Sometimes, you just have to realize that it’s time to make a tough decision. Today, I made one of the toughest decisions that I’ve had to make in a long time.
I’ve decided that it’s time to sell nearly all of my photography gear. Yup, that’s right. Camera, lenses, lights, etc etc. Just about everything (I’ll hang onto my backup camera and maybe a lens or two).
Why did I decide, today, to make this decision? Well, for one, we could certainly use the money. It’s not we’re destitute, but the thought of having about $3,500 worth of photography equipment in the house when that money could go a long way towards bills makes me a little queasy. The gear definitely isn’t bringing in that much (or much at all) money, so they’ve essentially become “toys” at this point. Very expensive toys.
Now, don’t get me wrong… I love photography. I love making photographs and I love seeing people’s faces after I’ve captured something really great. I loved it enough to try and make a go of it as a business. I won’t say I failed. I mean, I managed to get a few good jobs, make a bit of dough, and have a lot of fun doing it, but it never broke into another area. It never felt solid enough to build a real business model on. So now I just happen to have a very expensive hobby, which isn’t a good thing to have when you have debts that you’d rather have paid off.
I’ll still make photos for fun. Maybe not with the fancy, expensive camera and gear that I’ve been using, but with a much more simple setup. In the end, I couldn’t fathom holding onto that much gear when the money could be used elsewhere.
This was, I must admit, one of the most difficult decisions that I’ve had to make in a very long time. It’s not one I wanted to make (and it’s probably one that I’ve actually been putting off), but it’s one that needed to be made now.
When faced with tough decisions, attack them. Make them like you’re ripping off a Band-Aid. It makes it hurt less… or at least for a few minutes, it does. It’s going to hurt, and it’s going to be an unpleasant experience, but the only way to do it successfully is to make that decision and stick to it. What’s done is done, they say, right?
So, with that, I say goodbye to most of my gear. It was fun while it lasted. If anyone wants to see what all that gear created in the past few years, feel free to head on over to Scott Shoots and check out some of my work. The best part of it all is that, in the end, I made some really great friends doing the photography thing and I plan to keep them. At least I got something out of it, right?
**Note: I’ll probably be doing most of my posting at www.scottwrites.com from here on out, so please head on over there, check it out, and subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks, everyone!
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