Seeing The World Through Photos

I’ve been thinking about my website and “photography business” a lot lately. It’s been in a serious state of neglect. When I started Eterno Dia Photography as a business, I was desperate for a change in my life and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do (career wise) to be happy. Photography made sense as it is a passion of mine. I always have a camera of some sort at the ready. I really have never been in a financial position where I felt I could take the plunge, quit my day job and do my photography full time (you know, those pesky student loan and mortgage bills – student loan officers are pretty scary when you miss a payment) but it has always suffered due to my holding down day jobs. It’s been challenging to put the time in to find and maintain clients and schedule photo shoots. In short, I haven’t put in the effort to make it a self-sustaining business.

Lately I’ve been thinking about passion and how it affects the choices we make. While I love photography, doing it as a business is challenging and I’m not having a passionate love affair. I get very anxious about deadlines and the potential of not making clients happy. So, what does make me passionate where photography is involved? It’s pretty clear to anyone who knows me that I’m pretty passionate about travel. I’m an absolute sucker for a beach. It can’t be denied. I had a very blessed childhood in that my parents were able to take our family traveling a lot when we were young.

My dad, being from Germany made sure we went a few times to meet his family and learn about the country. My earliest memories at 10 years old are still remarkably vivid. I remember being impressed by how old and architecturally stunning it was compared to anything I’d seen at that point in my home province of Alberta or in Canada. Travel didn’t have to be luxurious, transcontinental voyages either. We went camping almost every summer. That’s its own adventure. Sometimes it would be to a lake or campground near where we lived, sometimes to the mountains and into B.C., sometimes in a tent, sometimes a trailer. We went on road trips to Dinosaur provincial Park in Drumheller, or to the Rocky Mountains. Once we spent two weeks driving down through Idaho, Oregon and Washington (where I got such bad heat stroke I had to be hospitalized… but that’s a story for another day).  We got to go to California and go to Disneyland, which is literally The Happiest Place On Earth (Antigua is a close second).

Lac Ste. Anne with the family and Mickey the dog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travel helps to develop coping skills. It teaches you how to manage stress; how to adapt to new foods, different time zones and deal with culture shock. When things don’t go according to the planned itinerary, it teaches you patience, and fosters creativity and spontaneity.  It teaches you history, both good and bad, gives you an appreciation for other cultures, other customs, and for your own way of life.

In my adult life once my husband and I finally got my university days wrapped up and had the tiniest bit of money saved, we started traveling. First it was trips to the mountains or a weekend road trip to help a friend move from Edmonton to Toronto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far, we’ve mostly stuck to touristy local destinations and the Caribbean. We weren’t all that savvy with going off the beaten track. However, each vacation we go on, we get a bit braver and even when we stay at all-inclusive resorts, we always go on tours, eat out and explore. We never sit at the resort for the whole vacation. To me, it doesn’t make sense to see another country and not really “see” it.

I’m starting to get itchy to see more exotic, farther away places now too. Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE the Caribbean, but I’m starting to want to spread my tiny wings a bit more… My bucket list is so much longer than the time or money I currently have (fingers crossed on the lottery). My father, who used to travel the world as a cruise ship chef, once told me that the two most beautiful places he’d ever been to were Machu Picchu and Tahiti. So they make the list. I’ve been to Germany, but Europe is so tantalizing: Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece are on the list. Norway, Sweden and Finland look so unique and quirky.

Great Britain is high on my list. And I don’t have to give up my beach life, with places like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to think about. My husband speaks rudimentary Japanese, so why not practice that? There are tantalizing exotic places on my list like the Seychelles, the Maldives, Christmas Island, and the Galapagos. I have friends in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Argentina, who I’m sure would put me up if I were to drop in, right guys?

So many choices, not enough vacation time or money saved. It’s not all about money, I know that; It is about balance. I once had someone criticize me and tell me that I should be putting any savings into my mortgage, student loans and credit cards. Save now, and travel later when it’s all paid off and I have the safety net. I get it, but I don’t have the magic ball that tells me when my time is up. I would be lucky to make it to old age, but I can’t live my life only saving and never doing, because what if tomorrow never comes?

 

 

I kind of regret not doing more crazy traveling after high school; Backpacking and doing hostels, before I had a house and unavoidable adult commitments. At least that’s one of my only regrets. Since then though, I have seen amazing places. My plan is to continue to see amazing places as often as possible before my time is up.

Travel makes you humble, it makes you wiser, and it makes you appreciative. The reason I share my travel photos is not to make people jealous or annoyed with my abundance of money (eye roll). It’s to share the beauty of the world with people who haven’t had the chance to see where I’ve been, and to inspire others to go to these places or other places and experience the joy of different cultures, delicious food, gorgeous customs and breathtaking landscapes.

And now back to the photography. My current plan is to focus my site more on my travel adventures. I have years of photos to go back on. I’m not even sure how to organize them at this point, but I think I’ll work from most recent on back, for sake of my sanity. I’ll still take clients and do lifestyle photo shoots on occasion, but I’m going to attempt to give you some stories, advice, recommendations and reviews based on my “experience”.

I hope you’ll enjoy this journey as much as I’ve enjoyed my journeys so far. I hope this inspires me to get to work on my backlog of photos and inspires me to do more traveling. If you have questions or comments, feel free to get in touch.