sheldon sabbatini | photographer | portland, or

Time is flying by.  Crazy fast.  The career is slipping by…just working in it, not too much working on it.  Shot a wedding at the end of Summer up in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  Super fun trip, although our return flight got cancelled and we had to drive to Reno, rebook flights, blah blah.

Anyways, we had a photo booth set up and I came across this shot by one of the venue’s employees that helped set up the tent the booth was in.  What’s interesting to me is that there was a monitor to camera right, a little lower than camera level.  Almost every person who came through the unmanned booth is looking down towards the monitor, not at the camera.  But this guy is looking right into the lens.  There was just something about it that I like.

It’s been a roller coaster over the last 1/2 a year.  We uprooted what was a pretty stable life, albeit in a place we didn’t want to be.  Thus the move, but we DID have it pretty good.  I’d go so far as to say I was THIS CLOSE to “making it” and doing what I love and making a living at it too.  New towns bring new opportunities though, so I arrived stoked to hit the ground running with some money in the savings to get us by.  The savings went fast.  Some good things happened but not enough and too slowly.  When things start to get lean you start to analyze and over-analyze your work.  Too staged, too boring, too lit, too processed, too cliche, too average…too bad.  You start to doubt your career choice, your passion, your love of it…in essence your life.  You start to browse the jobs on Craigslist just in case there’s something that’s “perfect” for you.  Then you take a job at the local pro camera store.  Hell, it has benefits and you get to check out all the gear you can’t use because you’re working 40 hours a week, m-f.  The family needs that though.  Security.  Stability.  So you start to re-re-evaluate how you can make the transition from workweek drone back to your dream of being a photographer full-time.  Back to what you know you’re SUPPOSED to be doing.  Doing what you love and loving what you do.  Making decisions on how to spend your limited time.  Do you do the work that has maybe a better chance at making money but it isn’t what you really are passionate about?  Or do you cut those ties and spend your time and energy on loftier aspirations that will take more time to result in the $

Here’s to that day and those answers.