No words today. Just images from the past year.
December 2024 – March 2025
Category: Uncategorized
Liminal
I had to read the dictionary definition to remind me, but I think “liminal” is the best word to describe my feelings right now.
liminal
adjective
1. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
2.relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
I observe my wife transitioning into her new career, launching her own business.
My eldest daughter, about to start high school, my youngest about to change primary schools.
Even my day to day has become liminal in it’s nature.
Am I uncomfortable? Not really, but I think it elicits certain feelings depending on what it is I’m observing. It’s a complex mix of pride, grief, joy and love. Different dimensions of love.
Seagulls and Poetry.
I’ve written about this before, but I often find myself being drawn to recurring themes, places.
These images are for me, and the recurring themes I consider the poetry of my life.
This process of maintaining this little blog, documenting my images, I do this for me, because it helps me understand…..me.
Ten years ago, I posted this image. I previously would look up and would see the freedom of birds. I would yearn for that. The freedom to be free of this fuse burning out over my head.
But that was ten years ago I posted that photo. I recognise I’m different now.
Seeing these images of the gulls, fighting and squabbling in front of me from my most recent trip to the beach, it stirs different feelings in me.
I stand, I watch the mayhem unfold from a position of curiosity and in this moment, I see the rhyme of the visual poetry. It rhymes with my current day to day and who used to be.
I have a feeling wash over me, I feel removed. I am an observer.
And in this moment, I realise. I’m actually free.
Gratitude washes over me.
Bosom Beach, January 2025
The smell of salt water, hot chips and battered fish fills the air. The sounds of my families laughter fills the air. I’ve got no shoes on, my feet covered in sand, I feel the grass beneath me.
I stare out over field. I suddenly feel lonely. I take this photo. My senses are flooded again, salty smells, sounds of love, and a connection to home beneath me, the lonely feeling is now fleeting.
I’m grounded again, and I’m feeling better.
Sometimes you get dragged out into the ocean. Don’t panic.
Well, I posted something last week, and I pushed it out in a bit of a rush. It’s been so long, and I’ve been radio silent for so long, I got a little bit over excited and just published it.
Now we’re at the end of the week, I’ve had some more time go through images, and to think about what I wanted to say.
Last time I posted, I spoke about a personal project I was kicking off.
The good news is that I’ve got everything in place to start. I’ve got the tools, the plan and the contracts ready to go, I just need to do it.
I was about to say “the bad news”, but after reflecting on it I’m not sure if that would be true.
After some convincing, my sabbatical became short, and I’ve been back to work. On top of this, had a minor health scare. Happy to confirm I’m completely healthy, just the joys of getting older and living with VWD.
But just touching on why I titled this post, and more importantly, why I’m not upset about the fact that I’m behind on my goal.
Australians, especially ones who were raised on the coast like I was, you’re imparted some wisdom at a pretty young age specifically when swimming at the beach. Rips are strong currents that pulls you out into the ocean very quickly. The advice is to not fight against it, as the strength of the rip will burn you out and before you know it you’re too tired to keep your head above water.
Instead, you conserve you’re energy, swim out of the rip, instead of against it, and then swim back to the shoreline.
I’m currently in the rip and not panicking. Waiting for the right time to swim out and get back to my shoreline where I can pick up where I left off.
In the meantime, I’ll look for opportunities where I can find my joy. Going through these images has brought me a lot of joy, so I think I just need to make space for me to shoot more.
Unless I get pulled into another rip. Let’s see how we go.
Greenhouse!
Garden
It’s been a long time.
Hi,
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here, and it’s been a long time since I’ve developed photos.
Covid really hit us harder than we all initially thought, and so with that I lost a lot of my motivation and drive. I’ll expand on this a bit more in a future post, maybe.
This roll also carries across almost two years as well, which is a good example of how little motivation I had. In saying that, as we enter 2022 I’m starting to feel a slight flicker of passion come back. And so, here’s the first roll of film I have developed in almost two years.
I ‘ll start to post more as I start to get back in the swing of things.
Cheers,
Cody
Cody Spencer Photography 