Wow. Back online after the lightning struck our modem dead - twice. Hopefully this one will last longer, if this mama can remember to pull out the plugs when nature starts rumbling.
This summer has so far been a roller coaster in more ways than one. After starting my summer break in the end of May and up until now, I have done a whole lot of thinking. I brought myself to a place where I had to make an important decision, and it wasn't an easy one.
My love of photography has always been there, ever since I learned how to use my dads old analog Nikon EM, but it has evolved, and become more substantial, a bigger part of my life, something I've taken more and more seriously. And although my teaching job was great, and having a steady income every month was lovely, there was this voice within, I think it came from my heart, and it started speaking really loud. It was so loud that in the end, I couldn't hear the other thoughts I tried to think: for example that I should work a few more years as a teacher, that I should wait, that I should have more security, that maybe I shouldn't change anything at all. All I could hear was: Go for it.
So I did. I jumped, I did what scared me the most.
I am not going back to work this autumn. I am now self-employed. I am shocked, happy, relieved, and crazily excited about it. It feels like a completely bonkers thing to do, but it feels so right. That voice isn't so loud anymore, it just sort of grunts happily every now and then, gives a little sigh of relief, says that I did good.
I wouldn't have done this if I didn't think it would work, if I didn't have faith in it. I think I can make a living out of being a photographer, and so far it has been great. Lots of work, lots of photos, lots of happy customers.
I am doing both the birth photography (see www.birth.no & www.facebook.com/fodselsfoto for more) and the more conventional work, as my alter ego Bygdefotografen (www.bygdefotografen.no & www.facebook.com/bygdefotografen) - both for the private and commercial market. I have tons of other plans too. (And yes! You are welcome to get in touch if you need a photographer!)
After having gone through this process, thinking so much my head was about to crack, weighing things back and forth, worrying, pondering, feeling confused - out of all of that, after the decision was made, came this one feeling, this one word. Freedom.
I am free.
