I’m not used to be on the lens end of a camera. I’m usually the one taking the photos, to such an extent that my mother complained a few years ago that when she went over the family photos to create albums of her kids (a thing mums do, I guess), she could only find a few of me. And I’m happy with that.
But recently I decided that I wanted to capture more of everyday life and people around me for my personal record. I’m getting old and I’m increasingly aware of the passage of time and how I can’t go back.
So, this time, a slight departure from the usual ramblings: I’m going to show you a day in my life. If you’re interested in pushing the fun further, we could turn this into a loose collaboration (I know I don’t have a large reach here, but whoever wants to take part is welcome): show me a day in yours.
This post might be long…
This doesn’t have the pretention of being very interesting or to showcase high art. It really aims at showing my everyday life, in all its mundane and trivial glory.
The rules if you decide to participate:
- Only use a P&S or phone camera. No fancy gear, we want it raw and simple.
- Process the way you want. Use your style. Or use another one. Be eclectic if you want.
- Explain what you’re showing us.
- Include the unrelated photos you took that day.
Most of the photos today will be taken with my Sony RX100III. It’s a wee camera that is about 10 years old that I bought second hand for nothing because the visor was broken (I’ll use the screen, then). It’s nothing special and it has all the problems that come with small P&S cameras (barrel distortion, vignetting, high noise, not much DoF), but it’s suitable for daily reportage style photos if you’re careful.
The first thing I do when out of bed (which is usually between 6am and 7am because cats) is weigh myself. I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in May 2022. My parents had been pestering me to have a routine blood test done since I’m never sick and therefore never see a doctor, “just in case”, for months, so I eventually gave in. And they were right. My GP announced me that I had type 2 diabetes, that it was progressive, that he was putting me on Metformin for now, but that I might need insulin injections if things don’t get much better.
Most people panic, despair, and refuse reality when they’re diagnosed. Their world just crumbled. My nerdy brain said “bullshit! Let’s see what that is and if we can find a solution”. You’re reading a guy who did a PhD for fun. So I read the last 20 years of scientific publications on T2 diabetes, and extended to bariatric surgery side effects (I felt there was something there). After thousands of papers (call it a literature review), I decided that I agreed with the research conducted by Dr Taylor in the UK as part of the DiRECT study in the last few years and devised a 3-phase action plan.
Long story short: I lost 40kg in 1 year, my HbA1c went from 7.5%+ to 5.4% (stable since September 2022), I have a normal human diet, and I’m no longer diabetic as far as medicine can detect. Those who are curious can read more about my journey on my dedicated blog. My GP still can’t explain it and still tells me regularly that it’s progressive (no proof of that in the literature that I could find) and that I might need insulin one day (to which my nerdy brain answers: “over my dead body”). But I know from my research that weight gain would be likely be the signal for diabetes to start again, so I keep an eye on it and only allow small variations.
I have breakfast on my own. That’s how I like it. I don’t like to be pushed into people interactions, talking, or noise that early. I’m not sociable at the best of times, but my brain needs time to start gently.
My past diabetes is also one of the reasons why I have the same breakfast every day: an egg and some coffee. I take a photo of all I eat so I have hundreds of photos of plates with eggs in them (I used to have 2 eggs, but then discovered that the yoke is very rich in iron and it was making my iron spike so I’m now on 1 large egg).
Of course coffee is in order.
During breakfast I watch documentaries most mornings. But some days, I feel like a blast from the past and I watch The Avengers. It reminds me of being on holiday in the summer when I was a kid: at 10am, FR3 (3rd French state TV channel) was showing The Avengers in English and I couldn’t miss it. It was presented by Alex Taylor who my generation remembers for presenting English shows on TV during the holidays and for his passionate pro-European views.
Of course, the couch hippos can’t leave me alone.
After a shower, I walk 30 minutes. I walk after each meal (habit from the diabetes fight plan). Walking is a great way to exercise and has a lot of benefits. To avoid getting bored, I normally listen to documentaries, youtube videos about science or photography, or audiobooks (Bill Gates’ new autobiography at the moment).
Don’t pay attention to the mess, it’s also a gym and our podcast recording studio.
I walk in the bedroom downstairs because the weather isn’t great today. We’re having a “seasonal windy episode”.
When it’s time, I go to my office for the day’s work. I work in an out building about 10m2. It used to be a piggery and one of the pigs had the same name as my wife (it’s carved on the wall). Being separate from the house means I’m not disturbed by cats who want to come in.
This is where I’ll spend most of the next 8 hours.
I wear headphones all day. A lot of the time without any noise in them, but they’re noise cancelling, so they’re great to be isolated from the world.
In case you’re wondering, yes I have a day of the week clock. I’m not good at tracking time. Really not good. Even the day of the week is most of the time a mystery to me. I have work day (my alarm goes off in the morning) and weekend (my alarm doesn’t go off). That’s it. So a few years back, my wife bought me a special clock for Christmas.
Before lunch time, I need a drink and I’m out of liquid. When I took the bottle out of the fridge, I noticed the condensation on the bottle and I thought it would make an interesting abstract. You can disagree.
When I come out of my office, I’m often greeted by some of the beasts that decided to live in our courtyard (they get fed of course, so they’ll never leave).
By lunch time I’m hungry. Today I eat on my own because my wife is at a pottery class.
I have company, of course, and a documentary on 90s video games (mostly about the revolution started by the two Jons) plays on TV. I spent so many hours playing Doom and Duke3D in the mid-90s.
I did say I photograph everything I eat.
Shortly after lunch, the postie brought the day’s parcels. We receive parcels pretty much every day. As we live in the middle of nowhere, shopping is difficult (nearest supermarket: 26km), and it’s hard to find what you want. So we order online a lot. We’re known to all the local delivery companies and the post office (a new postman one day told me that he had been warned about us by his colleagues).
One of the things delivered today was a set of 2 cases to store camera equipment. I have a lot of (old) cameras and I want to store them properly instead of piling them up onto shelves. I love those carry cases.
The pattern on the cases is hypnotic.
For dinner, I had homemade vegetable stew. I’m vegetarian BTW.
And finally in bed. First, biscuits with Neelix. He’s one of the stray cats we adopted a number of years ago. He always has such an intensity when he “klukes” us, as my wife says.
And then catching up with Substack and others to see interesting things posted by others. I only visit Substack and others twice a day: during breakfast, and in bed late once I’m ready to sleep. I don’t use social media as a way to follow the news (because who in their right mind would do that?), so I don’t get angry just before bed.
Good night everyone.
#Photography #Opinion #IMayBeWrong #PhotographyTheory #ADayInTheLife