My Journey From Unhappy to Fulfilled: Hobby to Pro
I grew up poor in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, a town of 8,218 people at the time. Work for my parents was scarce and it wasn’t unusual for my father to earn only $50 a week to support us.
Being in love with the outdoors, our family moved to a 10-acre plot of land 15 miles outside the “big” city. It was beautiful, peaceful, serene, and closer to nature with owls hooting just outside the windows in the evening, and coyotes howling in the back 40.
Living in the Sticks
We lived ‘Little House on the Prairie’ style for 9 years. No electricity or running water (although we did have a hand pump in the sink), wood heat, candles or kerosene lanterns for light, and an icebox!
Winters in Wisconsin get pretty darn cold; you almost couldn’t pile enough blankets on the bed to stay warm once the wood fire died down and the chill crept in. That lasted until I graduated high school.
Culture Shock, Failure, and Aimlessness
Two days after graduation, most of my family and I packed up the car and moved to Atlanta, Georgia for the next 7 years, leaving my older sister and brother behind with their own families. Talk about culture shock! I’m sure everywhere I went I looked like a wide-eyed kid visiting the World’s Fair for the first time. I was no longer in a town of 8,218.
I played trumpet through middle school and high school and decided to study music that fall. I couldn’t wait to sign up for classes at Kennesaw College in Kennesaw, Georgia. Music always came easily to me and I enjoy it. I even won the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award my senior year.
Turns out advanced music theory is much harder than I anticipated (God bless our musicians!). Plus, I didn’t want to put in that much effort and ended up failing. So, I turned my sights to simply wandering for a few years while I did construction work to pay the bills.
Now I Need to Get Serious
Seriously missing home, in 1992 I moved back to Rhinelander. I met my future wife, and soon the first of my two beautiful daughters were on the way. Time for me to grow up and focus on a career. Working full-time and attending Nicolet College, I earned an Associate degree in Computer Information Systems, then found work as a programmer just as the internet was becoming a thing.
I found systems programming challenging but incredibly boring so I pivoted into web development a few years later. Finally! Tangible results at the end of the day.
Get Up, Go To Work, Repeat
I continued to do development work for 15 years an hour’s drive from my home since Rhinelander isn’t exactly the mecca of, well, anything (Just kidding Rhinelander, I love you!). Work from home hadn’t caught on yet with the small companies I was working for.
By this time I found myself a single dad on autopilot, not living my best life. And for reasons I can’t fully explain except that I was extremely comfortable and had responsibilities toward my girls, I kept doing development work as I began struggling to enjoy it. Add to that 2 hours a day in my car and it was fast becoming a total grind. I was not exactly living the dream.
Lemonade, Anyone?
As 2019 rolled around, nothing had changed right up until it did. In May, life kicked me in the butt to change course and handed me some sour lemons. The universe had spoken; all I needed to do was listen this time since I’d developed a habit of ignoring it in the past.
I felt incredibly anxious and restless all the time now, with no direction. I needed to make lemonade, and fast.
In February, I had traveled to Thailand and heard a little about scuba diving. Until then, I hadn’t given it much thought but it looked amazing and completely different from what I was used to. So I contacted Simple Life Divers on Koh Tao, a tiny little island with a big dive reputation in the Gulf of Thailand, and made plans to become a professional scuba diver.
Divemaster Training
After a 36 hour journey of planes, airports, layovers, a bus, and a high-speed catamaran ride, I finally arrived on Koh Tao. Not knowing anyone as I stepped off the boat 8,000 miles from home was a little daunting but I was so ready for it! It’s a pretty small island and the dive center was easy to locate, a beautiful 20-minute walk from the dock.
I quickly got settled in and spent my first night in a new, exciting place. A couple of days later, I got my divemaster training rolling.
Turns out it’s a lot like living in a tropical vacation postcard on Koh Tao. The water is warm and blue, the sunsets are jaw-dropping, the people are truly warm and welcoming, and the food is amazing. Best of all, it was warm (I’m not a fan of winter)! Exactly what I needed; the lemonade was excellent.
And Then, Photography!
Before I left for Thailand, I’d made plans to become a dive instructor which is a step above divemaster, my current level. In life, you need to make your own way and on that journey, things often don’t go exactly as planned. That can turn out pretty cool, though. My introduction to photography was no exception.
One evening after a day of divemaster training, I was introduced to John, the Simple Life Divers staff photographer. We sat and chatted for a long time about photography and all things related. I was totally impressed with his knowledge but more, the photos he showed me of his work.
I excitedly dug out my cell phone and started to show him my ‘awesome’ photography. Pretty sure all I actually did was annoy him but he was far too kind to say so.
He did, however, tell me about the course he taught covering the basics of underwater photography. The photos he’d taken of the local marine life were simply stunning! I was pumped to learn how to get those shots, so I immediately signed up.
He recommended some starter equipment which I ordered, leaving me feeling like a kid again eagerly awaiting Christmas morning. Days later, my package finally arrived and I was ready to go. I took John’s masterclass and learned loads about underwater photography.
I caught on pretty quickly and applied the techniques he had shown me to my own photography. What a difference high-quality professional training makes! On a side note, don’t be scared to pay for quality training.
An Opportunity Appears
Six weeks later, I finished my Divemaster training and focused solely on improving my photography, once again changing the course I had recently plotted for my life. Photography was in my blood now. I spent hours underwater, photographing marine life and my fellow divers.
As fate would have it, one day John decided to move on and turned in his resignation. I was super bummed to see my friend and mentor go but his departure opened a huge door for me. I became the new Simple Life Divers staff photographer.
This amazing opportunity put me in charge of photography for all the marketing needs of Simple Life Divers. And now as a certified divemaster, I could tag along on dives and photograph Simple Life Divers’ customers enjoying themselves. But most importantly, I absolutely loved it!
It was an experience that has shaped my life in a way I hadn’t expected; I’m grateful I took the chance.
A Broken World
And then Covid broke the world, sending travelers home and wreaking havoc on the planet. I ended up returning to the USA a year sooner than I intended, straight into quarantine and lockdown. God was looking out for me that day since all the flights for hours before and after mine were canceled or rescheduled.
Thankfully mine left on time, leaving hundreds of others stranded in Bangkok. After an uneventful trip, I made it home.
Staying Positive In Unexpected Transition
I was really sad to leave behind Koh Tao, all my new friends, and the awesome adventure. It had been my home for nearly 8 months and watching it disappear in the rear-view mirror was rough. Life had suddenly come to a screeching halt. At first, I sat around and did a lot of nothing, unless you count gaming. It took my mind off the situation but was not fulfilling.
It quickly became clear to me I was squandering my most important resource, time.
Now I became determined to be productive so I took as many online photography classes as I could to further improve my photography and editing skills.
Finally, Success
I began reaching out to potential clients for any photography needs they had. Since Covid was a thing, I concentrated on eCommerce photography and eventually landed my first client, a natural skincare company in need of updated product photos for their website.
The trial photographs went great; they absolutely loved them and sent me more than 125 individual products to photograph. I was a little in shock and very grateful, not expecting such great success right out the door.
I kept reaching out to businesses and had more successes, adding to my growing client list which includes local businesses and not-so-local businesses. Through a close friend, I landed a portion of a major packaging corporation’s product photography. 
On Instagram, I reached out to a model and she agreed to some portrait sessions. I also took photos of family and friends to keep gaining experience and practice the things I’d learned.
The journey I’ve taken from hobby photographer to professional photographer has been an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Life is short. Be kind. Do what you love!
Thank you so much for reading my story; I truly appreciate it! I hope you stay happy, healthy, and fulfilled.