Geoff Thompsons Blog: Retiring with a Camera

Friday, September 8, 2017

Retiring with a Camera

I have been retired from the paid work force for nearly 7 years now.

Many people when approaching retirement do so with some apprehension.

Will I be able to afford a reasonable lifestyle?

Will my health hold out?

How long will I live?

What will I do?

You often hear people say I don’t know how I had time to go to work as I am so busy now.

That can be the case for many who have many interests outside of their jobs that make for an easy transition into retirement.

That can be many things such as gardening,woodworking,visiting ,coffee with friends,voluntary work,babysitting grandchildren, travel and the list is as long as you want it to be.

Some people though do not have a lot of outside interests and do struggle.

Their jobs have been all consuming and is where their identity has been focused.

On retirement though, what do people say to someone when they meet you, and they ask what you do.

If you are retired they will ask you what you did but then move on to ”so how do you spend your time?”

I was fortunate that while in the workforce for many years I had other interests and avocations that sometimes complemented my real job but not always.

It can be frustrating when you might be put off or “let go” from a job.

If you are older some people presume you are in early retirement mode and can take advantage of that.

Not so when the bills are mounting up!

For me photography was going to be a natural for me to pursue in retirement as I have been doing it for years.

My life is pretty full in retirement with family, church activities,photography,blogging, meeting friends for coffee etc.

I don’t do anywhere enough around the house that I should so I still need to work on that “retirement life balance.”

For those who are getting near retirement or have and are struggling to find an interest I would like to suggest taking up photography.

I learnt years ago that photography can be used to complement almost any other interest you have.

It is a great tool for documenting things.

It is also a great creative outlet for those of us who are too impatient to create “real art” with a paint brush or sketch pad.

There has never been a better time “to get into photography”.

You can take photos on your phone for a start.

You can progress to a digital camera and even still use film cameras if you like.

If you want to have maximum fun you will probably need to learn a bit about computers if you are not computer literate but that is not a bad thing and will be helpful.

Notwithstanding that you can still have much fun with your pictures and cameras and let others process and print your photos.

You might say to me “well I am not able to get around much anymore” “I have some disabilities” .

Well this may be a problem but there are people in wheel chairs who do Photography, there are people who are blind who do photography, there are people with Parkinson’s Disease who do photography.