Top left to bottom right: Willamette Community and Grange Hall, Benton County water tower, tree branches on the Oregon Coast, sand, water and rock on the Oregon Coast, turkey vulture at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
The way things were going, I think retirement from paid photography work was inevitable. It’s certainly welcome.
Mentally, physically, and financially, professional photography hasn’t been working for me. For a long while.
My long history with photography was part of the problem. History makes habit. Habit closed my eyes, ears, heart and mind. It stole my inspiration. Without inspiration I had no motivation, no drive to work. Without motivation and drive, well, it made me resent being involved with photography. Especially when bills need to be paid.
So, I quit. I retired. I chose another path. Actually, another path chose me. I don’t call myself a photographer anymore. I just do photography. For fun, and because I love it. Now I look forward to doing photography with the same level of excitement my dog has for going off leash in the woods. It’s a night and day difference. I wake up excited to find something to shoot. I don’t always get to shoot, but that has this weird effect of making me want to do it that much more.
It’s great. Paid photography required me to pre-visualize and plan for every image I want to make. Now I get to open my senses and respond to what presents itself to me. I don’t have to maintain equipment to handle every paid photography situation. No more fraught decisions about what to take and what to leave at home. I just grab my camera bag and go. Nor do I have to maintain a portfolio of new and interesting work. I don’t have to feel frustrated or hurt when a client doesn’t like my style. I just get to shoot, and print, and hang things on my walls.
That’s enough for me. That was probably all I ever really needed from photography.