Photographers New Year Resolutions! Hit me!
2020 what a shit-show of a year right! I mean it sucked, it all sucked. The beginning of my year was beautiful, I was holed up in the Lake District with my love, listening to fireworks in our little air BnB under the duvet dreaming of a frosty fog-filled morning before heading off to Scotland in the next couple of days. We spent time in Glen Coe seeing the stags, watching the clouds roll over the mountain tops and grinning excitedly at each other knowing that our future of doing what we loved, together, was starting. We had this dream. That we would be freelance together, travelling where we needed to be, exploring the UK together whilst taking photos and videos to supplement our passive income on our days off, it’s an idyllic dream, one we feel is personally achieve-able.
We rolled into February and I had a bizarre cough, feverish (I know) but had a trip booked for my love and I in Oxford, we spent the weekend marvelling through the old streets and buildings and again we were happy to be exploring/working together if just for a long weekend.
March crept in, I went to the peak district alone as my love had to work. I got to meet some incredible girls and shoot some hella witchy stuff that I loved. I was in Buxton and the news of COVID was starting to come in, the first case was in Buxton. I went home and my love and I realised the severity of the situation pretty quickly. We surmised the lockdown would happen about a week before it did kick in.
Our dreams for the year burnt to the ground - but with fire comes a chance to stop, breath and change your course - start anew. My love decided to finally take the leap to be self-employed and handed in his notice. During lockdown. It was a huge decision not taken lightly at all. We discussed all pros and cons. We had previously decided we wanted to relocate to Wales eventually.
Recently we’ve revisited our plans because it felt like everything was being pushed back, which is a negative feeling in itself. So we talk about our future in a more hopeful light, embracing what might have changed for us together and individually. Wales is still on the cards but Norfolk is starting to attract more film work so we’re not rushing into anything just yet.
So my New Year WANTS as a unit stills photographer:
Work on another Feature Film
Try and work on a period/historical piece
Work on an HBO production
Try and be the main stills photographer for an entire production
Hopefully, be part of another Netflix production
New Year Resolutions in general:
Find a better work-life balance
Go out on foggy and snowy mornings more
Keep up book cover work on my days off
Stay fit and healthy
Travel around the UK exploring more places with my love
These might seem unachievable and that’s fine, I’d rather reach for the stars and almost make it than not try at all.
What are your New Year resolutions as a photographer? I’d love to hear some.
