When Turning Passion into Work Ruins the Fun: My First (and Last) Videography Gig

I'm a software engineer by trade—I write code all day. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd buy a camera.

My photography skills were so bad that my ex was often mad at me for taking so many terrible photos of her. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself landing my first gig on a video project.

A couple of days ago, a lady reached out to me after seeing some of my personal videos. She wanted help getting sponsors for kids who are eager to learn karate. She asked if I could create a video to support their cause.

I hesitated but ultimately decided to do it.

The Final Result

The Experience

It turned out that shooting for other people isn't as enjoyable as I thought it might be.

My main reason for getting into videography was to document my own life—to capture moments that are meaningful to me. But when I had to put in effort for someone else's project, the joy just wasn't there.

Don't get me wrong; I loved working with the kids—they were fantastic. But when I got home, editing the video was a pain in the ass.

This experience taught me something valuable: if you monetize your hobby, it stops being your hobby. It becomes work. And for me, that takes away the fun and passion that drew me to videography in the first place.

So, I've decided I won't spend much time trying to monetize my videography. I'd rather keep it as a personal passion, something I do for myself without any obligations or expectations from others.