Passion Projects

I think we can all say we have heard the phrase “you need something to be excited about when you wake up in the morning” at least once.

Maybe it’s the coffee you get to create in the small window of time before the rest of the world wakes up. Perhaps it’s melting into the pages of your favorite book and having conversations with the characters. Regardless of where your excitement exists, I bet it stirs the pot of joy within your soul.

I have always loved pictures — taking them, admiring them, and watching other people react to the story within the frame. There is an unwavering stillness that draws me inward as I am looking outward, capturing movement within the viewfinder. For a brief moment you control what it captures.

What I find so beautiful is that the story it elicits will be different for every audience. A landscape might connect someone to their childhood home — a backyard they spent countless hours sprinting around before their parents yelled, Dinner! Two people walking side by side could be love quietly unfolding, or it could reveal a heavy curtain of loneliness.

Writing narratives through moments frozen in time — what could be more special than that?

Back in 2021 I made a promise to myself that I would dive into a passion project. I felt an urge to stir my inner pot of joy and it boiled into film photography. I must say, it wasn’t about perfecting the skill, but more so about pushing myself to learn something new. There is the phrase (apparently I love those) "you don’t get to choose who you love” and my camera process went the same way as the Olympus OM-1 chose me. After stumbling across an Etsy shop with restored vintage cameras, I knew my film photography journey was about to be set into motion.

I have been dabbling in film ever since then and it has made me appreciate the art of photography on a whole new level. Some days I get a perfect roll back and other days, light leaks and blank negatives fill the spaces. If I told you the mishaps weren’t frustrating… well I would be lying. But what I love so much about film is the raw, unedited snippets. Whether it is the smile of someone I love or a car parked on the side of a street, film embodies the now. It is the moment.

I won’t regurgitate any more quotes but I will tell you if something sparks your interest or fuels your fire, go explore that. Explore it until you get lost and then follow the magic towards finding yourself again.

Having something to be excited about when you wake up in the morning — that saves you.

It is one thing I know to be true.