A camera, computer and a compulsion.

Slow Down

(Photo by the author, December 2013, between Abu Dhabi and Dubai with the lovely Ms. Julia Ormond)

Look at me, hair blown, 120km h−1, rather a lot in love with life.  I am in the fast lane and happy.  Sometimes that’s all you want, a fast car, a good friend and a destination.  Yet, at others you need and want to go slow, have time to stop and appreciate things… to photograph.  

It was a delicious day today, as I awoke, preempting my alarm by 7 minutes, I felt the crisp cool near frost temperatures of a clear winter morning, seeping under drapes and into the bedroom.  I had two cameras with films nearly used and I knew I would be covering some beautiful and varied scenery.

I had every intention of taking my time and driving slow.  I had to pick up my grandmother in a town 35km up SH1, then we would travel to my mothers through 115km of farm land, plains, river gorges and costal roads.  Lunch on the orchard and then 105km over a pronounced range with stunning views and then a lakeside drive.  Primula planting and then, lastly, 35km home - at sunset with a massive golden orb against pure azure skies.

Guess how many photos I took today?  None.  Not one.  I didn’t slow down 20km into my journey for whisky tendrils of fog sliding down a hillside.  I didn’t stop for early and sharp sun framing a mountain peak.  I certainly didn’t even hazard a glance at warm afternoon sun striking through a glade.  I didn’t take a single photo.

Instead I tore nearly 300km around this beautiful island, never once backtracking, and didn’t take a single photo.  Instead I growled at Sunday drivers, focused on the tripmeter in the dash and was to focused on the timings of the day to consider the splendour.

I hope that’s a lesson learned :)