I rarely sit in a train seat facing backwards. I love to watch things appear in my view and then slip past in slow-motion. During my last job, as a social media manager and content creator, I always sat on the right-hand side of the train carriage, always in the window seat in the forward direction, and never anywhere else.
At least I did until a few weeks ago, until that fateful evening. The train wasn’t late but I was early. Early enough to get the train before my usual, and night had waited for no one before rolling in. Normally I am one of the first people onto the last carriage and have the pick of the seats. But on the earlier train I no longer had that privilege. It had been a long day, with all that pixel-staring and keyboard-clacking, and I just wanted some time to daydream. Finally, after walking down almost the entire length of the train I found a window seat, but not in the correct direction. Beggars can’t be choosers, so I sat.
Having a different view of the journey was interesting. I passed parts of London that I’d never seen before, half draped in darkness and half revealed by lights within or overhead. I watch the train pull out of the station under the gaze of the London eye. Maybe what I was looking for was just something different.
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My recent job put all forms of creativity on hold. Without guidance and with tight restrictions I found it really difficult to inject any form of creativity into my daily routine. Everything took a back seat, especially this blog and my photography. I wasn’t able to sort out a work-life balance, though this was not because my hours were long or that my journey to and from work took too much time (is easy to forget to be thankful about these small graces). There are perhaps several things that could be improved for me so that I sit correctly with all the various supports that a pixel-starer requires. But being chained to a desk was never on my life-achievements list and that’s something I struggle with.
With a recent discovery of street photography, I started photographing my route home through the windows of my trains. If keeping in touch with my photography means that I am to become a phone photographer then so be it. All of these photographs have been taken with my Android, and even I was surprised at what the camera application is able to do.
I guess as a maker, crafter or even programmer, once you pick your medium you tend to stick to it, through thick and thin, just to get better at your craft. I never thought that I would become a phoneographer because I am used to the quality of a DLSR. I like the way my camera sits in my hand, how I perfected the manner of wielding it with only my right hand and how, without looking through the viewfinder, I can still take good shots — not fabulous maybe, but good enough.
As a creative, one must always strive to adapt with our environment. It is what makes us unique and every year I aim for that.
Thanks for reading. I’m a photographer, writer and on a constant quest for knowledge. You can see more of my photography in various places . . .
