About hobbies
For many people, photography is great a hobby. You get to be creative and technical at the same time. You get to play with toys and people or animals for a day. Something different from your everyday commute to work and stressful days at the office. It can be so much fun! But what do professional photographers do with their free time?
When I was a little girl, maybe 4 years old. My father and I used to sit at the kitchen table and draw. I remember I had nothing else to do all day, since I wasn't allowed to join Kindergarten, even though I already knew how to write my name and add multiple digits (thanks mom and dad!). He would sit on a chair across mine, and I would draw houses or dolls upside down, right side up for him to see. I would also draw on a green chalkboard, fabulous scenic backgrounds, and scenery for my dolls and imaginary games. Drawing was a very big part of my childhood. During junior high and high school, I drew most of the day. I hardly paid attention in class. I drew mostly fashion croquis, simple dresses, and outfits. In college, I studied Visual Arts and left to study fashion design. I had taken these amazing drawing courses over a summer and fashion illustration classes and just fell in love with the concept of illustrating the rest of my life. But then fate took matters into its own hands, I changed my studies to graphic design, worked in advertising agencies and freelanced a few years, then fell in love with documentary photography because ad agencies made me feel dirty...
Besides working with my personal documentary projects and personal work for exhibits, I used to take my digital cameras and film cameras out for a stroll every now and then. I thought, honestly, that taking pictures for myself, developing and scanning the negatives, was my way of taking a break from my world of picture-making.
But then I realized, It's not relaxing anymore! It's still working! I still stress about the images, I still stress about the investment, and I still edit, hate it, then re-edit the images on my free time. Stressful work is not a relaxing hobby.
My hobby, my passion, and my joy were causing me stress because it was too similar to my everyday work for clients.
Hobbies help reduce stress, stimulate creativity and increase productivity. If you're a photographer, videographer, or if you work in marketing, design, copywriting, etc. get a hobby if you already don't have one. It can be fishing, mountain biking, walking, drawing, painting, building, etc. Activities that could help you focus your energy on something else other than work.
Now that I have learned to take moments for my self, my new found hobby is drawing. Back to basics. I feel four years old again. What am I doing? I bought these tiny 2.5" x 4" sketchbooks to draw in. And I enjoy this oh so very much! It's very relaxing to let the lines flow into each other and form organic shapes that create beautiful compositions within each tiny page.
So now my work, destination weddings, and documentary photography whether digital or film, stay completely separate from my hobby.
Let me know what your hobbies are, regardless of your profession. What do you do for fun?
I still enjoy my film cameras even if I'm photographing a wedding! Search for #aliciakiddcameracollection to see them and other cameras in my collection.