Why do you pursue this???

I was catching up on some blog posts that I cached on my ipad for later reading and wanted to share one with you.

Melissa Rodwell is a fashion photographer from LA and has some pretty interesting things to say.

Melissa wrote an entry entitled, “Knowledge is Power” on her blog a while back. Maybe some of you saw this back when it was posted, but today the content is more relevant than ever.

The premise of her post is “WHY do you want to be a fashion photographer.” Why not a food photographer, or whatever else. Why a fashion photographer? A lot of people asking her advice on “making it” in that industry were unable to answer her when she would ask. This became even more apparent when she would inquire about their knowledge, love, and passion for the actual core of fashion photography…fashion!

I think this is very relevant to anyone in whatever their choice is. Why do you do what you do? Do you actually love and have a desire for your path?

A lot of people ask me why I don’t shoot weddings. They say “oh your work is nice…come shoot our wedding too!” I always try to refer them to some one I know that truly loves to do weddings. Nothing against weddings…love is great…but unless it’s the wedding band…i’m just not that interested at the moment. If you talk to me about the music industry, you would probably wonder why I am even a photographer! (I still dedicate my personal time to music performance and recording)

So I ask you too, are you shooting what you know? Do you really understand your subjects? Do you have a passion for what you shoot to the point that if you weren’t shooting…you would still be in that same industry some how?
For those of you who aren’t photographers reading this post, think about this in your own context. Ask the same questions of yourself.

I highly recommend reading Melissa’s blog post.

-Tony