hello friend

It’s a Friday again. How are you? This week I’ve been getting up real early to paddle in the river Mersey. It’s a thing I do now. It’s cold but not horrible and it strangely sets you up for the day. I’m not alone out there. For safety reasons you should never go alone. The people are what make the experience really fun though. Everyone is smiling after in between shivers.

I really think I’m a winter morning person now. It’s blissfully quiet and the view is stunning.

photography

As the temperature has dropped today I thought it might nice to feature a few photos from warmer days in Europe.

Venice

Hvar, Croatia.

Zadar, Croatia.

Bulgaria

mental health

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been having swimming lessons. I can swim 4km without too much issue but I’m not getting any faster. So there’s a class and I’ve joined it. In the first lesson the teacher watched how I swam and then corrected all my mistakes. I’m self taught so I’m good at bad swimming. By the end of the session my strokes per length dropped from 30 to 17. Amazing. I went back for another session and the teacher really pushed me. The act of being pushed really made me get the hang of this new technique. I was doing ok slowly, thinking over each move and getting a handle on it. But when pushed I found I wasn’t breathing right. I corrected that and was able to carry on at speed.

The whole thing got me thinking about life. I’m a self taught photographer and I’ve been paying the bills for 10 years now. I’ve done a few portfolio reviews and they’ve been helpful for a few months before anxiety creeps back. What I feel like I need is someone to come in and tell me what I’m doing wrong because while I’m paying the bills I’m not getting any richer. I think that would help but it would also be incredibly painful.

For now though I’m enjoying having a target to aim for. 2 mins 45 seconds is my 4 lap target. As a freelancer it often feels like I’m climbing an impossible mountain with no places to stop and no end in sight. Sometimes it’s good to have goals to aim for. While these aren’t work related goals I think they do my general mental health a world of good. No matter what happens I’ve got a goal to aim for each week. If I fail well it’s just not my week. If I do better then that’s great. It’s just nice having something like that to work on.

ext(out)

• Why Swimming in Cold Water May Be Good for Pain Relief | Time
• Puerto Rico, Looking Up – The Leica camera Blog – Beautiful photos of dancers on the streets of Puerto Rico
• Artist in the World
• Wintering in Whitstable – Outdoor Swimming Society Outdoor Swimming Society