[saravk]

Nice. Congrats on your move. I wrote a similar post exactly 2 years earlier when i decided to downshift from my job of about 10 years and go live in the mountains doing photography http://www.kettik.com/go/articles/16. Reading your post made me go down the memory lane and examine my own journey.

Fast forward 2 years and i have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. Monetarily its been a complete flop, failing to earn even a single paise in the past 2 years. But spiritually, the memories and experiences gathered along the way have been priceless. Sounds like a classic Mastercard ad, doesn't it :D

All this experience did motivate me to create my startup. I have to say that i totally resonate with your "the only code I write will be for my personal projects" line. It feels more fulfilling this way. But ofcourse there is no guarantee that this would arrest the rapid depletion of my bank balance (as opposed to taking up parttime consulting gigs). Only time will tell.

[peteforde]

Coincidentally, I also love photography.

What I'm not sure about from your comment is whether you intended to do photography for money or because you loved doing it (or both!)

I made a decision a long time ago that I would never allow myself to be hired to take photographs, for all of the reasons around what we're discussing. I want to keep photography as something I do out of love.

It was a very smart decision to make.

[saravk]

I intended to do photography so that i could make a living doing something i loved. It seemed a great idea at that time.

But while i loved the process of taking the photos (i do mostly landscapes, which basically involves patiently waiting for something magical to happen http://saravk.kettik.com/go/photos), i didn't quite enjoy the process of turning that hobby into an income generating endeavour. So i guess i finally came to the same realization as you did. To keep my passion and profession separate.

I also realised that i didn't lose my love for coding, especially when working on my own projects. So i'am now working on a solution for my original problem. To find a way to help travellers create, share and monetize their content.