Andrew Berdan

I went out to shoot some of the local kids at a skate park. The usual bout of questions came up: “Why are you taking pictures?” “Are you a photographer?” “Do you work for a newspaper?” “Is this going on the internet?”*

This time, things were a bit different. There was one smaller boy — it’s always the younger ones that are more bold with their questions — who asked me as I ripped a sequence shot, “Is that fun?”

I don’t get the impression that he believed my answer of, “Definitely.”

But, it got me thinking about that question. It’s so simple, yet it cuts deep. Are you truly enjoying yourself when you do what you do? I’ve definitely worked places where I dreaded waking up in the morning… and now, I’ve got two jobs where I love what I do. By day, I’m a mild-mannered video game developer. By night, I’m rocking a cam as The Caffeinated Shooter.

Having experienced the excitement of fulfilling work, there’s no way I can ever go back to the world I used to live in, and I try my damnedest to make this experience a similar reality for the people in my life, including the other members of my team.

My question to all of you is, “If you’re not having any fun, why the hell are you doing it?”

* The answers, respectively, are: “It’s what I do.”, “Yes.”, “Nope, freelance”, and “If they’re good, sure.”