Take a Risk to Live Your Photographic Dream

As the year draws to a close, I'd like to share a personal story of my own journey. While everyone's story is different, I hope that you are able to find some lessons in both my wins and losses that will help you to push forward and make the coming year even better than the last.
                                             

There I was. Sitting nervously behind a cheaply constructed metal table, I inhaled deeply, terrified of the sound of the convention hall doors swinging open. Anxiously, I awaited the chorus of footsteps. Knowing that I would soon be called upon to play the part of traveling salesman. I knew I would be expected to have all the right words to say. The only problem? Up until that very moment, I had yet to find even the foggiest clue as to what those “right words” would be.

I knew it would be a risk. This whole adventure would go by that description. Only three days earlier, I had taken an even bigger gamble, tossing my cushy and comfortable day job of the past twelve years for the uncertain life of a freelance photographer. I had some idea of what to expect. I was neither new to photography nor to the idea of being an independent artist. Having spent the bulk of my twenties as a screenwriter and director, I was more than familiar with the idea of following my dreams and the joys and disappointments which would accompany such a pursuit.

Slowly, but surely, things turned around. A rebirth of my physical health coincided with the discovery of a new tool which would provide me with a reason to return to life. My new best friend, and lightweight Nikon D200 with a cheap but versatile kit zoom lens gave me both the motivation and the permission to step out into the world. It allowed me to again see people and possibilities. The images the camera and I created reawakened the artist in me so long buried by endless fruitless pitch meetings and polite rejections from heads of development. And while those early days behind the lens were notably devoid of financial ambition, the sudden and unexpected positive response I was getting from my new art form had allowed me to breathe again.

As the years passed, my skills developed as did my ambition. I cycled through a vast cornucopia of clients and visual styles. I tried on aesthetic approaches the way most people try on clothes at the department store and eventually found one that fit.