It’s time for a huge change

I’m staying with my current employer until March 31, 2023.  After that I’m done.  Moving to Calgary.  I just have to.  Everything in my being is telling me I have to move.  For my own sanity, I have to move.  I’ve been in Ottawa for 39 years.  That’s way too long.  I was in Calgary for 4 months back in 2017.  I fell in love with the nature, the ability to be outdoors, in the mountains within 45 minutes.  I just can’t be in the Ottawa valley anymore. There’s nothing more that I can photograph here in Ottawa.  I have the parliament, some of the museum buildings, some other architecture but that’s about it.  I just miss the mountains, the fresh mountain air, the silence, just being alone in the wilderness.  I really miss it.

My last I.T contract

Took on my last IT contract in Ottawa.  Haven’t started yet because Procurement is completely inept.  I’ve found over the last 4 years that working for the Canadian government is becoming a nightmare.  So much red tape.  So much BS in stopping you from where you want to go and what you want to do.  I’ve basically reached my braking point.

I’m starting my YouTube channel and getting to do more photography which I should’ve been doing anyways.  Yesterday I had some regrets in selling my Sony a7ii full frame camera and lens combo along with my Canon Vixia HF G40.  Today I’m realizing that I only need the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I’m hoping Apple holds its release date of Apple iPadOS to September 30th which is in a few weeks.  I hope the OS update includes drivers for the Sony RX100 Mark VII since the current version of iOS does not recognize the photos or the file system.  I have two external hard drives attached to the 2018 iPad Pro which are currently inaccessible.  IPadOS will change that of course.

In March of 2020, our lease is up on the apartment and it’ll be time to move.  I’m moving out west regardless if my girlfriend comes or not.  I just can’t stand Ottawa anymore.  I can’t stand the weather here anymore. The summers are hot and the winters are cold.  The humidity sucks here in the summer.  The bugs don’t help either.  Calgary doesn’t have that which is fantastic.  Hopefully I’ll be able to support us or myself on photography and YouTube.  I hope.  

I think it’s time

Over the past year, I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on photography, travel photography etc.  I’m so wanting to do it.  Just go out and travel full time with just my cameras and document my life on YouTube.  The only thing I fear is a lack of income.  I make ok money selling my stuff on places like Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  But not enough to make car payments, insurance, buy gas, upkeep on the vehicle.  The thing that makes me want to do it is when I was out west in Calgary for 4 months back in 2017.  I want to do photography and shoot videos full time.  I don’t want a boss.  I want to be boss.  I hate working in a cubicle dealing with office politics, the pettiness and the other BS that comes with office jobs.  Especially here in Ottawa being a government town, it’s just a hundred times worse because Ottawa is a politics town since it’s the capital of Canada.

Tomorrow I want to get new tires for my vehicle since I need them badly before winter comes.  I bought an air mattress and a couple of sleeping bags thinking this summer I’d be doing more camping on weekends.  Instead I do nothing except go to church on Sunday because the girlfriend enjoys doing that.  I totally feel left out.  I think it’s time to make a whole bunch of changes in my life.  I’m getting up there in age.  I’ll be 44 in about 3 weeks and I feel like life is just passing me by.

My Sony RX100 Mark VII is almost setup.  I’m getting my Lensmate attachment today along with a whole bunch of filters.  Now I just need Apple to hurry up and release the Photo Raw updates so I can actually use the Sony RX100 Mark VII with my 2018 Apple iPad 12.9” and I can ditch all the laptops that I’m currently using

I have a question for anyone reading this and doing the full time travel thing.  Where do you get your income?  YouTube, Shutterstock, an online store, working temp jobs somewhere for a week or so and then leaving?  I am so open to suggestions.  Please let me know.

Windows 10 or any Microsoft operating system

Versus Linux, Mac OS, Unix, the Windows 10 operating system is a dysfunctional disaster.  It's a disappointment.  On my early 2013 MacBook Pro, the fans hardly ever ramp up.  Only when editing 4k footage, would the fans ramp up and run hot.  With Windows 10 running on my Asus laptop, just running Firefox the fans ramp up.  I can't wait to edit footage or photos on the laptop.  Windows basically is crap on a hard drive.  

I work with Windows 10 all day with my full time job.  It spies on you sending everything back to Microsoft.  It's the Google Android of the laptop/desktop computer market.  I've never had a problem with editing photos or 1080p footage on my MacBook Pro.  I cannot wait to get my Apple iPad Pro.  I think though with the bendgate problems with the iPads, I'll wait for the next itineration of the Apple iPad.  I can't justify a $2000+ product coming out bent out of shape from the factory.  No company is perfect but come on Apple.  The iPad comes out bent and it's a part of the manufacturing process.

I actually don't know if I even want the Apple iPad.  I have two decent laptops that can edit photos and footage pretty well.  Actually the MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro X is pretty amazing.  I think this weekend I'll wipe the machine and do a clean install of Mojave on it.  Install all my regular programs and just use it to edit photos and footage.  Thankfully I got rid of the iMac.  That was an eyesore if I ever saw one.

I honestly don't know what 2019 will bring.  I know by April I do not want to be in Ottawa and Ontario.  I want to be in Calgary and be living close to the mountains.  I want to take two weeks and head down south thru Montana, Utah, Colorado to Arizona, up thru California and see the coast.  I would love to do photography and shoot some footage out there.  That is my goal for next year.

Just as I thought

The month of October came in like a lion on Shutterstock.  It has left like a bloodied sheep.  A lot of high quality sales in the first week of October on Shutterstock.  Now it's whimpering out like a half dead lamb with a few subscription sales here and there.  I honestly don't know what else I can do except for keep shooting.  I haven't heard my camera in my hands for a week or two since we're getting ready to move on Friday.  But I think starting this Saturday I'll be doing more photography.  We've started going to the gym so my focus for the next six months will be weight loss, photography and studying Seriff' Affinity Photo.

Honestly, I'm sick of doing the IT thing.  I've been doing it since 2001 and I think I've been been doing it for too long now.  I've lost my focus and I've lost any joy I've had doing it.  My interests and joy have shifted over to photography and film making.  I am saving up any and all photography money for a new point and shoot camera that I want to buy.  I want to get the Sony RX100 Mark IV in the new year or whenever I save up money for it.  I need to get my Sony RX100 Mark V fixed.  The EVF is broken and the latch holding in the battery is dislodged.  So I need to get that fixed.  There's a local store here in Ottawa that fixes cameras.  I've dealt with them in the past whenever I needed a camera fixed.  They're quick and inexpensive to fix camera equipment.  I'll get the camera fixed in mid November.  Shouldn't be more than $200-$300 to get it fixed.  At least I hope.

I also want to keep writing more on the blog here.  Hopefully it will catch on and get a following.  I know I will also have to get a Youtube channel going soon.  I have to get over the hate of being on camera.  I hope to look better by March 2019.  I need to lose about 50 pounds or so.  I need to exercise and eat better.  I can't be putting it off anymore.

Next April when I move to Calgary, Alberta, I want to trade in my 2015 Hyundai Elantra for a 2018/2019 Jeep Wrangler or a Rubicon.  Some sort of a four wheel drive Jeep that I can modify for weekend trips and holidays out west or down south so I don't have to sleep in hotel rooms.  I am expecting a real life change.  I am sick of doing the IT thing.  I cannot get ahead in this field.  Not in Ottawa anyways as I'm not bilingual.

Slowly but surely I'm gonna make some life changes soon.  We shall see where I end up.

I am trying to convince myself

I have been watching a lot of these Youtube videos where people live in their Jeep or another vehicle and just drive around North America and discover Canada and the continental United States even going up to Alaska and the Yukon.

I've had the itch for the past three years to do this.  I'd probably say the last 7 years.  Lets just say that when I had cancer back in 2010/2011, I've been wanting to go out on the road and just travel.  I don't get to do much since I work 5 days a week and just pay bills to keep my head just above water.  I don't want that kind of life where I just go to work and pay bills.  There is a lot more to see than just a cubicle and the 4 walls of your home living room or bed room.  Life is more than that.

I've been thinking that early next year, I trade in my 2015 Hyundai Elantra for a Jeep 4 door and just live and travel in that.  I'm very afraid of not being able to buy food or pay for my bills.  I've always worked and I hate living off of donations.  That's why I don't use services like Patreon or GoFundMe.  Those are great for raising funds for like AIDS or cancer research.  But to live off of the donations of others I find troubling.  I don't make a lot of money with my photography.  A few hundred bucks here or there.  I probably need roughly $3500 a month live after tax.  I probably make $200 a month with my photography.  The photography money is not steady either.  Some months I make more and some months I make less.  I make a few bucks a month with the blog, but again, nowhere near where I need to be.  I have a Youtube channel but I hate being on camera.

I would love to travel the United States.  Go from state to state.  But I can't legally work there and I would need to support myself.  You really can't travel in Canada in winter.  Last year when I left for Calgary in early March, I got stuck in North Dakota for 2 days because of a snow storm in a 95km/h wind storm. At one point it felt like my hotel room was going to fly away and end up in Kansas or somewhere.

I don't mind the snow.  I actually love the snow but I do like the weather in Arizona in the fall.  2 years ago I was on vacation in Arizona and fell in love with the state.

Right now, I'm trying to lose 50 pounds before the end of March 2019.  I feel like the next six months will be life changing.  I know the old saying of: the only thing to fear is fear itself.  And that's my biggest fear right now.  Not fear.  But the unknown of how I'm going to support my travel financially. If you have any thoughts or advice, just post it in the comments.