12 months in 12 days: December
The highlight of December has been this. Doing this. Making this website, doing this blog, but more in general: having the time to do this. I have the best job in the world, and it takes up pretty much all my time, so when i'm not in the water shooting, i'm behind my computer editing. To then be able to take a step back, slow down, and do normal things like dog walks, some exercise, a bit of cooking, and a lot of day-dreaming, is such a luxury. Doing what you love without deadlines or obligations is fantastic.
In the beginning i felt a bit uneasy, unproductive, wasteful, to not be shooting and editing the whole time; my brain was so used to it after going months non-stop. But i also recognised that that same brain was slipping into auto-pilot at times, and hadn't come up with new ideas that tickled me. It's funny how that works: ideas often come while i'm working, when you see your buddy do something cool, or a nice light, or a great combination between buddy, light and environment, and you go with it. And some ideas come when you're idle, tottering about walking the dogs, or semi-sleeping in the bath tub. For those ideas you tend to need a very calm, almost empty head, unengaged with anything and open to everything, it seems. It always takes me a while to get there, but December is usually the month for it. So i took my time. The website could've been done in a day but i took a week. The merman video waited patiently as i sifted through songs, storing some for later use. It's a similar trick i use for freediving: to calm down, i slow down, literally. Move very slow and your brain follows, often. And in this lovely slow month, slowly, ideas came again. I almost can't wait to see what they'll become, but i will.
