I Wanna Be a Hippy

Today was the inaugural meeting of a new photography group with the aim of supporting, discussing and growing a community in the Highlands. It was a really good day meeting new people and chatting to some already known. I have to confess… life has kind of put me through the wringer over the last several years and my ability to do social has seriously depleated, along with such things as social confidence and general ability to be “me”. I have been trying to challenge myself lately though as social anxiety is so easy to let take charge of one’s life and today I took that to the max my volunteering to show and talk about my work.

I took a bit of an easy option… a bit of a cheat… by using my panel from the BIPP last year, which isn’t really where I am at currently - but it was printed, I had already spoken about it, and it offered a route to introduce my photography without having to overly think about it - because I had already been through it last October! I am going to try and put my big boy pants on next time though and show some more current work.

My mission now is to try and build on this social momentum and stop being quite such a recluse. But perhaps not for a week or two. Between last weeks photo walk, a Tuesday night Inverness Darkroom meet, Thursday RNLI training and today’s meet up I have probably done more socialising than I have in the last 12 months!

4th July 2026