Always Carry A Camera

nobody tells you this part

starting down the path to midlife reinvention isn’t what changes your life

what changes your life
is showing up for yourself
day after day

no matter how afraid you are
no matter how tempting the safe option feels
no matter how uncertain the future seems

change starts today

when i picked up a camera at 50, i didn’t suddenly become confident

i didn’t suddenly know what i was doing
i didn’t suddenly stop doubting myself
i was still scared
i still got things wrong
i still wondered if i was wasting my time

the difference was that i kept going

and somewhere between the mistakes,
the uncertainty and the learning,
i built a life that feels more like mine

one that feels fulfilling, authentic
and brimming over with confidence ♥️

if you’re waiting until you feel ready, confident or qualified to make midlife changes you might be waiting forever

sometimes the only way forward
is to begin before you’re ready

today

are you with me?

nobody talks about how many dreams get postponed

not abandoned
just postponed

until the children are older
until work calms down
until life gets easier
until there’s more time

and then one day you realise
you’ve been waiting for permission
that was never coming

what dream have you been postponing?

midlifers, this is your sign
— start realising those postponed dreams today

people have always told me i look young for my age

but lately the comments have changed

“you look younger than you did two years ago”
“you look happier”
“the stress has gone from your face”

and they’re right
two years ago i was burned out

today i’m a professional photographer

the difference wasn’t a cream, a treatment or a miracle 🙃

it was giving myself permission to start again

at 50, i picked up a camera
at 52, i’m building a business around something i genuinely love

turns out that when you stop living the life
you think you should be living

and start making space for the life
you actually want, something changes

not just in your calendar

but in your face
your energy
your confidence
your whole way of moving through the world

sometimes the most powerful anti-ageing treatment is giving yourself permission to begin

know someone who needs to hear this today?
send to a friend who’s stuck ♥️

5 reasons i’m not putting my camera down anytime soon

it’s not just about becoming a photographer
— or even being a photographer over fifty

it’s about how i move through my life now

anything else is unthinkable

may 2024
team erasmus plus

these were the people i spent most of my working life with

we laughed as much as we worked
and we worked well together ♥️

and two years later
we’ve all gone our separate ways

different cities,
different careers,
different versions of ourselves we hadn’t met back then

and here’s what i know now

the people who matter stay close
even when life pulls you
in completely different directions

and the changes that feel most turbulent
are usually the ones that needed to happen most

if your life looks completely different to two years ago — you’re not lost

you’re just in the middle of your story

ps to the team 🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻

somewhere between neusiedlersee, vienna and the netherlands i stopped performing

you know that version of yourself you save for when no one is watching? that’s who i became

there was simply too much going on in may
for me to care who was watching
or what it looked like 🙃

4500 kilometres to the Netherlands and back
learning new things
reevaluating old ones
working as hard as i’ve ever worked in my life
making new friends and meeting up with old ones

but throughout this incredibly busy month,
i did what the f@&! i wanted to,
spent time with who i needed to
photographed whatever caught my eye

it’s a reminder that the most interesting thing about you has nothing to do with looking like you have it together

may was messy and magnificent

here’s to more of both

bad gastein is simply one of my most favourite places in austria to take photos

here’s a throwback to my first visit in spring 2025
— and the irises of Gesäuse on our way back home 💜

which photo do you like best? drop a number in the comments below ⤵️

i photographed these two at the neusiedlersee as the storm rolled in

i don’t know them

but i know this

they were my age give or take,
they were calm and had a stillness about them,
and they certainly weren’t running for shelter as the storm got closer and closer

they just sat there together at the end of the jetty watching the sky do what it was going to do anyway

there’s something about midlife that teaches you this
you stop running from the storms
you stop pretending the sky isn’t doing what it’s doing
you find your person and you sit with it

mine is my partner Roland
— the other half of

the man who hands me a spare battery when I forget mine (literally every time)
who drove me to zaanse schans half asleep on my breakfast sleeping pills,
who sits at the end of jetties with me when everyone else has run for shelter

reinventing your life in your fifties is not a solo sport

the storm will come — it always does
the only question is who’s sitting next to you when it does?
who has your back?
who’s your end of the jetty person?

tag them ⤵️



—

**alt text:**
a couple sit together at the end of a wooden jetty over the perfectly still neusiedlersee in burgenland austria — the storm reflected in the water below, the sky above dark and closing in — a photograph about the people who stay with you when the weather turns

if i’d needed reminding
why i love photography
the netherlands would have showed me

i took my camera there for just eight days

i didn’t go with a shot list or a plan

i went with a empty memory card and no expectations

and somewhere between the canals at dusk
and a flower nobody else stopped for

the netherlands reminded me what this is actually about

not the gear
not the edit
not whether the light was right
or the timing was perfect

just the looking

just the staying long enough to let something show itself to you

swipe through these and tell me which one makes you stop

because the one that stops you
says something about how you see the world

and i’d genuinely love to know what that is

this is what i was looking at

my favourite nikkor 600mm lens (aka big ass lens) on my camera

just a purple flower
a salvia
by the road

the kind you walk past without stopping

but i didn’t walk past it

that’s the whole thing really
— that’s all this account has ever been about

stopping when everything in you says keep walking
and noticing

then taking your photo

what did you stop for today?

drop a comment below ⬇️ and reminder us all to stop and notice more often