Gosh, Day 2 was hard. This one was really rushed. Thanks to our friends Simon and Tuong for letting us walk their gorgeous dog Stef on our catch-up walk today. The light kept changing which was difficult to work with. Lovely day nonetheless. It was our first trip outside of 10km in months. Weee!

Music by Crowander.

I’ve set myself a challenging project for October. Create 30 short films in 30 days. I’m a stills photographer and shooting and editing video is not my strength AT ALL. I have no idea what I’m doing! I’m a complete beginner. But I’m embracing it and letting go of the anxiety of needing to get everything right and for the final edit to be “perfect”.

I’m really slow. It took me 3 hours to finish this 60-second clip! Seasoned filmmakers and video editors will probably cringe at this poor attempt at filmmaking. I don’t mind. The idea is to combat creative block and just practice something. I haven’t been creative at all lately. The COVID19 lockdown has been difficult and has affected my motivation to pursue anything. I don’t necessarily enjoy video editing and I think I’ll always be average at it. I just want to make something by setting myself a task each day that can force me to use a medium I’m not comfortable with. I haven’t done this before.

In the meantime, I had to google “how to export video for web”. Let’s see if I can come up with something new for the next 29 days. It’s probably going to be mundane. But this is just for me.

Song title by Crowander (www.crowander.com)

I captured this image a few years ago now on a trip to LA. I had my Contax 645 at the time loaded with Kodak Portra 400 (I think). I walked along the pier in Venice Beach and just watched the ocean.

I have it printed, framed, and hanging in our hallway at home. It’s now available to purchase as a limited edition print and ready to hang. Visit my print store. Take 30% off using code 30OFF just because.

What I’m working on:  I’m an overthinker. On the whole, I reckon it’s a good thing but it can be unhelpful when I want to start anything new. Or when I need to make a decision about something. Even writing this post is taking me forever to complete! I also get easily overwhelmed when I have a lot of deadlines and tasks even though I think I’m pretty good at managing my time.

Here are some things that I’ve found helpful for me:

• Swimming laps in the pool. I used to swim a lot when I was younger. In between Melbourne’s lockdowns, I’ve returned to the pool. It’s been tough as I’m not as fit as I used to be but swimming up and down the pool quietens my mind. I read somewhere claiming that swimming is good for your mental health and can help beat depression. Tick.

• Cold showers. I started having only cold showers last summer and I did that for about 3 months. It was fantastic. Initially difficult, I felt energised, refreshed and activated afterwards. You’re supposed to shower for at least 5 minutes but I’ve only been able to manage 3 minutes max. I haven’t been able to do it over winter though as it’s been far too cold. I’ll be having cold showers again once the weather starts to get warmer.
• “The 3 and 1”. I’ve coined this myself. Write down a maximum of three things that are really important that I need to do for the day and if I can complete only one of the things on this list, that’s a win. This exercise is gold. It makes me feel accomplished and more productive.
• Even though I haven’t done much of it lately due to the weather, doing the gardening is actually soothing and clears my mind.
• Playing games on the Xbox. When I’ve had a productive and sometimes particularly stressful day I “reward” myself by playing some Overwatch or Destiny 2 on my new Xbox Series S console. I have a tactic to make sure I don’t end up sitting on my bottom for hours. I don’t sit down when I play. Ever.

What I’m watching: I’m watching a few shows on Apple TV+ right now.

Tehran, See and Truth Be Told.

A quote I’m pondering on: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou