The Passion Inside of Us. Use it. Create with it.

The Passion Inside of Us. Use it. Create with it.

By Steve Huff

PASSION. We all have it in us, and it manifests in various ways, but it all boils down to one thing. LOVE. YES, passion comes from LOVE. That passion could be Another person. A piece of gear. A Car. A Watch, or ANYTHING that WE can truly love or desire in life. My passion for life has always been like a fire in me, ever since I was a young kid. I was always a happy joyful little guy. By age 9 I knew that in life I never wanted to be held back from the things I loved or wanted to do, as I recognized my passion was deep when it was there.

When I grew older, I was the kind guy that when passionate about something so strongly, I would make it a huge part of my life. In my teens I had a passion for all  kinds of electronics – HIFi, Video, Photo, RC Cars and Airplanes, then eventually guitars and creating music (or trying to anyway). I always followed my passion to the best of my ability and it has served me well over the years. It helped drive me and it also helped create so many lifelong amazingly fun memories.

In fact, this is how I ended up HERE, making this website 8 years ago! It is also why that even today, I am still waking up ever single day to write or post here – THE PASSION FOR THE CRAFT and LIFE! My passion for photography started at a young age when I begged my Father for a Polaroid camera when I was 7 or 8. Ever since that day of receiving my Polaroid I was hooked. Making memories in an instant. Memories that may have been forgotten without that magic piece of paper.

1970-ish. Me and my Father in Chicago. At this age, I had no idea what the future would bring 😉 Probably shot by my Mother on Kodak 126 film 😉 Who remembers 126 film? I do!

So my love for photography AND gear has been in my blood for a LONG LONG time.

Me and my Sister at Easter in Southern Illinois. I was always a happy kid. Again, most likely shot on my Mothers cheap 126 film camera. 

Looking back at old memories makes my heart warm, and I bet it does for you as well when you look at your old prints from childhood. Looking back 40+ years at the times that have faded from memory is something special. Seeing my Father again, seeing back to a time when the world was SO SO different. No tech, no computers, no cel phone, no internet, no WiFi, no seat belts in cars, and a time when we lived a simple life. Little things were a big deal. It was a magical time (at least in my mind and memories it was) As I have said many times over the years, a camera is like a time machine or the closest we will ever be to one.

Even my class photo from KINDERGARTEN is an amazing memory because there was a special person in that class with me back in 1975…

The woman I am with today and have been for the past 5 years, Debby (seen in most of my reviews here) was with me all through grade school as well. Here we are today:

Having those old photos from 1975 is so freaking cool. We are also making new memories, every year taking our photos in a photo booth at the AZ State Fair. When plan to do this year after year after year until we can’t walk to the fair anymore. If you have not noticed, I am a happy, positive, and passionate guy. In love with life, everything about it and the woman I share it with. As I said in the title, we should take our passions in life and use them to bring joy into our lives, like we are doing with this photo series. Photography is one of my passions, but so is the act of making memories.

While my work (on this website) has had its ups and downs, I’d say 90% of it has been all UPS! The only downs came when I had some burn out recently that I had to chuck out of my system for a few months, and I did that by taking a step back from this work for a while. Instead of working 60 hours per week on it, I dropped to 20-30. This helped me do other things in life that I had passion for and explore other things. At the end of the day though, this website and reviewing cameras and lenses and accessories, reading all of YOUR posts and submissions, seeing the excitement from so many about new camera gear and seeing your daily inspirations have re-inspired ME and pumped up my passion back to 100% here. SO for that, I am so so grateful.

Soon after this holiday weekend I am going to be boosting things here with new writers, new reviews, more videos on my YouTube and more exciting things to bring all of YOU, my readers, a better and more enriching experience when it comes to camera reviews. 

Many may not realize but when this website started eight years ago, it was in reality the first REAL WORLD camera review site available to the masses! Yes we had 3-4 technical sites back in the day, and for me, that was not cutting it! I decided to write about cameras in a way that no one else was, in a way that I wanted to see it be done. Easy to read, fun to read and with great real world examples and comparisons. I did not worry about perfection in what I wrote, and if there was a Typo I missed, no big deal. I just wrote my true “from the heart” feelings and showed my images that were created with the hear, using it in the real world instead of a testing studio. Soon it took off as many related to my real world “average guy” take on cameras and lenses and accessories. It then went on to feature all of YOU, the readers..the community. That branched into workshops, meet ups and more fun times. Just a wonderful way for so many of us to share our passion for photography.

Today there are LOADS of real world review sites, in fact, I think there are more real world sites than technical review sites today, and that is just AWESOME. I welcome and embrace it, as it offers us, the true photo enthusiast and geek, more and more outlooks and views on these cameras and lenses we all love to read about, and use…and for some of us, drool over.

Over the 8 years I have been doing this I have always loved the art of photography but just as equally, I loved the gear. Today, at 46 years old, heading towards 47 I am ready to keep on rolling with this passion until I retire 😉

But I just want to say to all that if you have a passion inside of you, for ANYTHING, no matter what it is (of course, as long as it is legal), then you should delve in and work that passion as hard as you can as it is passion that drives us. No passion = No drive. Passion = HUGE DRIVE! For me these passions in life have created memories, new friends, amazing travel opportunities and even finding amazing love.

Keep your passion alive my friends, and live life to the fullest. It’s the only way to live our one life on this planet we call earth. Stay positive and happy, life if good.

THANK TO ALL OF YOU for your support, kindness, friendship and helping my passion become a reality. I always envisioned this website as a camera review/photo site for ALL. This is why the community here is so special, we are all passionate about photography and all involved with it. I look forward to the next 8 years! If you want to see every post from the first 8 years here, click HERE 😉

Steve