catching my breath

This year has been busy for me, busier focusing more on work that pays the bills and less on work that I’m passionate about. I love to travel. I love to create images when I travel. Some days, weeks, months we may be focused on work on projects that prevent the travel, at least the travel we want to do, or I want to do.

I’ve been damn lucky, over the past few years I’ve been able to travel all over the United States, live in Dubai, and visit cities like Bangkok and Prague. But let’s be honest, once you start, you can’t stop, you don’t want to stop. I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

Today, for the first time in what feels like months, I had a moment, a breath. I went out. It’s a beautiful day, clear blue skies, a nice breeze, a perfect, Seattle almost summer day.

I live in a part of Seattle that is between a few popular neighbourhoods, the joy of that is that I can easily get to good food, coffee and of course delicious deserts. I had no real plan, no real destination, other than to get out of the house and just enjoy the day.

I opted to take my Fujifilm X100s, thinking I might do a little street photography. Seattle is probably not well known for being a space for great street photography, New York City is of course at the top of my list for that. But that doesn’t stop me.

Once I got into Ballard, i quickly realised how close I was to a ridiculous treat, ice cream and fresh waffle cones. I thought, hmmm that sounds like a good idea, or a bad idea, but the concept of it being a good idea won, imagine that! I headed into the shop, purchased a delicious mix of flavours including an Almond Brittle and Chocolate Gooey Brownie.

From there, back outside took a seat on a bench. Here is where I felt that moment of calm, where I caught a breath.

Sitting on a bench, on a beautiful street, you can hear the cars and busses and people moving back and forth just a block away, but there were moments of calm. I enjoyed my ice cream, I observed.

We are so busy with being here then, and being there when, that we don’t pause and take a breath to enjoy things. Some of us do, some of us are learning we need to put away the phone, close the computer and step outside. But more of us need to.

When you have technology overload, stand up, step away from the devices and go out into the world, even if it’s your own little yard or local coffee shop. Have a cup, a snack, or just breathe.

Find abstractions

Stand in one spot and see what unfolds

Capture Broader Cityscapes

Or just breathe

When I travel, I love to do this in the different neighourhoods I visit, I don't do it enough when I'm home.And yes, on a clear day with blue skies I opted for black and white. :)