I’m a budding photographer who is seeking to capture moments in life that are inspired by the environment around me. My photography use both my smartphone and a digital camera. 

Close to two decades of working in careers focused on driving agendas, initiatives and goals set by others, I realised that I have been throwing myself into a never stopping cycle. Some things I have been appreciated for and others not! My skills all focused on excelling in that never ending work environment and cycle. I was taking on more than I should have and over this period of time, having lost who I needed to be. “Workaholic” is a word that resonates. 

It forced me to recognise  that, beyond work, I did not have a hobby/interest/skills that I enjoyed pursuing. Not even a dabble in anything beyond work, it was a routine of wake up , go to work, come home eat sleep and the repeat all over again the same. All in pursuit of a never ending cycle of climbing the ladder and defining success the what the work defined it.

I did dabble in a bit of wood work but then I need that perfect day to set my gear out to be creative but living in  the windiest capital of the world Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), Aotearoa (New Zealand) this soon turned to be just a handful of days in an entire year.

This needed to change for me and it all started with me needing to slow my pace of work, so that I had the space to explore beyond and try new creative pursuits. 

I have been interested in capturing my environment for a long time, as I remembered my father capturing events and people when volunteering for a spiritual organisation. But me turning that interest to action was missing and the impetus was lacking. The self imposed inhibition of standing and taking photographs I would think “What would people think! Am I good enough?”

So I needed to change my environment further, and set myself a new routine of sitting on the park bench to unwind. I let the body and mind unwind itself while I gazed into the vast expanse in front of me so I could reconnect with myself and the spiritual realm around me. 

Weeks went by and then one day sitting on a park bench turned into very early morning weekend walks and from there it tuned into longer walks with photography. These initial days was of my photography was using my smartphone to capture some of what I was experiencing. 

Some of these captures resonated when I looked back and others were lacking what I was experiencing and seeing. Breaking those self imposed inhibitions while sitting at a café, I challenged myself to capture the picture below on my smartphone and a strong feeling came forth to title it “Savouring thy nectar”.  My very first foray into photographing in public space with people around and not being overly self conscious.