Being an IBM engineer comes with security and financial stability, which is exactly what all humans crave. Yet, one IBM engineer was willing to give that up to pursue a bigger dream of his own. Eeico Roos worked as an IT specialist at IBM Amsterdam for 10 years before he put in his two weeks to become a world traveler with a famous Instagram profile.
It all started when the engineer started taking on freelance photography jobs in 2011, but when these jobs started calling him away from his regular 9-5 he knew he had to pick one over the other. Roos followed his heart and he couldn’t be happier with his decision.
He now travels the world teaching workshops, doing consulting work, and working collaboratively with tourism agencies and big name brands like Sony and Samsung to capture wanderlust images people go gaga for. In fact, his Instagram has over 443,000 followers; meaning Roos has one of the most popular Instagram accounts out there.
Roos keeps his followers entertained with nonstop beautiful photos taken all over the world, from the snowy mountains of Canada to the enchanted forests of Scotland.
“I haven’t regretted the decision yet.” Roos told Business Insider, “It’s a dream come true.” Just like his photographs.
“Working in IT was never my dream job. Photography has always been a big passion of mine, a creative outlet so to speak.”
When Roos first downloaded the Instagram app he hardly gave it a second thought, assuming an app on a mobile device wouldn’t be able to take any sort of quality photos. That all changed one random day when Roos became bored waiting for his train. He started playing around with Instagram and taking photos, from that moment forward he was hooked.
He started sharing photos he would take on his daily commute. In the early days of Instagram most users were American, meaning his Amsterdam-based photos really stood out. It didn’t take long for Roos to develop a large following. Once he reached 100,000 followers the calls from companies and brands started pouring in, they all wanted his help creating online campaigns.
Samsung, Ducati, and Johnnie Walker were among some of his first big-time clients, at which point he couldn’t keep up with his day job and his blossoming photography work.
His decision to become a full-time Instagram famous photographer was a good one. He now makes the majority of his income working with brands and tourism agencies creating Instagram campaigns.
Photo Credits: Instagram
