PSI Tutor:Mentor

T240 camel sand bath

Originally uploaded by Paul_Dymond

When Char first approached me to pen a guest blog I was extremely honoured but a little unsure about what to write. I mean, I’m a travel photographer, haven’t done psych since first year uni and what am I qualified to teach anybody? But then she suggested to me that I might like to write about following your passion and the penny dropped. Passion and following it to wherever it leads – now that I know a little bit about!

I started off like many of you – at university. In my third year I was headed towards graduating with a double degree in Japanese and Korean and a minor in Japanese studies. I had been offered a place for the following year in the prestigious Masters of Japanese Interpreting/Translating.

Needless to say my folks were proud as punch and my career path looked set in stone.

Only there was a slight problem. Ever since I’d been 16 I had been working as a checkout chick at Coles, putting away my pennies for what I wasn’t sure. Then I got it into my head that I wanted to put off my Masters and go to Africa for 9 months. My folks probably weren’t as pleased now but still very supportive.

It had always been my dream to go to Africa. Inspired by the likes of Conrad, Livingstone and Attenborough it was a place of my dreams. I had also always had an interest in photography and just before my trip my parents gave me an SLR camera with lenses for my 21st birthday. I went to the camera shop and bought 140 rolls of slide film, put them in my backpack and headed off.

And my life was never to be the same again. I fell in love with travel, and with using the camera to artistically record what I’d seen. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else for the rest of my life. In September when I was near the end of my trip the university called to see if I was coming back the following year. I had to tell them no, I would be traveling.

A lot of time has passed since I discovered what I was ‘meant’ to do and I’ve learnt a few things along the way. The first is that you gotta do what you gotta do to get to where you want to go. In other words, do whatever it takes to follow your dream. Don’t be proud.

When I came back from Africa I had no money whatsoever. I was stone motherless. So I took myself off to Ayers Rock and worked for a year and a half or so as a Japanese tour guide. AA beautiful place and photographically amazing but a) I was working so hard I never photographed a thing and b) the job got pretty tedious after a while. I needed to get out on the road.

So off I went traveling again after the bank was replenished. Three months in Indonesia and I headed off to Japan for a year and a half to teach English. Did I run out of money in 3 months? No, fell in love at Ayers Rock and went to live with my (now) wife while she saved up some money to come traveling with me. After both our bank balances were a looking a bit better we headed off for a year traveling around India, Nepal and South East Asia.

Now at this time I was still just a traveling bum, taking pictures but not a photographer. In a Bangkok bookstore I ran across a hardcover epiphany. It was called ‘The Business of Nature Photography’ by American photographer John Shaw and it was literally a road map to starting a career in something I by now desperately wanted to do. I lugged that bloody big thing around for the rest of the year and it became the blueprint for my new career.

So here I am in my adopted city of Cairns. I’ve been to 50 something countries, have tens of thousands of images and absolutely love what I do. Along the way I’ve met the Dalai Lama, slept on top of a giant sand dune in the Sahara Desert and stood at the foot of Mt Everest. But along the way I did any job I had to to get me to the point where I could make a living. Checkout chick, tour guide, receptionist, medical interpreter.

I’ve learnt that it’s not enough just to be passionate about your work. For it to truly be a career you need to do something that helps other people as well. I originally took up photography as a way of showing people how fantastic this world is. To help break down barriers and cultural misunderstandings. And that’s still the major reason for doing what I do. By bringing home pictures of far and away places I hope to inspire people to either want to go there themselves or to know more about the subject.

And the subject is always much more important than the photographer. Sure I want people to say ‘ hey that’s a great picture’, but more importantly I want them to think about what’s within the frame. Who the person is, what their culture is like. Knowledge is the key to peace I believe.

Another thing I’ve learnt is that you can’t expect to love every aspect of what you do.

Keywording, captioning, filing. It’s all pretty boring stuff but because I know it’s a necessary part of what I do I soldier on. To keep that passion you need to constantly re-evaluate what it is you’re doing and whether you’re headed in the right direction.

Keep in mind why you started on this path in the first place. It’s always easy to follow the path of least resistance – particularly if that path leads to greater wealth, more social status etc. But is it really what you want? Follow your dream, keep the passion, love what you do until you’re doing what you love and stay true to your calling.

Just one last thing. Be realistic about your abilities. You might love something to death and want to do it till the day you shuffle off this mortal coil. But to be realistic you need to self-evaluate yourself and ask if your abilities are up to scratch. There’s no point banging your head against a brick wall and blaming the world if things aren’t going to plan. Be humble, continue to learn and study. Seek advice. And when things aren’t going your way just listen to that voice inside you that tell you that this is what you’re meant to do. Even if your parents want you to stay in school.

Paul Dymond is a professional travel photographer. He is contracted to Lonely Planet Images, has visited 50 something countries and eaten everything from chicken feet to sea slug. He calls Cairns home, his wife boss and his two little boys ‘hey you’. He also writes a daily travel photography blog to share his passion for photography with the world. http://pauldymond.blogspot.com