I remember the first camera I ever had—it was small and simple, but it got the job done. I was so happy to finally have my own camera so I no longer had to ask my mom for her iPhone 3GS every time I wanted to take a picture of something. Photography has been something I have loved my entire life and is by far my most cherished hobby. It may sounds cheesy, but taking pictures allows me to forget about everything around me and just focus on the moment at hand. When I have a camera in my hand, I feel like I am actually good at something, for once. Like I actually know what I’m doing, for once. Even if I haven’t used my camera in a while, I always remember how much I enjoy photography every time I pick it back up.
People always ask me why I don’t pursue photography as a job. Honestly, I’ve tried it, I made some money, and then I realized that I didn’t get the same satisfaction out of it when I was doing it for someone else, instead of for myself. Taking pictures of people for a profit meant that I had to make the client happy with the photos, even if they weren’t always how I wanted them. Well, I guess technically I didn’t have to make them happy, but considering they were paying me, it made me happier knowing that I provided a service that they felt was worthwhile. Now, I occasionally take photography jobs when someone reaches out to me, but almost all of my photography is done for myself, and no one else.
The thing is, once you turn your hobby into a job, you are no longer doing it because you want to do it– you are doing it because you have to do it. If you are relying on your hobby as a source of income (especially if it is your sole source of income), with time, you will not appreciate it as much as when you were doing it for the sake of your own personal happiness.
For me, having a hobby isn’t just having something to do when I have nothing else to do. Photography is something that makes me happy when nothing else does. It is something that I know I am good at, even when I feel like I am not good at anything else. It is something that I have put my own money and time into because I knew I would benefit from it. It is something that I can do entirely on my own, without needing someone else to supplement it. It is something that I have spent hundreds of hours learning entirely on my own so that I could get good at it and am still constantly improving at it. Learning photography on my own, with my own resources, made me appreciate and love it that much more because I knew I was doing it 100% for me.
I’m sure many of you have a hobby that comes to mind while reading this article. Something that makes you as content as photography makes me. But I’m also sure that many of you don’t have a hobby that comes to mind. But you should.
I’m not trying to imply that having a hobby is “right” and not having one is “wrong”– but I strongly encourage you to adopt a hobby if you have not already. If you find an activity that you truly enjoy enough to do regularly on your own, you will be able to experience and learn something unique, and probably feel good about yourself in the process. Having a hobby is inevitably self-motivated, but naturally, it often leads to the greatest gratification and it will always be there for you to enjoy when all else fails.