Jonathon Wardman

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

As I look out of the window and the clouds below us, and the mountains below that, I’m minded to think that saying goodbye to Romania and hello again to England bears a similarity to saying goodbye to the previous year and hello to the next.  Alright, so we did that just under a week ago officially, and of course the flight is from one known to another, but you see what I’m getting at. I would like to say something poetic like how flying makes me reflect on my life — so far above the world, and so personally helpless, that my thoughts are free to turn to how I can improve the things I do have control over — but in honesty that’s not true (besides, with so many screaming kids on this flight, it’s hardly conducive to poetic thinking). It does, however, give me time to write.

I didn’t go into 2012 with big plans which I can reflect on at the end of the year. I thought, perhaps, I might have changed jobs, but in the end things didn’t pan out that way; I suppose, in honesty, I didn’t try all that hard so perhaps the whole situation wasn’t as bad as I thought it might have been at some points in the year. I didn’t think I’d come so close to being upgraded as part of the British Airways Executive club; although I didn’t make it, one economy to business class upgrade on my last flight of the year would have tipped the balance. And I didn’t think I’d finally loose a solid base in the place I used to call “home” when people asked where I was from; this one I suppose was on the horizon, but it never really dawned on me in those terms before it happened.

So to 2013. I was thinking about this last night. I’m going to make just a couple of resolutions. The first really covers a whole load of things in one go. The second is something I have been thinking about for a while but didn’t really get off the ground because I was never happy with my ideas for it. The third is more personal.

I’ve always had a few of my own projects on the go, but none of them ever reached fruition the way they perhaps should. Often I put that down to them being too similar to my day job — I’d get in from work, grab a couple of Mr Kipling chocolate slices, slump down in the chair to watch some TV and catch up on email, grab something to eat later, and then shower and roll into bed. It became pretty routine. For periods I would get the bit between my teeth and make some progress on a project, but that would wear off after a while and I would go back to just thinking about how I should be doing it, but not actually make any progress. Sometimes at weekends I would sit and work, but even that wouldn’t always be as productive as I’d like because I’d work on a project which was more of a hobby that something serious — great fun (and good for improving some skills outside of my day-to-day work), but perhaps not with the same potential as some of the things I was neglecting.

So my first: be a bit better organised with my time outside of work so that I get more done. I don’t know exactly what form of organisation it will take just yet, but I’m thinking about something along the lines of having just two projects on the go at one time and alternating between them. If I get just a little bit done on something each night (with exceptions, of course) I will make a load more progress on them than I have done in the last year. Some of the projects are longer ones, some of them are shorter ones and I’d like to have one long running project along side a set of smaller ones with the plan being that the alternation will stop me getting too fed up with one thing, the change of small project will make sure things are frequently different, and the combination will make sure that overall I’m making progress. I’ll write a little more about my projects for this year in another post.

The second relates to a personal photographic project. I was thinking a lot in the last year about it, but didn’t come up with a subject which I was totally happy with. In my professional photographic life I shoot theatre and events. I’m a very observant photographer and my favorite photos are always those candid shots, shots of what is really going on. So I could take this on two routes: either I stick with that kind of thing and find a theme, or I use that as a chance to try something new — something I’m not comfortable with, knowing that it won’t matter if I mess something up because it’s just for me. There are all sorts of personal projects I’ve seen in the first vein — people pick a spot, a bench, town square, whatever, and take a photo of it every day building up a portrait of it over time — but I feel like that’s been done quite a lot and, sadly, I’m not sure I have a “spot” to choose. The second would certainly expand my skill set but the possibilities feel a little limited. I could choose to look at doing some portrait or glamour shots, but that feels like it would mean getting other people involved and I want this to be a project personal to just me. Sure other people can be in the photos, but I don’t want to have to get them involved as part of this project. (That is absolutely not to say that I wouldn’t be interested in playing with some of those things. Last year I went with a friend who marshals at motor racing and spent the day shooting that. It was a long and tiring day, but I loved the new experience. I’d certainly do the same for other events or activities if the possibility arose.) So I’m back to the first, I just need an idea. I’ll write about that in another post too, so this one doesn’t go on forever.

Finally the third is a personal one. For now I’ll keep it to myself — perhaps I’ll write about that in another protected post which I can make public in years to come — but I don’t feel like I want to share just now.

So that’s it, three resolutions. I hope that all three will have a positive effect on my life, either by getting more done, by improving myself and my skills, or just by making myself happier. I’ll let you know how I get on.