*3  By: Andrey Starostin

You’re only as big as your dreams –

 – I drink at least one cup of coffee every day.  Lately my coffee has been espresso ranging from Arcedium beans to Metropolis Red Line, but the drink has been a cortado.  Every so often I relapse to my original “craft” (snooty, snobby, lets call it connoisseur) coffee days of pour over coffee.  I got into good, and it truly is better, coffee when I was introduced to pour over coffee by David.  I usually relapse at David’s house, where I am consistently surprised at the level of nuance he can extract from fresh beans.

David is that individual on the left there.  For 9 or so years now, David has been my best friend.  Every time I have an existential moment and reconsider my path in life, David tells me the same thing, “Do what you know, what you Love.”

Humans naturally avoid stressful situations.  For some reason, I’ve been dealing with this first hand lately.  Maybe it has something to do with me still being in my first year as a college graduate.  I’m here to share with you what I’ve slowly come to realize.

David has to be my most photographed model; cat may be the next closest contender.  This week I brought my camera gear to his house.  I knew we were having coffee.  I knew he would be wearing some nice clothes.  The set up was minimal.

  I brought a light stand with a hot shoe flash and a 40 something inch umbrella.  My camera of choice was the Fuji x100s and I slave synced the flash with a Wein infrared trigger.  If you look at the kit, it’s pretty minimal.  The entirety of it does not cost that much.  But man oh man is it a problem solver this kit.  Set up before the water was boiled, I was ready to shoot.  ISO set to 200, f2.8 on the 23mm fuji lens, and shutter speed at 250th.

The beans were single origin Costa Rica by Intelligentsia in Chicago.  They were scale weighed, freshly ground by motor driven temperature controlled conical burrs, and bloomed in precisely heated filtered water.  We take our coffee seriously and it shows.  It shows in our faces as we brew and further more when we taste.  The procedure is extrapolated and the results are consistent.

Take a look at these photos we came up with.  Then keep reading.

Back to this realization I was talking about.  This advice David keeps giving me.  “Do what you Love.”  I’m in this unfortunate situation where I finished the plan that was laid out for me.  I’m talking about that “go to school, get a degree” mentality our parents drill into our heads.  Well I’m done.  I got a degree.  Now what?  I don’t have a “to do list” anymore.  I came to the realization that I have to make my own to do list.  I have to plan something.

You have to figure out what is worth your time.  I feel that if it makes you happy, it is worth doing, it is worth giving money to, it is worth spending time with.  For me that is photography, that is writing, drinking coffee, time with my girlfriend, riding my bike, cooking, skateboarding.

At this point I have lined up my interests and passions and had to take the time and figure out what I can make a career out of.  I need something that I can make a living doing but not hating my life dreaming about a vacation.  When it comes down to it I love vacations, but they are stressful.  Planning, traveling, hotels, trying to find a bargain…it all sounds like my blood pressure rising.  I need something I do every day, a livelihood that I can dedicate my time to, something I can learn from and continue enjoying.

That is photography and writing.  I love cooking but I couldn’t handle being a commercial level cook.  I love coffee but the only way a barista life suits me is if I owned my own coffee shop.  I would love a coffee shop, but business loans and entrepreneurial ventures don’t line up with my life right now.  So that leaves me with photography and writing.  I’ll keep reading and writing, but what really gives me joy, and I mean giddy take you back to your childhood joy is photography.  I’ll keep from complicating my other passions and focus my attention on photography.  I love every aspect of the photography industry. I am a people person.  I am technologically sound.  I have a creative, business centered mind.  Photography is my game for sure.

My free time therefore is spent in the world of photography.  If I have a chance, I’m going to take a photo of you.  I love it.  I’ll do my best to make sure you love it.

I couldn’t visit David and have a cup of coffee without turning it into an impromptu photo session.

I think everyone needs to figure out what it is they can do every day for the rest of their lives and find a way to surround themselves with said thing.  It is worth it even if it doesn’t amount of a livelihood.  It’s time spent having fun.  I’m willing to be though, if you spend all your time doing something you’re passionate about, you’ll find a way to make a living doing it.

If you would like to leave a comment, know more about something, have some kind of question for me please do so.

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  **** Thank you so much for reading my blog. ****