Well as the year closes, it’s clear that although I’ve made fantastic progress with rising above my Depression, there’s still work to be done. Work has been difficult to get back into consistently with a combination of physical and psychological hurdles to overcome. Hopefully the New Year gives me a fresh start there. The damage done by my previous work situation is still not completely recovered from and there’s still some residual difficulties. However I’m placing a few new goals, and working towards them.
As part of moving forward, from both a Psychological & Emotional point of view I’ve also begun planning a photographic working holiday for later in the year which has provided a much needed boost to my overall emotional state. I’m going to visit the South Island of New Zealand for several weeks, and spend that time travelling in a hired van living out of it and photographing in a number places around the Southern Island. I decided that hiring a van and doing it in my own time with an allowance of 3 weeks is plenty of time to see all I want to see in the South Island. I’ve asked someone to accompany me, but I’m still waiting on an answer there, so at this stage it will be by myself as originally planned unless my offer is accepted.
All the advice I’ve received over the last few years suggests that trying to do both islands at the same time in anything under a month or so is a waste because you can’t spend the time you want to anyway for more than a short time. My thoughts are that with a generous amount of time, I can choose to stop where & when I like and enjoy the island to the maximum while giving myself plenty of time to get the sort of shots I want to bring home. Hopefully some of those shots will also generate some further income for the business.