Beach Photography And Inspiration (Personal Post)

I’m grateful for the family time and peace I enjoyed at Hilton Head Island last week. Everything was beautiful, I was able to spend time with everyone (especially my grandparents), and we made some tender memories. The beach at HHI gave me fantastic photography opportunities and a whole lot of inspiration.

Beach Beauty

Last week gave me time to reflect on where I am in life right now and where I’m heading. Lately, my love of photography has been shining through. This beloved hobby of mine has now overtaken my love of writing, something I didn’t think would ever be possible.

It was wonderful getting up for the sunrise on the beach. Walking a short distance from our beach rental house to the shore, watching the rising light transform the surrounding water and clouds was magnificent to behold.

On that note, here are some fantastic Bible verses I found that work as great analogies for the wonder of sunrises:

“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 11:7)

“O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” (Psalm 5:3)

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)

Letting Go

Those sunrise mornings last week gave me a good time for meditating, clearing my head, and letting go of my tension over the future. I haven’t done as well as a job as I should’ve of watching my stress levels, but Hilton Head and God helped me take much-needed deep breaths.

It’s been rough trying to figure out what my purpose in life/ultimate goal is. Part of my existential dilemma has been a stressful “trial by fire” time with various small writing gigs.

Unfortunately, being an English major doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be a natural fit for all writing styles. I found this out the hard way through two different part-time gigs.

One of them is designed for very fast-paced article production, which I respect. I learned after being gently let go from it that my personal writing style is simply more suited for content that allows for more deliberation and study (yay for Patheos!)

From the other, I learned that no matter what, I’m not meant to work for more journalistic sites. Mom gave me strong words of encouragement after I got let go from this gig, reminding me that I’m a storyteller who flourishes where I can show personality and emotion. In this gig, that was a huge no-no, and it was for the best that it ended.

Picture Perfect

Now, I’ve realized that while I’ll always love writing, I don’t actually want it to be my day job.

This has been a huge shock for me. For the last few years, especially after only finding non-writing work after graduating from college, I desperately wanted to find a full-time job that uses my major.

But my experiences with these part-time gigs have taught me that this isn’t what I really want anymore. That’s so liberating!

Now, my question is this: what do I need to do to become a successful nature/landscape photographer, and how do I get there?

I’ve been working on an online photography portfolio and also submitting my pics to Adobe Contributor as stock photos. It’s been exhilarating watching my stats on my portfolio grow while some of my pics have been accepted as stock photos!

I’m so excited to see where this photography road takes me. I know that God has a “picture-perfect” plan (pardon the deliberate pun), and that it can only get better from here.