How much do you love something?

[JUST.a.SHOT] Some of the customer reviews I'd received would say I'm a friendly photographer, easy to work with, others mentioned I'm a passionate photographer. Some would say I'm creative, and a few even say I'm good. I suppose I do love photography very much and it sometimes carries through to the interactions I have with friends and clients, and perhaps, to the the photos I deliver.

That got me thinking though... we hear things like, "she's passionate about her work", or "he loves what he's doing". But how passionate is passionate? How much do you "need" to love your work before someone notices, and says you love it? And does it mean you're good then? Or doesn't it?

I spent a few days, off and on, philosophizing about it, and this is what my thought journey was like... First off, being passionate about something doesn't mean you'll automatically become good. Just because you love doing something, it doesn't equate a professional level "output". There are people I know who are top-notch in their profession, but they absolutely hate what they do. Conversely, there are those I know who may be really really good at this one thing that they do, but they don't get paid for it; meaning they are not professional in that arena. So what gives? What's the tie that connects passion, the love you have for something, competence and excellence?

I should quickly mention that, though passion doesn't directly translate to success, it definitely helps if you were pursuing the endeavour professionally. And doing what you love would help scale down those obstacles you're bound to find along the way. Look at start-up companies, most of them started simply on an idea, really. The creator / owner is so passionate about that one idea that s/he infects people around them. And when they hit a stumbling block, as they will, their passion will help them carry on just that much farther, to endure just a little bit longer, to the other side.

I don't think you can love without passion. Love is an attitude, it's a mindset, and so is passion in my opinion. When you're passionate about something, you give it time. A hobby, perhaps... you spend time on it, you develop whatever you need for it, you make something of it. Even at your job where the only thing you "might be" passionate about is the pay cheque; you'd devote time to it. Passionate people practise their crafts, though they might fail at times, they work hard, and they learn from it, and improve, until they fail at another area, then they would learn again, and so on.

They give it time...

And it's beginning to make sense. Time is the most precious thing we have (note: health eventually gives you time), and when something is important enough, you'd prioritize it higher on your "time allocation table". You give it time. I think this even applies to loving a person. A friend, family member, your loved one... Do you love them enough to give them time? If you say you love your family, but you don't spend time with them, or when you make choices, your decision matrix doesn't have them in there... somehow this doesn't jive. I'm talking about the long term, the consistent behaviour, not the "something-urgent-came-up-at-work-and-I-need-to-go-in-on-the-weekend" kind of temporal occurrence. But that's another subject matter entirely, and I dare not venture too far into it here.

I took the cover photo way back when I was using film, developed it in a darkroom and printed it myself. That wasn't my first car, but it certainly helped my devotion to photography. My "craft" wasn't particularly good, and it definitely wasn't anything close to professional, but darn it, I was passionate, I even got a star filter and everything. ????

Back to today, the Cedric Cheung who some might even call a professional photographer, it just so happened I took a similarly composed photo a couple weeks back and thought I'd include that here as a contrast. I deliberately made this second pic b&w though, mind you. I know I still have tons to learn and a long way to go, but I'm glad and proud to report that I've improved a little, even without using a star filter. And this improvement has a lot to do with me giving my photography time; time to practise, time to fail, time to learn, time to grow.

Because the truth is... no one gets good without practise, no one succeeds without failing, no one becomes competent without improving, and certainly no one becomes excellent without growth. I wish you'd find your passion, work hard on it, feed it... I wish you'd find that something you love, or someone to love, then devote yourself to it / them.

Back to the beginning... how much do you love something? Do you love it enough to work at it? Do you love it enough to give it time? Think about it.

In the meantime, remember my motto... "Aspire to Inspire".

Sincerely, Cedric Cheung.