My only regret, as a film shooter, is that when making portraits, I’d love to be able to show my subjects the final image. Or even give them a present of an image to take away with them.

A few years ago I bought a Fuji Instax camera. It’s a modern day polaroid system, and comes in rectangular or square format.

This October I will be hopefully returning to some new portraiture photography, and will be bringing along my Instax so I can give some shots to those I make images of.

One thing I think I must remember to do, is to take photos of the photos :-) Or perhaps take two - one for my subject to keep and one for myself, as I am curious to see what I may do with the actual instax images myself. They are rather fuzzy and lo-fi in nature.

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The last time I did any concentrated portraiture was in Bhutan on Ewen Bell’s deeply researched tour that he does there. Highly recommended to give you access to areas that aren’t so easily available as a regular tourist.

The most recent portraiture images I’ve done were those last year in Patagonia shooting Gauchos. This was a very short trip of a few days that was put together by my good friend Sabine whom used to be my Patagonian guide for many years.

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I really don’t get much time to do portraiture, yet I really enjoy it when I do, and it is something that allows me to take a step back from my landscape work.

No matter how much you may love something, spending all your time doing it can kill it. A sense of staleness can surface, be it a relationship, a job, or even the arts like landscape photography. I try each year to take some time off, where I do not do any photography at all, because I find that I return to it with what feels like a new fervour. Another way to get that feeling, is to step away from your landscape work, and go do some different type of photography instead.

I am 100% sure that stepping away like this, not only gives me a chance to recharge, but more importantly, it invites growth and change. Having some time and distance to reflect on where I am creatively speaking is important, and having a pause in one’s interests can aid in that process.