A lot has changed in the last year or so. Some brilliant. Some not so.
Our second daughter, Iris, was born a year ago. She is, obviously, brilliant as is our eldest daughter Elsie although I am, obviously, biased. You can blame them for me getting into photography – my wife bought me my first “proper” camera for my 30th Birthday in readiness for the arrival of Elsie. I wanted to document their lives as they grew up and to be honest, there’s not really a day that goes by that I’m not grabbing a few shots of them.
Now, the “not so” bit. In February last year my Dad sadly lost his battle with cancer. I miss him greatly, as do the rest of my family – he was everything you’d want a Dad to be and more. Dad along with my Mum had always wanted me to do whatever made me happy. Career-wise I certainly wasn’t happy, it was a constant nagging in the back of my mind that I couldn’t shift. I’d always just thought it would sort itself out eventually, neglecting the fact that the only person that could sort it out was me. However, the security of a monthly wage is quite an addictive thing especially with the usual bills to pay and a family to raise. The photography side of things continued to gain momentum though, with more and more people showing interest in my work. I started to build a picture in my head of how I could possibly turn something I loved doing into a full time job.
When Dad died, it made me realise that time doesn’t wait. I had to step out of the comfort zone of the daily commute and make things happen.
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.”
So this is my step out of the comfort zone. I’m sure the old man would approve.
