Happy 2018 if that’s your thing. Thought I’d bash out a quick hello as it’s been a while. It’s been an eventful 2017; with the loss of a family member and a successfully getting a Supervisor’s job at my workplace. I worked a handful of gigs and my diabetes has been behaving for the most part. Writing hasn’t been at the top of my list despite promises, because photography! Yes, my name is Chris King I’m a Lightroom addict.
The bug started a year or three ago, photographing cosplayers at sci-fi conventions; my enjoyment of photography has grown from there. In 2017 I came down with what is known in photography as ‘gear acquisition syndrome’. My Stolen-Pagan-Holiday gift to myself was a new camera bag. My Birthday treat was a 10-20mm lens (my 5th lens); I’m currently indecisive about what tripod I want to get. Two ball heads arrived this morning (because Amazon sale!) and I’m expecting a polarising filter any day now. ‘You can never have enough SD cards or microfibre cloths’, I keep convincing myself.
What’s taken over the writing though, is Lightroom. I come from a production background and am no stranger to colour correcting, composition and editing. That said, I still look back at images I’ve worked on several months ago and am able to immediately improve upon them as experience grows. It’s one of the hobbies where you can see a visual difference in your progress. I’m also a pain in the arse perfectionist who will happily spend hours on a single image, making adjustment that no one will ever notice.
The technology of today has us spoiled for choice’ great cameras that shoot RAW (and so should you!) and mobile phone apps like Snapseed that are just WOW! Between Lightroom and Snapseed on my smartphone I can get some bloody good results, without going anywhere near my desktop. Then there’s cloud storage to share and carry your best images around with you.
Speaking of pictures, I’m also an Instagram addict and I must also say that the diabetes community on there is second-to-none. The 15th January marks my 9th Diaversary (9 years since diagnosis). I still find positives in that; my health has improved because diabetes is a good excuse to improve it! I live more in the moment and have my priorities straight (YOLO!) I’m a stronger human being because of the daily grind that diabetes imposes on me. There are no days off; it’s a managers position with a non-existent payslip.
2018 is also my last year as a thirty-something. I feel quite good about that. Despite going grey I have a happy beard and the smallest waistline since my early twenties. Cholesterol is on the down and my yearly diabetes MOT results are better each time. The thing I’m most looking forward to, hurtling towards forty, is planning a mid-life crisis. I’ve never planned one before.
Anyway, that’s all for now; one 2018 blog post in the bag. I’m not a New Year resolution maker but I really must get on top of this blog posting business…
All the best — and shoot RAW!
