2019 – Goals Aspirations
The start of a new year brings thoughts of what is possible. For me, it is looking to engage more in two of my lifelong passions – climbing and photography. Both, I realise more and more, are part of my therapeutic and cathartic balance to life in general. I can lose myself in the process of both, much like many people do in reading a great book or watching a powerful film in a cinema. Escapism that also benefits by refreshing the mind and body for daily life.
Both, for me, benefit from careful planning and preparation to reach standards I aim for.
The climbing will require building on fitness and mental approaches, along with recovering from niggling injuries. The fitness plan started last year and is going far better than expected. Whilst age catches up and what was possible in my youth becomes unrealistic – I am unable to do a single pull up from a ‘dead hang’ (pulling up from a position of fully extended arms) – I was very surprised at the psychological positivity in leading climbs.
A couple of trips to the reliable, relatively, winter sun of Spain by April. I will use these trips to both gauge improvement and how I will manage my body and brain for particular climbing goals in the UK this summer.
Photography has been my other passion for as long as I’ve been climbing. Sometimes they meet. Other times the ideas for photographic images extends well beyond anything ‘adventurous’. Having purchased a scanner and revisiting my collection of slides/transparencies this action of processing these digitally is providing much thought on critiquing the past for creating better quality in the future.
As well as working with digital cameras, I am very excited to return to using film. Finding a brilliant photo processing laboratory locally is inspiring me to consider and plan using 35 mm and 6 x 4.5 cm film. Especially black and white. Digital photography has a ‘convenience’, but there is something magical in processing film and seeing an image appear through the chemical bath in a darkroom.
Working in both digital and analogue I find complimentary. Each requires different problem-solving approaches to create the image planned in the mind before pressing the shutter release.
Rob Thomas Photography 
Happy New Year and keep chasing your goals!