Climbing Mount Everest

11 Mar, 2026

The road of familiarity leads to the palace of laziness. William Blake said something similar, and I am paraphrasing mightily, but sure, he might have said it this way if he was, like me, somewhat jaded with photography, and life in general. The curse of the creative is lack of creativity, and when you're as creatively cursed as I currently feel, familiarity, and a boring Sunday can only mean one thing: time to head for the road well travelled.

I used to be quite enthusiastic about photography. I used to be enthusiastic about lots of things but I was always interested in photography. I bought an → Olympus OM-10 somewhere back in the early 90s, took evening classes where we were given projects to do that had me walking the streets of Aberdeen in search of images which I'd then develop in the college lab, every other Wednesday.

I was prolific too.

This was a time when you could pick up a box of Portra 160, or Ilford HP5 for next to nothing, they were practically giving them away. I had boxes full of prints, mostly black and white, with neat white borders. I hung them on the walls in the flat, even won a competition with one of them.

When I moved to Ireland in 1998 the pictures got lost. The boxes disappeared and have never been seen since. The negatives, likewise. And then the kids arrived, four of them in the space of seven years, so photography and life took a back seat. I had been taking photos with my iPhone for a while, part of the emerging → iphoneography scene nearly bankrupting myself on → Hipstamatic packs but I missed the dials and buttons of a real camera. The itch needed scratching, so on my home from Ireland I bought an → X10 and started taking photos again.

Although primarily a landscape photographer, inspired by the beauty of the north-east of Scotland, I took some workshops in street photography here in Amsterdam. I met lots of nice people along the way, and some of the images are not bad but my personality doesn't really suit that kind of photography. I'm an introvert, preferring to blend in with the wallpaper rather than be a nuisance (or worse, seen as being creepy) so while I enjoyed being out on the streets, I didn't like the photography-part of it. I felt too self-conscious, too self-aware, too conspicuous to be comfortable with it.

It's a real issue. Wondering what people think of me. I've had counselling for this but it's not really helped. It really holds me back, and I am insanely jealous of people who go about life unphased about the opinions of others. I think I would be amazing at anything if only I didn't care what everyone thought of me, of what I was doing, or why.

A short aside - about seven years ago, waiting for our flight back to Amsterdam, I got chatting to someone called Jacob. He was remarkable for the fact that he was dressed from head to toe as a Victorian gentleman, complete with top hat, cane, and a surgeons bag full of quills, wax stamps, and other things a Victorian man-about-town would need. I mean, apart from the bright pink suitcase and a phone on which he had his boarding pass, he was partying like it was 1899. My wife and kids took the merciless piss out of him, but I respected Jacob for doing what he wants, without caring what anyone thinks about him, or what he's doing.

I admire that. That's courage. I wish I was that brave.

So, being the perennial wallflower that I am, my photography always finds me in out of the way places, preferably with no-one around. COVID was like heaven - imagine being able to stand in the middle of Amsterdam at 1pm on a Saturday with a tripod on the tram rails, just you, the sound of birds and deserted streets. I mean, COVID sucked big-time but it had it's benefits for the shy photographers. It was my most creative period ever.

Roundabout a year after I turned 50 I was diagnosed with → dysthymia. I've written about it elsewhere, but in short summary, it's a low-grade chronic depression that sucks the life out of you. Turning 50 had a huge effect on me. I'm still dealing with it, not always successfully, but I am doing my best. Like anyone with depression will tell you, doing everyday things is incredibly hard; even simple things like going to the shops can feel like you're preparing to climb Mount Everest. I didn't enjoy meeting people anymore, I didn't enjoy going out; among other things, creativity has plummeted.

This is something I am still trying to get going again. This blog is one example of that, trying my hand at creative writing, but mostly writing for myself. Trying to find that creative spark. But it takes a lot of mental and physical effort.

All of which leads me to these images. I managed to ignore the negative voices in my head long enough to pack the camera - a Nikon Zf with the 40mm f/2 - and headed for somewhere I go to quite a lot. Familiarity, you see. Playing it safe.

→ Het Hembrugterrein is a nice place, always quiet, hardly anyone ever around so perfect for me. I put on some nice music, a few podcasts and just walked around for two hours, snapping away. The goal was not just to take pictures, the goal was to get out and enjoy myself. And I think I did. No, I know I did. I had a great time, had a nice lunch at → Lab44 and took a few nice pictures.

I wasn't trying to climb Mt. Everest, it was more about getting to base camp.

These images are a few of the 421(!) images I took. I feel a need to explain why I took these images, but I'm not going to. It's not important, and it doesn't help me, it doesn't help you. They just are. I like them. And that's the important thing.

Oh, the correct quote from Blake is this, by the way

“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom...You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” ― William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

Wise words, and I think this post has been more than enough😉

#photography