“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow”
There have been several significant changes for me in the past week, and although they’ve been planned for a long time I’m somewhat shell-shocked by how quickly time has passed.
First and foremost, I’ve said goodbye to the office job, along with the nice salary (and security) that goes with it. Over the past few years my love of this craft has grown to the point where I can’t not pursue it fully. To be able to make a living from this love in itself will be a dream come true. It’s the foundation for ‘the ultimate dream’ I have, which I’ll share with you in the follow-up to this post.
On top of the career change I’ve moved to Canada, and am currently getting my bearings in Calgary city. Anyone I’ve spoken to so far has been extremely friendly and welcoming, and aside from a lot of incompetence on the part of DHL in failing to ship some essential items over, it’s been a pretty smooth move.
Depending on how you look upon it, the move can make the career change a lot easier or a lot more difficult. Time will tell. Being so far away from my family is the hardest part, while the internet makes it easy and cheap to stay in touch and up-to-date, it’s no substitute for being able to jump in the car and arrive at the motherland within an hour.
What does this career in photography entail? Right now there’s a few different avenues I’ll be pursuing:
- Freelance commissions & 1-to-1 tuition (a continuation of what I’ve been doing to date)
- Assisting established photographers whose work I think highly of
- Working for established businesses in the area (print labs, studios, camera stores/suppliers, galleries etc)
- Creating a user friendly mechanism for the sale of my own limited edition prints (then finally adding more images)
Marketing is going to play a huge part in all of the above. Fresh business cards & somewhat unique ‘Picture Résumé’ cards have been designed, printed and delivered, and the hustle is just getting going.
So, an adventure begins and the road less traveled awaits. Without my old safety net it scares the shit out of me. I’d be a fool to think there won’t be days ahead where the office seems like the logical place to be… and on those days I hope I’ll be able to learn, bear with it, push forward and remember the fact that logical choices haven’t led me to where I want to be.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
- Samuel Beckett
These changes would not have been possible without Niamh, my ‘friend-with-benefits’, constant source of smiles and editor-in-chief (with the unsavoury task of beating my rambling scribbles here into somewhat logical posts). I don’t even know where to begin thanking her.
More coming soon…
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 4:13PM | 
