Finding Your Passion Again

Finding | Your | Passion | Again

"Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate."

- Jon Bon Jovi

Passion is a strong word; it defines one’s enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. For many we lose our passion for what we love to do somewhere along the path of life. Maybe it’s something that naturally fades away as we get older, maybe it’s because we have more responsibilities and have little time to fulfill our passion, or maybe, just maybe it’s the fact that we suppress our passions because it seems like an unobtainable dream.

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My passion has always been to tell a story using a visual medium. It started with video production; so much so, I went to college for broadcast design and production. I thought one day I would own a video production house where I would shoot and edit creative videos for commercial businesses. That dream faded when I left college and entered the cooperate world via network television. 

Three years into the cooperate lifestyle I realized I was not doing what I set out to do in life and furthermore I had lost my passion for being a creative. I was more worried about my next performance review then I was about creating something meaningful.

I found my passion again when my girlfriend gave me a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens for Christmas. See that little, oh so little lens, awoke my passion, that lens made me want to create again. With that passion alive and well again I set off to start my photography business vs. a video production house and leave the cooperate world behind. Passion is what has driven me to succeed at what I’m doing. If I didn’t following my passion I would still feel lost and confused in the cooperate word.

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I challenge you to find your passion again if you’ve lost it, or keep following it if it’s alive and well in your heart and soul. Life is a short journey when you think about how fast the years fly by. Life might have thrown you a curveball or maybe you feel like you have no time to do what you love, but I know you still have a passion deep down in your heart that you need to fulfill. Don’t let anything get in the way of fulfilling your passion in life, be it making photographs, cooking, teaching, and a slew of other things. Passion is what drives us to live a full life, not money, or promotions. So, go do what you love, even if it’s just for you, and no one else.

The Road Less Traveled

So a crazy thing happened two Wednesday's ago, I turned in my two weeks notice at my full-time job. Yesterday was my last day and as I drove away I officially left the comfort of a steady paycheck for the uncharted path of self-employment.

As many of you know, I was at ESPN for just shy of six years. My time at ESPN was marked by up’s and down’s, but overall it was a good job and was one of my two dream jobs. Having the opportunity to work at the highest level in television right out college was a privilege. As I said, ESPN was one of my two dream jobs; you can probably guess my other dream job, owning my own creative business.

How I got to this point

 Long before I set foot on the campus of Lyndon State College I always knew I wanted to run my own business. I originally thought I wanted to own a video production house, but as the years at college flew by I found myself drawn to still photography. I can vividly remember my first time in a darkroom, and the sheer enjoyment I got out of enlarging my own negatives and developing an 8x10 print on my own. If you have never set foot in a darkroom, watching one of your images come to life in front of your eyes is enchanting. From that moment on I knew photography was something special and dived head first into it.

A trip to Australia and New Zealand my junior year brought me into the digital age. I saved all the money I could from my part-time job at the college theater to buy a Nikon D40 kit. It was halfway around the world with my little entry level Nikon D40 and a cheap kit lens that I knew I had found my passion.

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As college came to an end, I was offered a full-time job at ESPN before I graduated. I instantly accepted the job and started less then a month after graduation. It was during my first two years at ESPN that my little Nikon D40 sat on a shelf collecting dust. It was not until my girlfriend (April) gave me a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens for Christmas did I throw myself back into photography.  

A little over two years ago in the spring of 2012 I saved up enough money to buy better gear and filed all the legal documents for a LLC in Connecticut. From that point on I made it my mission to become a full-time photographer. It took me two years of hard work, late nights, and lots of fighting with myself to muster up enough courage to walk away from ESPN to take the road less traveled.

Where I’m going

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I’m happy to say that when I was driving away from work yesterday, I knew I was making the right decision for me. I felt free, for the first time in six years I felt like myself again.

Moving forward I will be working with wedding and portrait clients for my main business Chris Nachtwey Photography LLC. I will continue to build up 35to220.com, a blog dedicated to showcasing the best film photography in the world and managing my team of six writers. I also have the pleasure of writing full-time for slrlounge.com, one of the largest photography websites in the world dedicated to photography news, education and inspiration.

I have to thank my parents and April (my girlfriend of almost seven years) for all the love and support in my decision to go full-time. Without their help and support I might have never made this decision. Thank you guys!!!

I will end this post with a quote my Dad sent me last week.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures."

From: William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

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