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Howdy y’all, Oh man, I’m having a moment starting this letter. Last month, I was soaked and full of chocolate on my birthday after riding a motorcycle to a volcano island in Nicaragua through the night and rain. Now, I’m back home in the valley of the sun happily overworked at my favorite old late night coffee shop and the juxtaposition is just hitting me — one month and two worlds apart. In many ways, these are two worlds of tectonic difference: unknown vs. routine, volcano paradise vs. desert winter, slow living vs. overflowing days. However, I also have this strange, beautiful, new sense… Perhaps these two worlds are coming together? It’s curious what’s happened following interest. Skills I picked up traveling the world, reading books, and building this blog (photography, writing, web design, search engine optimization etc.) were the perfect education for accidentally starting a real estate photography business (which began in flight school when I offered to build a website for my fellow pilot’s real estate photography side-business and the pandemic sidelined flight school). The skills I learned pursuing what I love fit to earning a living like a glove. It’s quite great today: I ride my bike to work in some coffee shop for the morning to create online, build systems, and ensure it’s all humming along. Many an afternoon I get lost in the creative flow of real estate photography. I skip town like two and a half months a year. The only kicker is business often overruns the creative pursuits that call to me and got me here… among sweet days here, I still yearn for better balance. But this January, I noticed something new: the camera skills I picked up shooting real estate photography are giving back to the intuitive, heartfelt creative pursuits. College baseball player turned Peace Corps volunteer turned legally-blind-and-totally-gifted soundhealer Richard (pictured above), crashed at my place a few weekends ago so my friend Kevin and I could record him at work. I flew the drone, shot portraits, and a bunch of sweet b-roll as these soul-stirring soundbaths flowed from Richard along a desert river. Thinking about it, this was actually the fourth musical act I’ve captured out among nature with real estate photography sourced skills (here’s the first, the other three are just waiting on friends to finish the edits). I also put the camera skills to use with the Between2Clouds Elsewhere project, as we attempt to monthly make downtown Phoenix into “a happier, dancier place.” I sense they’ll come in handy as I start recording episodes for this particular idea I have for a podcast as well. All this to say: real estate photography sprung from skills developed following interest, and in turn, following interest is springing from skills developed from real estate photography. It’s funny how, if you follow interest to find your center, life can resonate, feedback, and work. I hope your new lap around the sun is off to a grand start. Love love love & stoke stoke stoke, Ethan
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