Hands up who are happy ?

what…no way… i have my hands up and am HAPPY !!!!
Positive thinking is the way (specially as a photographer)….aiiiiiiii
p

Yesterday I photographed a man who is dying. Brain tumor.
In the strength of his life; wonderful wife; father of three children.
I am happy. And feel very privileged to be able to photograph, travel at times and follow my dreams.

Phillipp, I’m with you….you’ve got to be positive. There’s way too much talking everything down these days….

Rosa, I agree, happy shooting.

I love my job,
jsh

i wish i didn’t have to do so much commercial stuff to pay the bills, that work could be ‘meaningful’ as well as lucrative – i never seem to balance that split very well.

and i resent the time i spend in airports and hotels away from my loved ones…

but compared to a desk job? oh yes, very happy thank you.

:-))

I have welsh parents, was brought up in yorkshire. Of course Im not F**king happy, Im miserable just as god intended me to be :-)

I think the question is are you happy at your work..

Are you happy? is another whole thing in my book. (I am content, at peace, and grateful, but happiness is transient, as is unhappiness.)

But still finding this question about happiness at work impossible to answer, because for myself, I don’t think of photography as a job in a normal sense.

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version) – Cite This Source
happy1 [ˈhӕpi] adjective
having or showing a feeling of pleasure or contentment
Example: a happy smile; I feel happy today.
Arabic: سَعيد
Chinese (Simplified): 高兴的
Chinese (Traditional): 高興的
Czech: šťastný
Danish: glad; lykkelig
Dutch: blij, tevreden, gelukkig
Estonian: rõõmus
Finnish: onnellinen
French: heureux
German: glücklich
Greek: ευτυχισμένος, χαρούμενος
Hungarian: boldog
Icelandic: hamingjusamur
Indonesian: bahagia
Italian: felice
Japanese: 幸福な
Korean: 행복한
Latvian: laimīgs
Lithuanian: laimingas
Norwegian: lykkelig, glad
Polish: szczęśliwy
Portuguese (Brazil): feliz
Portuguese (Portugal): feliz
Romanian: fericit
Russian: счастливый
Slovak: šťastný
Slovenian: srečen
Spanish: feliz, alegre, dichoso
Swedish: lycklig, glad
Turkish: mutlu

erica – i liked ungappiness so much better! like, hmmm, is this a typo or … maybe not? i wish i could feel more ungappy.

Rosa, right, there’s the difference..I AM content, but the feelings of the same are transient.

David- I liked ungappy too..

OK folks…everybody on the dance floor…it’s “Hokey Pokey” time! :):):)

I’m healthy and strong as are my wife and kids. We live in a great neighborhood with terrific people around us. Schooling appears to be good too. In that respect we’re happy as pigs in shite. See me smile.

Career remains sluggish which is a source of frustration. But my photographs are getting better and less cynical. Have definitely turned a corner. I’m happy to be starting a major push for sustainable career success after more than two years away.

Moments of darkness still linger however, but they keep me centered.

Misery is a terrible thing and I’ve decided to abandon it entirely. I no longer have time to wallow in such self pity.

Good move Paul,

I myself had a couple of difficult patches over the last four years when I thought I would give up too, but there really is no option when you’re meant to be doing this stuff, it simply comes back at you.
I’m glad to say since about a year I’ve never been more motivated and the results are starting to show: Better assignments, more stock sales, and especially a far better and more positive approach to things. I’ve got a lot more energy than before and can work really long hours with little sleep when necessary, something I wasn’t capable of in the past.

I must say, there are not many jobs where you can be your own boss, where your results depend on how hard you work, where you need to master both technical, artistic and even journalistic issues all rolled into one.

Getting this far takes time though and I can understand the frustration of some younger photographers.

And yes of course I’m definitely happy!

I think happiness is a conscious decision. Despite the chaos, stress and challenges around me, my work, my dreams, ambitions, the separation from my family I choose to be happy, hell no one, no thing can bring me happiness if I decide to be unhappy. Am I happy all the time…no way, sometimes life has a way of stealing that from me. But, overall I am happy…by choice. Good example is my current employment, (sadly not in photography, but paying the bills) I live in the northern deserts of Kuwait, work long hours, outdoors training young men and women in the Army just prior to their push in to Iraq. The wind, sand and heat and my life support systems take a toll on me. I have been doing this since 2005, prior to that I completed 2 tours with the Army in Iraq. Is the pay good, yes it is, but that is not the reward for living and working in this environment, it’s the fact knowing that what I do effects the men and women I instruct and knowing the knowledge and experiences we provide can and will keep them safe. I Could perform my job and be miserable, but I choose not to, I choose to be enthusiastic and motivated, because that kind of attitude is contagious. Who really enjoys working or hanging out with unhappy, grumpy people all the time?

Yes it’s very true “I choose to be enthusiastic and motivated, because that kind of attitude is contagious” well said that, I’ve noticed it very clearly in my own ewperience. The opposite reaction is also true.

I suppose I could be happy if I put my mind to it, but it would destroy what little personality I have.

i’m happy because i do what i whant to do..but..if you have time to thinking about happyness, well, you can’t be happy for sure

i have a two year old son,so i am mostly nappy!

I agree, TK. Abraham Lincoln said he figured people were about as happy as they made up their minds to be.

T.S. Elliot:
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
for hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love
for love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
but the faith and the love and the hope are all
in the waiting,
wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thoughts;
so the darkness shall be the light
and the stillness the dancing.

“Till human voices wake us, and we drown.”

-T.S. Eliot

Dana, is this thread not against “ecological mind/attitude in the blogoshere/virtual platform”? ;))

Thanks, Dana. That’s beautiful.
And sorry, just couldn’t resist adding these ones….

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?
Charles M. Schulz (1922 – 2000)

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)

It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941)

:)))

I got sacked from my rubbish ‘proper’ job last week for not taking it seriously enough.

I now finally have the time to start shooting the stories i’ve been researching and thinking about for the last six months.

That makes me happy.

Don’t have any money though…

have to say….
i’m a really happy guy but photography is the most frustrating part of my life..
nothing seems good.
at the same time it will be difficult to carry on without it as well.. it’s a good excuse to explore the world.
big dilemma till i find some other medium i guess…

Sohrab, you are doing very well! you made a big step…..! great new work.

Working mostly outdoors, never really answering to people, picking your clients and getting paid to do something I love and would be doing anyways; hell ya I’m happy.