Proof of Your Passion
No, the title isn’t the name of the romance novel I’m reading. Wait — not that I’m reading a romance novel. Wait — not that there is anything wrong with that. Unless there is! Shoot! Darned if you do, darned if you don’t!
And no, the title isn’t designed to be clickbait. Well, aren’t all titles designed to be interesting or enticing somehow? So, it’s clickbait, then. Fine.
On to the real content of the blog post.
About a year ago, I realized that although I had been using photography, one of my passions, to promote school district projects and had been doing portrait photography for work, (the Nutrition Services campaign) or the #IAMSAUSD alumni photo-story series,
I didn’t have any sort of proof, or an archive, or a body of work demonstrating my passion for photography outside of my work with the school district. I had some client photography (a wedding, some headshots, some family photo shoots I had done for relatives), but I didn’t have any examples of photography that was mine. Art created by me, for me, without a specific charge from a client.
Because I moved school districts, I realized that my entire photography portfolio was based in portraits and photos I had taken for my employer. Don’t get me wrong. I was (and am) proud of the work, but moving to a new school district made me ask the question: what am I doing to create art on my own terms, and what body of work can I show to share my passion for photography?
So in January 2017, I decided to start a YouTube channel to talk about photography, give me an excuse to spend time taking photos, and a place to share my passion.
Now, I’m coming up on a year and I can tell you that my passion for photography has taken a back seat to my work once again. I’ve not been as productive on my YouTube channel as I would have liked in the last six months. I uploaded 15 videos in 2017, but I haven’t uploaded a video in the last five months. So January through June, I averaged 2.5 videos a month. Not too bad. However, when I look at the last 5 months, wow! This period of time coincides with the time I spent taking over the duties of the assistant superintendent of the department as the interim chief officer. Read my post here about some reflections on that experience.
Coming up on a year anniversary of my YouTube channel for my photography (link here if you want to check it out), I have to ask myself the question: is there any real and current proof that photography is my passion?
What’s your passion? Where’s the proof that you are devoting time to that passion? What would you point to in order to share your passion with someone else?
