I’m still here, just clinging on!
Apologies for the amount of time between updates, unfortunately, a rather significant annual celebration has gotten in the way. I have finally found a few moments where I can write!
So this entry is a nice one. It’s about a hobby of mine, one that I haven’t spent enough time doing in 2014. That hobby is photography. I like taking photos and making images that will resonate with me long into my life. I will be relying on these images I capture for when my mind starts misbehaving and leaking memories left right and centre.
I first got into photography in my mid-teens when I went to Silverstone for a mid-season Formula 1 test. Armed with my parent’s very basic point and shoot digital compact, I soon found myself panning along with the race cars as they drove past at ridiculous-miles-per-hour, enjoying the challenge of getting one shot for a car fully in frame. I managed it, Mark Webber’s Williams, by the end of the day and from there my interest was planted. I would start to look at photos in Autosport and wonder what kind of situation the photographer was in, where they were standing, how close/far they could get, the lighting, the little moments that made the photo, gave it it’s character. I was in no way artistically minded before then and so the whole composition aspect of photography was lost on me (and to some extent, still is), but certain images just had it’s way of taking me to the action, at least in my mind.
A couple of Christmas’ later and I got my first DSLR, a Nikon D40 (which I still use to this day, a perfect beginner’s camera for any budding photographer). At first I was unsure of taking it out in public with me because it meant so much to me, I didn’t want to get it scratched, I was worried I might have it taken off me if someone didn’t like me taking photos in public, I think I was also worried that what I produced would be rubbish. That last concern in peculiar stuck with me for a good few years, probably up until two or three years ago. I was always worried about how others perceived my work, how they’d rate against other pieces from much more talented people than myself. It would make me extremely picky about when to go out shooting, did I have somewhere good to go? Did I have any good ideas? It meant my activity slowed up to next to nothing. I also got lazy, not peaking my interest with books of other work gathering dust on the bookshelf. Not looking at new techniques, or working on my current ones, refining my ability.
Nowadays, I wish I had the attitude of now three or four years ago. I’ve done a lot of growing up (as you tend to do in your 20’s, I’ve heard) and 25 year old me looks back at 20 year old me and wonders what the hell I was doing with the photography. Looking back, it’s quite obviously I twisted a much-loved hobby into a chore, laboring from idea to idea without an ounce of conviction.
I’m lucky that I have such creative friends, and in peculiar, a super-creative wife who all continue to inspire me down creative ventures. They are each talented, whether it is in music, film, crafts, writing or anything else that can be plucked out of hyperactive imaginations. This inspiration is leading me back to photography, as a hobby. I received an awesome present for that aforementioned annual celebration, a re-furbished Polaroid Image System and four packs of film made by the quite incredible folks at Impossible, coupled with less concern on making sure I made good images and instead just enjoying taking photos again, I can already tell I’m going to be having way too much fun and joy recording memories once again.
Today, despite being struck down by the cold that has made the rounds at work (I was the last one standing damn it), has been a very good day all due to this realisation; I’m an extremely creative human, one who is absolutely rubbish at making work that will make money. But one who will take the most joy out of the work that he and his friends create. Which, to use a very used cliche, is priceless.
‘Til next time.
Lee
P.S. If you are interested in my previous work, have a ganders here.
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