Advice is all around. Flowing from mouths and screens, radios and print, coming at all from all directions daily. Deciding what is useful and what to discard is no simple task. However, there is one piece of advice about doing what you love which I heard recently that I wanted to address.
Socializing at a photography show here on Salt Spring Island that I’m currently participating in, I got into a discussion with one of the fellow photographers. When I mentioned that, previously I have been a teacher (and still play various roles in Early Education in my community), but now I’ve moved over to photography as my means of making an income.
This seemed to take the gentleman I was chatting with by surprise. I’m making an income from photography? Yes. In fact, a more fruitful income than I was previously, and loving what I do for a living elates me.
It turns out that a piece of advice he was given when creating portraiture photography in past was that, if you love doing it, don’t do it as your job. Which I can understand the premise behind. I have certainly noticed my natural ability to compose a photo somewhat hampered by the technical pieces I’m more aware of now that influence what I see. Becoming a “professional” has changed things for me, of course.
But I have to say – I strongly disagree with this advice to not follow an income from your passions.
Here’s why.
Life is for filling with moments of growth and joy. Even in the usual “to-do list” of life, there is growth and joy to be found. Sing while you wash. Dance while you fold. Find the beauty of the moment and let it marinate in your psyche while you accomplish your tasks.
Why would I ever choose to spend my life doing something I don’t feel alive doing? Why would I opt to spend the majority of my days plugging away at something that holds no joy, keeping my true passions hidden away for pursuing only in my “spare” time?
If you love to do something, making that what you do as the fuel of your life just makes sense. Does it not?
My philosophy is that you are the lead in your life, and it’s your responsibility to fill your life with what fills your soul. It’s never going to just come to you. It’s not going to be given in a sparkly box with a message reading “Congratulations! You’ve waited long enough, here’s your life!”
Do what you love with all your heart, and you will find the rest comes naturally. If you commit to doing what makes you shine, and openly share about what it is you’re doing (the hardest part for some people), people will see it, and the right ones will appreciate it.
People will be drawn to it.
People will want to hire you to do what you love.
So do what you love, and if you have an opportunity to chase that dream as the means of supporting you to continue doing what you love every day, don’t dismiss it as a “silly dream” or as something that will ruin that passion. So what if you spend some time doing that thing you love and decide you don’t love it as much as you used to? What is the problem if we flux over and over in life? I’ve done it a few times now, and I have to say, I dig it.
Do what you love, as much as you can, for as long as it makes you happy. And when it no longer makes you happy, that’s just fine. Go and find what fills your soul in this new era of being, and do that instead.
We are not fixed. We can be all that we want to be, and we can ebb and flow with life and the changes that occur inside of us.
If you’re interested to check out the show I’m participating in while it’s up, it is the Eclectic Visions 2022 photography show, being held upstairs at Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island. It is part of the Salt Spring Photofest from June 3 – 17 this year, a “self-guided visual feast” showcasing many photographers in various locations around Salt Spring. All the displayed pieces at Eclectic Visions are for sale, and there are also some prints and cards there for purchase, if you’re looking for some new art for your walls, or a memento of your visit to Salt Spring Island.
And for those of you who might like to take a look at some of my photography, you can peruse my website here: www.hannahsprayphotography.com (though it seems to always need updating – check my Instagram page or my Facebook page for the most recent samples of my work).
Thank you for reading!