Against all odds

For Chris Nowell photography is a great excuse to get out, stay active, and enjoy nature

Chris Nowell has lost the vision in his right eye, and the peripheral vision in his left

When it comes to generating excuses the human mind is a master. We might have every intention of getting up before dawn to shoot a misty landscape, but then a little imp whispers in our ear: ‘If you get up now you’ll be too tired to go to work; why not just stay in bed and rest?’ If we ignore this irksome sprite it becomes insistent. ‘There’s no way you’ll get the picture you want without an ND grad,’ it proposes. ‘Wait until you can afford more equipment.’ Most of the time we give in to this demon, turn off the alarm and go back to sleep – after all,to follow the path of least resistance. Sometimes we blame external sources: it’s cold outside and the battery will run out (technology); I need to be in a meeting at 9am, and if I stop to take pictures the traffic will be bad (work). In reality, the reason we generate excuses is often more personal. Deep down we might believe that the images we take are not good enough so there’s no point in getting up early, or perhaps we feel cross that our money has to be spent on paying bills rather than on our hobby. Whatever the reason, we need to fight these excuses – if we don’t face them head on we could end up limiting our creative potential.