Personal

The Year Ahead

It's All Worth Reaching For
Hope you had a lovely break! As I had said, I had days of dolce far niente and relished not knowing what day of the week it was or even what meal was last or next.

The post-Christmas haze also gave me lots of time for reflecting on the year gone, and the year ahead (the Unravelling workbook has helped too).

2014 held lots of excitement and plenty of challenges – looking back, I can’t believe what we managed to cram in. Ben and I moved in together, I was promoted to editor of Image Interiors & Living, went on a great girly break with friends, hosted my niece’s first birthday party, edited another title, and got to work on some truly great shoots.

The latter is definitely something I want to do more of in 2015. Going for a dream job is not something that comes along every day, but it’s also not without its sacrifices – it meant a lot less time for photography and for blogging, and one of my big intentions is to change that in 2015.

Some of the things I’d love to focus on in the coming year include:

  • Volunteering. So much of what I have learned is thanks to the kindness of others – from Flickr forums on lenses to work colleagues explaining software or processes. I really want to find some way of giving back.
  • Learning something completely new. Such a new year one, but it’s one I’ve been pondering for a while. As photography – once a treasured hobby – becomes part of who I am professionally, I’m feeling an itch to try something totally different, that gets me out my comfort zone and lets me have fun failing. Any suggestions? Right now I’m thinking about an introductory course in ceramics.
  • Shoot more video. I remember first buying my camera, the 5D MKII, four years ago and being so unbelievably excited about its ability to shoot video. I’ve done a teeny bit (this video ben and I did still brings a big smile) but I want to do more, and get better at editing them too.
  • Learning to drive. A pretty scary one, as they say it gets tougher the older you get. But my gear bag is getting bigger and bigger, and I’m dying to go on road trips with Ben – be they to picturesque parts of Kerry, or simply to the bottle bank!

What have you set your sights on? Happy first week back to reality – let’s do something kind to cheer ourselves up, eh? I’m planning on making a loaf of Indy’s Paleo choc chip banana bread.

Above: Love this print by Tina Crespo.