I bring a camera and notebook everywhere I go - I have legit nightmares about missing out on a good idea or phrase or opportunity - so I take photographs and write a little pretty much every day. And this is without considering Instagram or anything else (i.e. the occasional tumblr selfie gif). To illustrate my attitude towards taking photographs, have this journal entry:
My heart was pounding in my ears. And this is not a lazy, cliché use of this turn of phrase to describe the feeling - for the first time in my life, it was truly an accurate description of the sensation. It hurt. That's how strong the feeling was. My sides were cramping and my legs burned and splintered from the harsh slap of shoes not designed for running against unforgiving pavement. I think it was the panic, the need mixed with the physical exertion that made it manifest so but all I knew was I could not miss my train.
Suddenly, the clouds that had lingered all Sunday morning, cleared and most beautiful early light glinted on the canal. I stopped so sharply that I startled an old woman across the road, the only person about on a sleepy weekend. The train was forgotten. I could not miss this light.
Quickly, I wrestled my camera from my bag...
I did actually make the train on time in the end.
But, as is now apparent, my priorities are screwed and I become so enamoured with light and shade that I need to capture them - though cameras never do fully.
As I'm always taking photos, I always assume my semi-regular photo posts will be an easy thing to pop up on the blog when I'm low on time. But this is never the case. I rarely put them up for this reason, to begin with. Normally, it's because I'm excited to show the photos to other humans so I'll schedule a few posts for a busy week ahead and then decide to actually immediately publish the images. Or, if I am being strong and going with the plan to post when time is low, I'll go to do so and remember putting the right words along with them is agonising and decide to spend hours rearranging them perfectly on the page.
And let's not even talk about how long it takes to choose the images in the first place - at last count there were over 20,000 photographs on my laptop.
