Can your remember the first time you had the idea that you'd like to make money by taking pictures, by being paid as a photographer? The absolute first time that the little photo money-making seed sprouted up into your consciousness? The first time it dawned on you that you could be making money with that marvelous instrument that was capturing the images you were seeing, the way you wanted to see them captured?

That first time for some of us meant thinking in grandiose terms. We saw ourselves as artists creating photos that people would pay hundreds -- no, thousands of dollars for! We envisioned people oohing and aahing over our work, completely awed by our obvious genius and depth. Why we were capturing the world as it had never been seen before! We saw ourselves as the star of countless, crowded and critically acclaimed exhibitions all over the world. The richest, trendiest snobs would gawk in our presence, each bragging over which of them new us best. Magazines and book publishers would woo us with their favors. And the vast amount of money we earned would afford us the luxury of a hilltop mansion, yacht, lenghty vacations, etc., etc.

Others of us -- most of us, I dare say -- were dreaming and thinking in more practical terms, relatively speaking! We saw ourselves making a fortune as the most sought-after wedding photographer in town, or as the best portrait artist for miles around. Or, who nurtured on the work of legends like Gene Smith and David Douglas Duncan, saw ourselves as an insightful photojournalists working for Life, Look, and the other picture weeklies that were already leaving the scene just as we began  to arrive!

The fact is, the first time we actually thought of making money with our camera, we were thinking big. We were thinking possibilities. We were thinking not of nickels and dimes, but of dollars, and many of them. Or we were thinking of fame. We were seeing ourselves in successful action, accomplishing and earning the reward. We were excited. And, truth be known, we saw ourselves as invincible.

Well, dreams are like that. They allow us to see ourselves at our fullest potential. They show us what we can be and what we can do when we remove the curtained barriers of fear, insecurity, and doubt -- both about ourselves and about the rest of the world in relation to ourselves.

We begin with a dream. That dream is to make money with our camera in whatever way we individually find most appealing to and compatible with our talents, abilities, personality, outlook, interests, and probably a whole lot more. Then, always, doubts set in that hold us at least one step back from what it really is we want to be doing; at least one step back from exercising our fullest photographic potential. Whether about our ability or about the way others perceive our ability, these doubts, caused by fear, rob us of making the kind of money we had been hoping to make with our camera, or doing the kind of work we wanted to do.

Remember your dream? Remember how you saw yourself pursuing a successful photographic money-making venture? Now remember the doubts that started holding you back? The fears that began dictating your decisions and actions? Remember the "realities" and "practicalities" that intruded upon the vision of your dream and caused you to either reluctantly revise it, cast it aside, or abandon it entirely? All the reasons why you "shouldn't" or "couldn't" pursue the photographic venture you most wanted to pursue? All the reasons that just possibly, just possibly, might have really been nothing more than handy and rather believable excuses that served to do nothing more than make you feel safe and secure from those nagging fears and doubts? And, of course, when you do that, you might end up feeling safe and secure, but you never do abolish your fears and doubts. You simply cover them up. You also never lose your desire to make money with your camera. It will be with you always, as long as you stay in photography.

For your sake, then , keep your dream alive and well. Nourish it, Tend it. FULFILL it. And always, ALWAYS, treat it with the same care and respect that you would give the one thing in the world that is most important to you and your well being. Because isn't that what your dream really is?

Larry Stepanowicz