The deciding moment of chasing your dream (or how I started travelling the world as a photographer)

I quit my job after graduating in social sciences from university to see more of the world. Months of saving up money, months of looking forward to the time of my life. But no matter how much money I could save, and how many days, weeks or months I could start traveling, something didn´t quite feel right.

It didn´t seem logical to go do something you love much less than something that just makes you go by. The daily grind. Going back to the daily grind.

I worked in one thing, did the other on the side. Having spent a lot of time and money on my photography portfolio for years and years without valuing it, all it took was the realization of the value, skills, and knowledge behind my hundreds of thousands of pictures stored on dusty hard drives. I just had start publishing, get recognized for my work and find a business idea to make it all come together.

(I took this several years before I started calling myself a photographer, and getting paid for it. For anyone interested in the location: Cappadocia, Turkey )

The "professional" idea was born. I started publishing on Social Media, Instagram, photography communities... Building relationship with fellow enthusiasts, professionals, artists. You´ve got to put the work into building an audience, the business comes naturally.

Businesses brands, magazines, science... they care about quality, professionalism. The rest of us, we care about passion.

(Not a shot you´d expect to get a lot of attention. But the passion and story backing it made it one of my most viewed images ever taken.

I care about nature, I love sharing it and wrote about my dreams here before: https://steemit.com/photography/@janoliverkoch/the-life-of-a-nature-and-adventure-photographer

It´s all about passion. We love passion. Passionate musicians, people around us, artists. The deciding moment of chasing your own dream is when you realize what you really are passionate about. And then, it´s time to find its value. And go for it.

Take a look back, what have you done to realize it? What have you already done to achieve it? If the answer is nothing - is it really your dream, your passion? Or is it the beginning of your future? It took me years to realize that I had already been heavily invested in my dream, without realizing it. Understand your passion, evaluate your situation and go for it. Sell yourself in. The moment your dream becomes a plan, a goal, you can wake up and realize - it´s time to start chasing my dream instead of dreaming it.

(Skipping years ahead: ) This was a photoshoot for a client. A job. An actual job. Not because I wouldn´t have loved to ice climb anyways, spend days in the Arctic scouting the right locations, traveling, experiencing the northern lights... all that, years before I would have saved money, taken days off and traveled. This time it was my job - because I delivered footage worthy of keeping. Not just for myself.

I´m new here, this is my second post and I will be sharing my dream chasing journey. I´ll be sharing insights from my adventures, glimpses backstage to the life on the road or better - far off the roads. I´ll be sharing my photography knowledge, pictures and stories.

Chase your dreams.

Yours,

Oliver

Instagram: www.instagram.com/janoliverkoch