Using your passion to make money.

Aquatic environments and photography - my two great passions.

There is what we love, there is what we do, and there is what we love to do.  Everybody can testify to some aspect of their life which falls into each criterion, but it is the middle one that is most often employed to make a living.  The dreamer in each of us would want to make ends meet (and then some) through what we love to do.  Unfortunately, it is the thing which rarely pays the bills.

My dream as an adolescent was to be a freshwater fisheries biologist.  A strange goal, perhaps, but my love at that time was the outdoors and things that lived in and near the water.  It made sense to follow my passion and see where it all led.  Time is on the side of youth, so aspiring towards that goal might allow me to get paid for what I loved to do.  A Batchelor's degree from the University of Calgary started me in the right direction.  I worked for Alberta's Fish and Wildlife a couple of times, but the pay was never good and the terms only temporary. 

I spent a five year period trying to find work in that field, but more often than not had to obtain employment elsewhere.  I worked in photofinishing stores, did construction, and assisted handicapped groups all in the name of paying for lodging and feeding myself.  It became clear to me that my dream job was just that, a dream, and I needed both feet on the ground if I was to support a family.  So, I became a teacher because it was what I could do.  It didn't hurt that my wife was also a teacher, which allowed us to synchronize our holidays.  Thirty years later I have retired from that profession.

Along the way, my love of photography grew, and I eventually began teaching it as a home business.  Over the years (more than twenty now) I taught photography out of my home, and more recently, out of the local college.  Night classes, averaging one session a week, allowed me to combine my skills (teaching) with my developing passion (photography).  As I honed my expertise I started writing course booklets which followed the curriculum I had established.  Writes, rewrites, and updates cumulated in the two books I have now self-published and the two that are in the making.

My passion changed from maintaining and supporting freshwater ecosystems to photographing them.  My favourite thing to do is to explore aquatic environments with my camera.  The above photo is the perfect symbol of that.  I then use my images in my books, course booklets, teaching, and these blogs.  The wonderful thing is that I can make some money in the process.  Not a lot mind you, but that doesn't matter.  What I love about it is the fact that it gives purpose to my adventures; not only do I get to do what I love, I also get some financial reward.

If you can't follow your passion as a career choice, you can at least follow it as a hobby.  You may never be able to use it as your main source of income, but you may be able to use those skills to supplement it.  In the process, as your skill and name develop, it may open doors which were never otherwise possible.  If you can't dive, at least dabble.  You may go deeper than you think.