For our society, money is the most important thing. There is no point in working if it doesn’t allow you to live a luxurious life. Leaving luxury for work satisfaction and passion for a job you love doing is considered stupidity. People start pressuring the individual and laugh at them if they get out of a comfortable, high-paying job for following their passion.
That’s why it becomes challenging to follow passion. However, we believe that it is a downfall of a growing society. Money is a part of work, but it’s not everything. Satisfaction matters!
Sai Kiran Kotakonda faced a similar situation in his life where he had to make a tough choice. While starting the journey, he had to choose between passion and money. Despite being graduated from the University of Bedfordshire (UK), he chose his passion for photography. In the initial phase, he didn’t target money but work quality. Then rest is history. Let us hear his story to know more about his life.
Sai Kiran Kotakonda – My Story
I’m Sai Kiran Kotakonda. I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. I completed my schooling in Hyderabad. Then I shifted to the UK to pursue MBA. My qualifications revolved around business, jobs, and earning money. Everyone used to think I would be placed in a reputed corporate However. My profession turned to be exactly the opposite of what they imagined or expected.
Since childhood, I have loved drawing and creating pictures. It started when I migrated from a private school to a government school. I had a lot of free time there as they didn’t burden students with too much homework.
In the government school, I used to have a lot of free time because there was no homework. There was a drawing class going on in school. Painting and colors attracted me, and I enrolled in the class. After trying, I developed an interest in painting. My family was against painting as they wanted me to concentrate on my studies. My parents said, ‘There’s no need to buy colors and papers.’ However, I was fascinated by the colorful world, so I didn’t listen to them and continued to paint.
Then one day, my friend bought a digital camera. My life changed after touching that camera. I had used cameras before, but this one was different as it didn’t require many reels. I can click as much as I want to. Trust me, when you are in the digital world, you land up with unlimited pictures, and you will love clicking them. A similar thing happened to me. I started clicking pictures of my surroundings and friends.
Soon, clicking pictures became a part of my daily routine. I carried a camera everywhere. I used to click whenever I went out. My life revolved around finding perfect pictures and capturing them with my camera. Then I came to know about a picture editing software called ‘MS PAINT.’ From here, drawing came back into my life. Now, there was no looking back.
I started drawing in my system, and then I was introduced to ADOBE Photoshop software by my friend. One after another, I kept learning new software and clicking & editing became a habit.
I used to download images from google only to edit and fill them with colors I Love. Then I thought, ‘It would be better if, rather than downloading, I start clicking pictures.’ So I began clicking pictures of my surroundings and whatever attracted me.
Still now, photography was just my hobby. I wasn’t keen on making it my profession. According to everyone’s opinion, I should take a job in my education criteria. They told me to enter the same field I studied in.
I never considered making photography a part of my commercial life. However, it was always there fixed in my conscience. I always used to think about it. Even in the UK, I was fascinated by photography, and I saved money to buy a camera. I was in total awe of photography, and it was set in my mind even when I was working on some other stuff. Passion or obsession, you can call it anything, but it never left my mind.
So when I realized my obsession with photography, I decided to pursue a professional course in it. I planned to do it after going back to India, and I did act on it when I returned.
Before joining the course, I rationalized my decision. I thought, ‘What are they going to teach me in photography? Technical aspects of the camera or maybe editing, but photography is much more than that. I can learn these things by myself if I practice enough. So I dropped the idea of pursuing a professional course, and I decided to click pictures all by myself.
Slowly and steadily, I began to get pre-assigns because I used to display my work on social media. Then my friends, family, and close relatives started following my work.
One fine day, I got a call from one of my close friends, and he told me about a big fat Indian wedding and asked me to cover it. Covering a wedding seemed like a good idea, so I agreed to do it. It paid well, so I switched to weekend photography.
Despite doing enough, I wasn’t satisfied with my work as I was pursuing photography only as my part-time work. Other than this, I was working with my uncle to meet my financial demands. Though that work never fascinated me. I wanted to opt for photography as my full-time profession, but money was the biggest hindrance in my way.
Every morning while going to my work, I felt like a failure because I was successful but not in satisfying myself, not in loving my job. Each morning I used to go to my job with the same feeling. Although shifting my career wasn’t a cake, especially coming out of a family business. It’s a trap because your family doesn’t allow you to do it.
Then in February 2012, I did one wedding photography. After March, there was nothing to do in April. In May, almost eight events took place. So you can call it my luck or a coincidence because I earned enough money not compared to my business but sufficient to pay bills. So I thought even if I did ten events in a year, there would be sufficient earnings. It changed my perspective towards photography. I finally decided to become a full photographer.
In August, I called it quit and got out of my uncle’s business. My parents didn’t support my decision, but they allowed me to choose photography over the business. That was the most challenging phase of my life because I wasn’t earning enough. During this phase, the whole society starts laughing at you.
They treat your creativity as a mere hobby or joke. Everyone starts giving free advice. They share their experiences and give examples of people who quit earning for some other job but ended up nowhere.
It was challenging for me to make them understand. However, their taunts, free advice, and sarcastic remarks didn’t frighten me. I was determined enough to take the step.
I completely trusted myself. I couldn’t explain because they wouldn’t have understood. Apart from that, they haven’t seen me working yet. They had no right to decide on my behalf. Overall, I ignored the chaos. I was ready to fight alone.
At the start of my photography career, I didn’t know the proper camera technique. I had to work hard to learn. It was one thing that I struggled with. I used to learn new techniques every day to improve my skills. No one guided me, and whatever I had learned, I learned it on my own by reading articles and watching tutorials that were available online. Although I knew marketing skills that my uncle had taught me during the family business. So after learning technical aspects, I went for proper marketing. It worked out for me.
Social media helped me reach all skilled professionals, and through their work, I learned more about photography. During my learning phase, I realized that ‘Most people think cameras do wonders, but that’s not true. A camera is a piece of equipment that sees through the eyes of a photographer. It’s no magic wand but a mere tool. After clicking the picture, there are 100 other things to do to make it a perfect picture. Photographers create the natural beauty of the picture, whereas a camera only clicks a raw image.
Things changed for me when I visited Ujjain during Maha Kumbh Mela. I wanted to capture the event and some raw, original pictures. I had a few clicks of the stalls, pandals, ghats, babas, and the crowd, but I wasn’t satisfied. So I woke up at 3 am only to capture Naga Baba taking a bath in the holy Shipra. One of them caught me and ran after me with a Trishul in his hand. I somehow escaped the scenario. Then, fortunately, I got some perfect clicks of the early morning bath as one of the monks agreed for it.
During that time, they had organized Photography National Award Competition in Ujjain. I thought about taking part to showcase my skills. Luckily, I won the third prize. As a reward, the government awarded me 27 thousand rupees. I was appointed as the only official photographer for Srisailam Devasthanam in Andhra Pradesh in the same year.
In 2018, I won a National Geographic award with the collaboration of incredible India among 47000 entries. My award-winning images got published in the Incredible India Calendar 2019.
Opportunities knocked on my door, and my career picked up. Since that day, I haven’t looked back. That’s my journey.
I learned from my experience is ‘Your dream will give you both happiness and money. You won’t be satisfied if you start measuring your success with money. Money is not everything you want to achieve in life. So I always work hard for your dreams. Do what you love doing.’
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