Great joy and celebration!
That intensely boring, soul-destroying, leaden-weight-on-the-shoulders little bit of extra work I took on a few weeks back has finally come to an end!
Just as well really cos I was beginning to get a bit fed up moaning about it in practically every blogpost.
Have to confess it wasn’t the actual work I minded so much (if it could be called “work”), but rather the way it encroached so on my time… and time is something I value highly.
Well, maybe that’s not strictly accurate. The thing I really value highly is the freedom to just slob around, without the need to be anywhere or have to do anything.
This slobbing around isn’t entirely pointless though. For its when I do most of my mulling. And a lot of that mulling seems to focus around pic-taking matters. Nowadays at least. Odd that, isn’t it?
Mulling about what fun things I can try next with the camera. Use it as a doorstop? Paperweight? Beat mate over the head with it?
Or where to go for the next little photo jaunt.
Or exciting new (or possibly old) ways to make a right silly arse of myself.
Well, it beats making a right silly arse of myself with computers!
Hmm. Haven’t tried the old “remove the memory card while the camera’s still switched on” trick recently. That might be worth playing with again.
Or the “slap myself round the ear with the rotating tripod head” stunt… that was a real laugh. Once I’d recovered from the shock and pain.
Then there’s always the good old “forget to switch out of manual focus and spend ages wondering why the sodding autofocus thingie no longer works”.
Or the “walking backwards to get a better field of view and falling head over heels”… usually over some stumpy thing sticking up out of the ground behind me. Though I’ve also been known to fall over (or into) people as well!
Ah, happy days.
So yeah, I was resentful of the encroachment on my valuable mulling time.
But there was also the reality of not having as much time in which to physically take photographs. Or attempt to in my particular case.
Which I found curiously depressing. Not too sure why really. But clearly taking pics must have a therapeutic effect of some sort.
Which is not to say that there’s now going to be a sudden explosion of yet more pics. But simply that there could be if I felt that way inclined. Which I probably won’t. Cos I shall be far too busy lounging about, relishing all this new-found freedom.
And that’s the real issue of course. Its all about freedom, and not being tied… not having to be in a certain place for a certain period of time on an ongoing basis. Its the “tiedness” that I really don’t appreciate very much at all.
Especially when there’s so many other, better, things I could be doing… like sleeping. Or imbibing the jolly old amber nectar.
At one time I didn’t have a problem with that sort of commitment. But as the years have passed so its seemed to become increasingly onerous and unwelcome. I could begin to wax all philosophical now but… er… that’d be far too serious. And there’s been enough serious stuff here this month already.
However, there’s one little snag with all this wonderfully returned freedom.
Er. The reward I was getting for that curtailment of my slobtime!
Ah yes. I remember now. That was the tantalising tidbit that induced me to take it on in the first place. Well, one of them. How the hell could I have so quickly forgotten? Silly me.
Alas, gone now. Back to penury and general scrounging for me then. Funny really, cos I seem to have been doing a lot of that since getting into this photography caper. Wonder if there’s a connection? Couldn’t be anything to do with all this camera gear that seems to have mysteriously accumulated around me could it? Nah. What a ridiculous notion. We all know that digital photography’s far cheaper than film, don’t we? Hmm.
Oh well. Just have to start raiding the change pot again for those occasional little treats in life. Like food.
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That is an excellent photo to close this blog with. Pennies! I had a convienence store once refuse to take my pennies, rolled up and all! Needless to say I put the pennies on the counter, took my merchandise and said, “Arrest me.” Still waiting…yeah, they must have realized that pennies are currency. Ok, sorry that is me mullin’ over things. I completely get the not want to be tied down in a job deal. My paying gig w/horses is actually quite freelance. I had to fight and claw my way into that category, they come to me and all. But if I did not have downtime, like you so eloquently said, I would never write again. Like you, just wandering about with my mind is what produces the art. Hey paid or not, writing and photography are still art, no? I think that people are quite unhappy and it is the ‘on the clock’ jobs or deadlines that are a huge thron in their side. People love to do what they choose to do. I get a lot done and I am nobody’s bitch…uh…what I mean is I choose to be an ‘employee.’ And over time people in my line of work have come to see they win more blue ribbons when I am happy. I dream of a world without schedules. But I have to ask so many, “Why so serious?” I had to, I really had to bust that out. Blessings!
Well, pennies are a funny thing. I seem to recollect there used to be some law that stated if a quantity of them exceeded a certain value then they were no longer legal tender. Whether that still applies or not I don’t know. Equally, I could just have imagined the whole thing.
Working for a living? Bane of my life that. Since about the early 80s I’ve been (technically) self-employed and consequently able to work when, how, and whatever hours I choose. Which I suspect is a large part of why an imposed routine sits so uncomfortably.
(It also tends to cultivate a mindset that makes one virtually unemployable as a “wage-earner”, but what the hell!)
Many years ago I harboured the notion that to be able to work at something you really enjoy combines the best of both worlds and becomes almost like not working at all.
Over the years though I think I’ve revised that opinion somewhat cos, having done that, I discovered that what I really enjoyed doing as a pastime seemed to lose a lot of its appeal once it became a sole source of income. Hence I no longer do it… either as a pastime or as a way of earning a living.
I think where I am at the moment is doing a number of different things because I enjoy them and each of them occasionally brings in a bit of dosh… which seems to work… sort of… most of the time.