Leaving Town

I’m in the Blip doldrums and I’ve finally decided I’m going to work differently with my journal. I’ve got to the point where I'm thinking, “That’ll do, Rob”. And it won’t. I want my work to be a bit more than that. I want to get back to my journal being what it says on the tin – about and reflecting what’s going on for me, as a sort of image-diary. Joe Tree’s original ethos really. I’m going to run silently for a while and be more circumspect about the images I use, and what I say.
 
A friend and I listened to a talk by Will Cheung, formerly editor of Amateur Photographer and a main player in photographic publishing. Great guy, very down-to-earth, great images and very inspiring. “Think out of the box. Don’t be in a rut. Don’t get stale. Do something different. For yourself.”
 
I am a Yorkshireman and by definition, careful wi’ brass. It was my wife, J, who pushed and shoved me to take the Leap to start using the camera I mostly do now. I absolutely love it - and her of course, though she has been known to say she’s not sure if I would choose her or the L if the chips were down... ;)   Seriously, a debt I can never really repay, but then, that’s love for yer. I don’t want to be in a rut, get stale, or worse, take what I’m lucky to have for granted.
 
J and I are up against it on many fronts, as I’ve sometimes mentioned. Some tough times now and to come, including a few different friends facing uncertain futures. At the same time, we’ve got some really exciting times ahead too (weddings, babies ‘n’stuff!).

Importantly in the midst of that thing called “Life”, I especially want to cut J some slack so she can have the space to do more of her art and I need to be “in the moment”, supporting her. We’re off to our beloved Northumberland for a week this Saturday, so it feels like a timely point to make a break and change tack.
 
I’ve no idea how often I’ll post. Whilst being silent in my journal (for now at least!), it doesn’t mean I’ll be silent in yours... In fact that’s another thing – I don’t seem to have time to glance at more than a very few of your journals anything like regularly, so I intend to enjoy getting back to that.
 
Finally, here's an analogy if one were needed... On the clinical educators’ course I’m a tutor for at Leeds University, we teach the clinicians (many of them very senior in their professions) a great deal about being reflective practitioners and teachers. We encourage them to give themselves quality space in their lives to do that properly. QED.

There are no songs, frankly, for either new or old Leeds; just York...

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