avocado8

Passionate

Someone asked me recently, in a professional context, what I was passionate about. I know the answer that would have made the questioner most excited was probably "working on open-source software," or "changing the world with a single bugfix," or something along those lines, but what I said was, "honestly? Photography."

I probably should have clarified that it's not *simply* photography that I'm passionate about; it's the photography feedback loop that is Flickr. I've always loved taking photos (and working in both physical and virtual darkrooms), but Flickr has stoked my passion for photography the way the Law & Order Mailing List once stoked my passion for the television show of the same name.

I get inspired by other photographers on Flickr, I learn new techniques on Flickr, I try new cameras and film that I discover on Flickr. (I won't even get into the social aspects; suffice to say I've made several new friends, many of whom have pushed me with their own amazing work to make better photographs myself.)

All this to say that while I *am* passionate about work-related things—developing software that "just works" the way you want it to; learning about how different developers do their jobs; the forensic science-like work of bug fixing—if someone offered to pay me to spend my time however I wanted all day, I'd probably spend it taking, scanning, editing, and posting photographs to Flickr. Making cards, stickers, and giant prints out of them. Searching eBay for cameras and film. Thinking up new photography subjects and projects. Reviewing all my favorites from my contacts and from my own archives of years past.

Not that I don't do all these things anyway; I'd just do them all the time, instead of just when I can squeeze them in. That seems to me the very definition of a "passion".

This face is something else I'm passionate about.