I am constantly on the look out for people who are in the right job and love what they do. I was lucky enough to bump into David Huting while I was indulging my own love of landscapes (I was searching for images of particularly inspiring waterfalls at the time!)
David's work can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/DreamExploreDiscover and www.naturerelaxation.com (and the picture above is his) you will get a fresh woosh of inspiration each time you visit!
A big thank you to David for telling his story, I hope you enjoy.
Here is David's story in his own words:
What do you do? I'm a world-traveling photographer & videographer, specializing in shooting HD video of popular destinations around the world. I work for an Australian content production company (Tourism Media) who then uses the video and images I shoot to actively promote these destinations via popular travel websites such as Flight Centre and Expedia.
What do you love about your job? I get paid to see the world, and I have a lot of freedom - my bosses are usually in another country (Australia).
How did you come to do it? That is actually a long story, so I'll do my best to shorten it up. It began way back in 2006, at the age of 21. I decided to book a semester long "study abroad" program which saw me leaving my home state of Iowa for the rugged wilderness of Tasmania, Australia for 5 months. It was my first overseas experience and I was intrigued and inspired by the amount of natural beauty that fell before my eyes (we also stopped in the Fiji Islands on the way over, which blew me away.) At the time I had just gotten my first digital camera, a small point & shoot, but it took really great pictures! From here on I was inspired to learn how to continually improve my skills to best capture the true beauty of such places - and also to see more of our beautiful world. It was at this time I gained a passion for capturing such places on camera.
I returned from my semester abroad to finish college, majoring in Hotel Restaurant Management at Iowa State in December of 2007, taking a job for a popular hotel/resort chain immediately after. With this company I was fortunate to move first from cold, flat Iowa to the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida, and then finally to San Francisco, where I spent about 15 months working as a Sales Manager.
All the while, my photography was put on hold - it wasn't until moving to beautiful Northern California when I was reinspired by the area's natural beauty to upgrade my camera and continue advancing my skills. Slowly but surely the suit-and-tie corporate lifestyle started to feel as if it was eating away at my soul, and eventually enough was enough.
I did the unthinkable; quit a good paying career at the age of 24 in a down economy, spent my remaining cash on upgrading to pro camera equipment, and moved to the other side of the world to Sydney, Australia on a one-year visa. It took nearly the entire year to make it happen, but eventually I seized the opportunity and began my employment with Tourism Media with my first official trip seeing my return to where it all began for me: The Fiji Islands. Since there it's been a whirlwind across about 15 countries and 3 continents, spanning over 50,000 miles in just my first year!
How does it feel to do work that you love? It's an immensely rewarding feeling, and even more so because I know it wasn't merely handed to me - I made it happen.
Are there days when you don’t love it so much? What do you do on these days? Of course; even the best jobs have their down days. There is actually quite a bit of pressure on me to get the right shots, and it's normally a race against time. The big cities are usually the hardest for me, but I just get through it and remind myself of how much better it is than being stuck in an office.
Did you/do you have to give anything up to do it? I guess I already answered this one, but yes - a good paying career I had just began with a good company (Hyatt). I had to make all new friends and pretty much start from scratch when I got to Sydney, but the experience of starting brand new in a new country is one I wouldn't trade for the world.
What’s the greatest thing you get from your work? Well, I get to keep copies of everything I shoot - which has turned into a substantial amount of content from around the world (About 2TBs worth last year!). But mainly it's the experience of exploring someplace new and the feeling of the open road that keeps me inspired.
What is your advice to anyone who wants to do what they love? My advice would be just to DO IT! If you're in a position of unhappiness or discontent, then grab your life by the horns and start working towards your goals. List your goals, short term and long. Make a plan; what tools do you need? Who can help you achieve them? Find what you truly love and start working away at it, developing your skills, and you'll be surprised at what opportunities may arise.
What’s next for you? Right now, the world is at my fingertips; I plan to continue to explore the globe and capture it on camera, with my main goal for the next 3 years being to see as much of the world as I can. Upcoming trips are the East Coast of the US (road trip!), and possibly South America, before returning to Australia in the spring so I can cover more of that side of the world - Thailand, New Zealand, and around Australia are at the top of that list!
Lastly, here are the list of inspirational quotes that have helped me out immensely:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
"What each of us really wants, deep down, is more LIFE-something I termed ALIVENESS, the experience of living a life unrestricted by self-image-imposed, artificial limits. Happiness, success, peace of mind-whatever your own conception of supreme good may be-is experienced in its essence as more life. When we experience expansive emotions of happiness, self-confidence, and success, we enjoy more life. And to the degree that we inhibit our abilities, frustrate our God-given talents, and allow ourselves to suffer anxiety, fear, self-condemnation and self-hate, we literally choke off the life force available to us and turn our back on the gift that our Creator has made. To the degree that we deny the gift of life, we embrace death."
- M.Maltz
"If one advances confidently in the directions of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
-Henry David Thoreau
"My life is as a May game, I will live as I like. I defy your straight-laced, weary social ways and modes. Blue is the sky; green the fields and groves, fresh the springs, glad the rivers, and hospitable the splendor of sun and star. I will play my game out." - Emerson
"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it."
-William Arthur Ward
..."Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
-Mark Twain
"Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."
-Norman Vincent Peale
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."
- Oscar Wilde
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
- Emerson
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand
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