We recently connected with Michael Rung and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I am exceedingly happy as an artist, regardless of the unique challenges that come along with trying to rely on photography to earn a living.
Finding photography has been a truly life-changing event. I’ve had hobbies and interests that came and went, but nothing has ever hooked me as completely as picking up a camera and learning to see the world around me with such an incredibly expanded appreciation for the nuances of light, small details that were previously overlooked, and discovering beauty and delight in the unexpected.
When I’m working in the field, it’s just me, my camera, and my surroundings. Everything else fades away into the background. My mind quiets even as it rages with possibilities and curiosity and wonder. The concept of time is swept away in creative flow. Finding a compelling composition in the right place, at the right time, gives me a rush of adrenaline like little else aside from realizing my final vision through processing the file and then seeing it come fully to life as print.
Of course, none of that means it’s easy or an endless highlight reel of carefree joy. Contrary to the common perception of outsiders that it’s just traveling the world and taking pictures of pretty places, a tremendous amount of work goes into making photos that are personally expressive and capable of capturing a viewer’s attention and admiration in a world of constant noise and distractions.
Years of practice, thousands of dollars on gear and travel, physical challenges often combined with a lack of sleep, the countless hours of work being done behind the scenes to try to grow and manage the business and achieve some level of financial security, the inevitable self-doubt and ebb and flow of confidence… in many regards I work harder, and have more stress, than I ever did in my former career.
Speaking of which, I don’t have to wonder what it would be like to have a regular job: I’m a year and a half removed from a career of nearly 30 years. Obviously, the reliability and reassurance of a biweekly paycheck has significant value, but I struggle to find too many other reasons to get excited over the prospect of returning to that life.
The “regular job” certainly wasn’t all bad – quite the contrary – but, in the grand scheme of things, that past life offered little in the way of true personal fulfillment beyond the satisfaction of a job well done and some of the personal relationships I’ve maintained since leaving it behind. Most of the day-to-day outcomes were for the benefit of the shareholders, not the soul.
Regardless of the uncertainty and ambiguity that comes with working as a self-employed artist, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. This life is finite, after all: if I’m able to make it through to the end doing something I truly love, why wouldn’t I?
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a nature and landscape photographer based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Having grown up in the Midwest during a time when kids were encouraged to go out and explore for hours on end, and having the good fortune to live in a neighborhood with large wooded areas and a creek running through, I spent countless hours and days in nature.
For reasons still unclear to me, as I grew older I lost the desire to be outdoors. If the subject came up, I’d often state that I had no interest in camping or hiking: books and documentary series about the natural world were enough for me. I never lost an appreciation for the beauty of the world, but I certainly lost the curiosity that spurred me to get out and experience it for myself.
Until, that is, I started to find my love for photography.
After moving to Texas for my career in the spring of 2012, I was on my own in a completely unfamiliar place. Around the same time, I also became a big fan of the Windows Phone platform (stay with me on this!). Known for the quality of their cameras, those phones began to spark an interest in photography as I sought to learn to use the devices to their fullest.
The combination of getting to know the area and playing with the phone’s camera soon led me to checking out a local park/woodland I found online. Suddenly, I rediscovered the desire to spend time exploring outdoors again, probably close to 30 years after my final romp in the neighborhood woods. Although it wasn’t a passion, per se, working to explore the park and improve my photography planted the seeds for what was to come.
Fast forward to 2015 and my role at work had expanded to include international responsibilities, and I ended up in Ireland that March for a two week business trip. For my free weekend, I spent one full day wandering along and photographing the eastern coastline with my Windows Phone. At the last minute, to fill my time on Sunday, I booked a bus tour to Northern Ireland, which turned out to be one of the most pivotal decisions I’ve made.
The Titanic museum in Belfast was all well and good, but what really blew me away was the rugged beauty of the northern coast, from Giant’s Causeway to the area around the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. I had never seen or experienced anything like it in person before.
I had also never looked at photos I’d taken and been that impressed, especially when I was back home in Texas and looking at them on a larger screen.
A few weeks later, I bought my first “real” camera and a couple lenses, with the full intention of diving into photography as a hobby.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I’ve since camped in tents, gone on countless hikes, slept in the back of my car, replaced the car with a 4Runner (and built out a camping setup in the back of it), bought and replaced camera gear, traveled around the country… all thanks to my love of photography. More importantly, I’ve learned to actively see the world around me instead of just being a passive observer.
Over the years, I’ve drifted away from the travel-centric interests that my photography often focused on initially, and have settled comfortably into the nature and landscape genre. It is where I gain the most personal satisfaction, and being in nature is where I am most at peace. I consider being in the field with my camera the best therapy I can receive, for both mind and body.
I consider myself a reactive and representational nature photographer. I eschew detailed plans for specific compositions or built up expectations for encountering certain conditions, instead preferring to simply get out and wander and see (and accept) whatever comes my way. From a processing standpoint, I strive to remain true to what I saw and witnessed in nature while conveying the essence of my experiences to viewers through what I call a “complex subtlety” approach to editing.
For a few years now, I’ve been focused on not only sharing my work via my website and the usual social media platforms, but also sharing the photography knowledge and insights I’ve gained with others. I stand, after all, on the shoulders of others, and want to pay it forward.
I’m quite passionate about teaching: that and helping develop others was one of the most satisfying aspects of my former career. In the photography space, I do so by offering one-to-one online mentoring (for anything from teaching my editing processes and tricks in Lightroom to providing image and portfolio critiques to aspiring photographers). I also offer in-field mentoring locally, and hope to expand that in the future to leading workshops around the country.
In a less hands-on arena, I also started producing videos for my YouTube channel during the early days and weeks of the pandemic, mostly centered on how to use the various tools in Lightroom Classic. I’ve branched out into videos that focus more on explaining my creative whys behind my in-field and post-processing decisions, as well, as opposed to the more typical step-by-step processing tutorials that are available from others.
In addition to my educational offerings, I’m extremely passionate about producing and selling my own fine art photography prints. A little over two years ago I purchased a professional large format printer and take great pride in – and receive great satisfaction from – creating beautiful prints of my work. It’s cliché, but there really is nothing else like watching a print of one’s own work come off the printer and holding and appreciating it, from the details and colors of the pigment ink to the subtle texture of the matte paper I prefer to use.
Any time I have the privilege to send a print off to a new owner, I’m excited that they, too, will get to experience my work in the same way.
The journey into crafting my own prints in-studio also resulted in the production and release of my first folio collection in late 2022, Look for the Light. The limited-edition folio contains 10 8×10 prints of some of my favorite photos I made from 2019 to 2021, and has been extremely well-received by collectors. I plan to follow it up with a second volume in 2023.
In early 2022, after a few years of uncertainty, upheaval, and growing dissatisfaction at work, I left the company for which I had worked since I was a teenager (I’m now in my mid-40s). It’s been an interesting journey into full-time photography, full of plenty of ups and downs, doubts and excitement… and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I’ve actually been thinking about this a fair bit over the past six months or so. When I first got into photography it was to share my experiences with friends and family. Having moved away from my family, in particular, it was an obvious way to let them know what I was up to and, as I began to travel more for work and for photography, to share beautiful sights. My motivation was fairly uncomplicated.
As I got further into my journey and became more immersed in the photography community, I inevitably encountered the debate over photography’s place in the art world, the definition (and value) of personal expression, and other rabbit hole’s of thought and philosophy (and disagreement).
Many photographers summarize their philosophy as wanting to be artistically respected by their peers more so than being admired by their followers (or the general public). I don’t disagree with that viewpoint and of course want that respect for myself, but it can also be contrary to why I initially started sharing my work back when I was still playing with my phone and then learning to use a dedicated camera.
It also seems there’s a prevailing mindset among nature and landscape photographers that everything has been seen by everyone. By everything, it’s typically meant photos of grand landscapes, especially those made at more iconic locations. Thusly, there has been a noticeable shift over the years to more intimate or even abstract representations of nature (although I feel that shift is also a natural progression for many photographers, myself included, as we seek to create work that stands apart from the crowd and challenges us in new ways creatively).
However, as I’ve thought back to what I found most rewarding in my early days of photography, I’ve also realized that, to some extent, I’ve gotten away from making photos for the joy of others (e.g. my family and friends). That’s not to say they don’t enjoy my more recent work, but where so many of us are worried about showing someone something they’ve seen before… odds are, they haven’t. They’re not as steeped in the world of photography as those of us out there doing it and consuming it day in and day out.
Making work that is mostly “location agnostic” has also been gnawing at my sense of purpose over time. Beyond my own personal benefit of traveling to and witnessing beautiful places, what is the value to others in sharing photos which have little broader sense of place?
I believe it is likely quite rare that a non-photographer that follows my work has seen a photo of anything but the most iconic of the icons (Tunnel View, for instance). Odds are my sharing of images I made in many places photographers consider “played out” would, in fact, be something new and wonderful and awe-inspiring for many others.
While it is certainly rewarding to create work that is more personal and less representational of a grander place (indeed, I love seeking out such compositions), I’m also striving to remember what made me pick up a camera the first time: to share some of the beauty of the world with those who aren’t able to experience the places I visit first-hand. To that end, I must remove assumptions of what they have and have not seen before.
That reward – showing someone something new and awe-inspiring through one of my photographs – is worth appreciating, alongside the work I create solely for myself.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A subject I’ve just recently discussed more openly on my blog is my struggle of creativity and growing my business against my mental and physical health. I’ve been managing Crohn’s Disease for roughly 30 years now and, shortly before I left my former career to pursue photography full-time, I fell out of remission. Thinking it would be a relatively easy thing to resolve – I’d been mostly healthy for the better part of 12 years – turned out to be a poor assumption.
Over the past year or so I have struggled off and on with severe fatigue as a result of the disease and, tied to the fatigue, depression. While it shouldn’t have been surprising to discover the correlation between poor health and creativity… well, it was surprising. It was just something I hadn’t really had to think about before.
The fatigue and depression really kicked in late last year and in January of 2023 as I struggled to get the underlying disease back under control. I went from feeling motivated and energized by the shift into self-employment and pursuing my dream to reeling under an onslaught of self-doubt, plunging motivation, and feeling as if I was failing and lost at sea as too many days were lost in the depths of my struggles. On such days my creativity and confidence to make new photos, edit photos, write blog posts, record videos, etc. vanished.
Fortunately, I learned – am still learning – to give myself grace given what I’ve been going through. As part of this journey of physical and mental and creative health, I’ve also learned to literally carpe diem: to seize the good days and make the most of them. Being able to step out of my own head for a moment and recognize that I don’t need to beat myself up for a down day or two as I know I can and will work to make the most of the highs has gone a long ways towards feeling like I’m getting back on track and can, in fact, succeed and excel at what I’m trying to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.michaelrungphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelrungphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelrungphotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/michael-rung-photography/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MRungPhoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelRungPhotography