Stepping It Up

The past week or two have been pretty big for me, in some ways.  Up until now, I’ve been working part time in a field I enjoy (providing animal husbandry for marine life), and treating photography as an occasionally income-generating hobby that I could take more seriously than I could if I were fully employed.  At the end of last year, I was told that my job and several others were all being consolidated into a single full-time position, and that at some point soon I’d either be hired for that or be out of work.

Fast forward to April: I did not get that position.  In the meantime, I haven’t really found any other work to replace it with.  This field is tiny.  Jobs in it are rare and highly competitive even in a good economy, and I’d have to be open to moving just about anywhere — which I’m not.  Or I could find an office job, giving all my best efforts to an organization that, if I’m lucky, I kinda like (I’ve tried this in the past, with very mixed success).

So, I have a background working with animals, and as an interpretive naturalist.  I know how to teach myself about the natural world and find what’s most interesting or important about something to teach others.  I have a good grasp of the technical and artistic fundamentals of photography and how to apply them to nature…

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is the best opportunity I’ll have to turn photography into a fulfilling career.  If taking a normal 9-to-5 job would mean sacrificing what I’m most passionate about and most interested in doing for the sake of a regular paycheck, then I honestly think it would be a mistake that I’d look back on and regret.  Even worse, it would be cowardly.  Or maybe not — I’m not afraid of hard work, of failure, or of having to learn the marketing and business skills this will take.  But I am afraid of spending my life doing work where my only real personal interest is a paycheck and a 401k.

I still have my part-time job going, though it’s liable to dry up on short notice.  It covers rent and bills, but not much else.  Hopefully this will last long enough to get some revenue coming in, and for me to really fine-tune my strategy.  I have a rough plan of what I want to do, and of the start-up costs it’s going to take.

So that’s my big news.  If you’re in the Boston area, have need of a photographer, and want to help me get in motion, get in touch (I’ll write a post later describing what I offer in more detail).  And stay tuned, because I’ll be announcing my first photo book for sale in the next day or two :)