy Keller guy, check out his adventure guiding business – Isuma Guideworks.

Tags: kayaking, passion, photography, surfing, winter
Posted in adventure, general, photo shoot | 4 Comments

Passion in Photography part 1

December 4th, 2008 · 8 Comments

Passion – An intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

The word has never sat quite right with me, though, I continually pursue it in my life. I can barely stand to say it, but I am truly passionate about following my passions. As it turns out, I am in the right business, because when it comes to photography I have passion. According to the thesaurus the following words are synonyms for passion: enthusiasm, eagerness, love, zeal, spiritedness, fascination, obsession, fixation, addiction and preoccupation. check. check. check.

Interestingly, I’ve found that pursuing passion is not particularly easy. It appears there should be nothing easier in life than doing what I have enthusiasm and love for, right? After all, it’s what I love! There are at least two major obstacles to overcome. The first is a sly one.

Do I really know what my passions are? The gut response is yes, of course I know what I love. But I’ve found that when actually working to define my passions, it becomes less clear, mostly due to the second obstacle.

Do I know the difference between things I like, and things I love? It’s clear that I like to take all kinds of pictures. I’ve enjoyed photographing a wide variety of things, weddings, architectural interiors, school portraits, still life, landscapes, events and the list goes on. I like them all. I’m not passionate about them all.

For several weeks I’ve been working to define what I love most about images and making them. This has been a challenge. I ask myself what do I love, and what do I really love? What am I drawn to for its own sake, without considering what I think its market appeal is. This is not about finding what kind of work will make me the most money. Forget what sells best, or what the big shot photographers are doing, what kind of imagery has the most draw for me?

I’m excited about this process and the focus it’s bringing to my ‘work’, particularly thrilling is the way that with practice I’m learning to recognize my own passions more clearly, and along with that comes increased confidence to pursue them.

The image at the top has been stuck in my head for several weeks. I haven’t defined why, but I know that it elicits fascination, obsession and preoccupation, also known as passion.

Below are a few other photos from the shoot. The model is Erika Klaar and it’s spring in Alaska. I remember that I was completely consumed by the creative energy on this shoot, buzzing from the thrill of creating images. This is not rare for me while photographing, and that high I feel confirms that I’m doing what I love. Thanks for reading all this, I hope it inspires you to follow your own addictions with greater focus.