Enjoy Yourself

By Dave Lockwood

I’m writing this the day after the TLE Wattisham Apache shoot. A difficult day, with difficult conditions. Certainly not the best shoot I’ve attended, not the worst though.

Organisers have a tough enough time getting events like this sanctioned, so to get on an active base and close to the action it’s always (for me) a win win situation. I don’t know the ins and outs but I’m guessing the wind and rain played havoc with any plans and we were lucky enough to get some action after dark. We all know the risks of attending such events, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t.

On the drive home I had time to reflect on the day. The over riding conclusion I came to was that I wasn’t really worried about my photo’s, I might have a few good ones. I may have made the wrong lens selection or cursed myself for only bringing one camera strap, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that I’d met up with good mates, had a laugh, had the pi$$ taken out of me (as usual) and had just enjoyed myself.

I think we can all get caught up in wanting that perfect image, all of the time. I’ve gradually come to realise my limitations and I’m happy that I can occasionally get a decent image. What matters is about making memories, looking at what you’ve been lucky enough to have seen.

Dan Eley wrote a great post about losing your mojo, and it’s been a bit like that for me this year, up and down. I’ve got so much to look forward to but sometimes find it difficult to motivate myself and edit pics properly.

So, yes I probably did choose the wrong lens, but I’m happy with what I got. A little bit of Topaz and a little dusting of Lightroom and somehow ISO 16000 isn’t so bad (ok it’s not great, but hey!) Oh and that bloke in the blue coat who always manages to get into your pics is right about the iPhone, the header for this post polished up well in Lightroom!

At the end of the day, it all comes down to one question – ‘Did you enjoy yourself’ and yes I did. The Lemon Drizzle cake was something else as well.