lauren parkin

Hello 2020! Another New Year’s Post

March 21, 2020

Here I am, back again! Writing a post on my blog about the New Year. Probably the only consistent thing on this blog.

As a short disclaimer, I discovered this post in March but I promise I wrote it in January and have been subconsciously working on these goals since then.

Annnnnd, on with the blog post…

I’m not the biggest fan of setting New Years Resolutions, I’m not sure whether it’s because I think they are a bit of a cliché or maybe it’s something about putting them into the universe that seems scary and a little daunting to me? But there’s also something I enjoy about writing resolutions.

I find (and I think the last three years are proof of this) that by the time I get to the end of the year, I’ve completely forgotten any of the resolutions that I’ve set. This can then mean two things, I either a) have actually completed all my resolutions without knowing them or b) not completed any of them becauuuuse I forgot to go and look back and see what I wrote…classic me!

So 2020 here are my non-resolutions but kind of resolutions because as a human being I enjoy crossing things off lists and setting goals!

1. Master manual driving

This has been a long-term goal of mine, but my parents have recently purchased a new car and said that their older car is now mine to use! Which is super exciting and very generous of them…but is probably the kick up the butt that I have been needing to get my butt into gear (pun intended) and learn how to drive manual.

2. Read 25 books

As per last year, I have the goal of reading 25 books! The background for this goal was that from literally 2002-2012 I read 25 books a year, literally as a child!!! But now as an adult I can barely pick a book. Last year I read 17, which is close but not quite there yet.

3. Take more photographs – on film, on my camera or on my phone

There’s something about capturing memories and looking back on them that I really, really love. Francesca’s sister Gabriella got me so excited to do one second everyday again and I have already loved looking back on those memories from the past year. I don’t know whether I think it’s something about being scared I’m going to forget OR maybe because I’m just sentimental – but either way, I want to capture more memories.

4. Be more conscious with my purchases and with what I consume.

WEAR my clothes, think about plastic and try and think about what I’m eating. I think this is a big theme for everyone this year, but I want to make a conscious effort to genuinely think more about these things.

5. Love

Need I say anymore?

6. Be thankful

There is so much in my life that I am grateful and thankful for! And gosh damn I am so lucky to be where I am today. Life is beautiful – sometimes hard, but it’s beautiful.

7. Drink more water

I think this is something that goes without saying. It’s better for your skin, your health blah blah blah…so I will do my very best to drink more water.

8. Travel

Re-reading this in March, I don’t know what this really looks like anymore. The current state of the world is really confusing – but this year I have been lucky enough to already travel to Melbourne and Hobart! But who knows what the rest of the year will hold – hopefully I’ll be able to see some more of the world, but I guess there’s always next year.

9. Practice Italian

I would like to know some more Italian words to attempt to try and follow the conversations that Francesca’s grandparents have. They make such an effort to speak English to me – but I would like to make more of an effort to understand what they’re saying! Duolingo! Daily Italian Phrase Book! Italian here we come.

10. Work hard

Another statement that kind of goes without saying! I want to keep working my little butt off.

11. Exercise

I want to move my body more! I don’t want to feel out of breath every time I have to run somewhere and I’m sick of feeling weak. I don’t want to do anything crazy ie. I still want to eat and drink what I want but I just want to make some little changes in my lifestyle.

Thinking about January

January 15, 2019

We were sitting around the table at work having our usual Monday morning meeting and my boss turned to us and asked what our 2019 resolutions were. Everyone’s favourite question in January.

My colleagues mentioned the usual “I plan on going to the gym more,” “I want to eat healthier,” “travel more etc” – pretty stock standard New Year’s Resolutions.

Then when she turned to me, I was the first to say, I actually didn’t make any resolutions. To be completely honest with you I think some of my colleagues thought I was making a political statement or taking a stand, breaking the norm and what not.

However, if we’re being completely honest I didn’t even think about what I wanted to do with myself this year or where I wanted to go. I didn’t set myself goals or setting myself up for failure by going to the gym 7 times a week.

Whilst I have work goals and to do lists every day I hadn’t thought about the small things that I want to achieve in 2019 besides my usual travel more, read more, write more and take more photos.

After we sat back down at our desks and I began to write my To Do list for the day, our New Years Resolutions chat stayed on my mind. I thought about something I could set myself or something I could do and to be honest I got side-tracked and hadn’t given it any further thought till I began to write about it.

Tonight I got to thinking about the New Year and everything that comes along with it. The fresh start the goals and the nature of New Years resolutions. This meant, I took a trip down memory lane and looked back on my resolutions from last year (aka my last Blogpost…).

My last years resolutions included things like; read more books, make my bed every day, put more effort into Instagram etc. It’s pretty safe to say besides writing more (sorry blog), I had a somewhat solid attempt at my resolutions.

For me I want 2019 to be a year of growth, whilst last year brought a great deal of changes (both positive and negative) to my life, I feel like there was a lack of personal growth and development of myself outside my relationship and work. I want to bring back some of the characteristics of my personality that I lost during Uni, parts of myself that I adored in High School and somewhere along the transition to adulthood sort of missed the boat.

I want to end 2019 feeling accomplished and loving myself. With risk of sounding wanky, I want to love the person I am becoming and feel like I have further developed the parts of my personality that make me, me!

I want to write more, love more, live more, share more, take more photographs, read more books and not put unnecessary amount of pressure on myself.

Looking at where I am now compared to where I am a year ago is a pretty incomparable. From travelling to the city of my dreams and falling in love to getting a full time job and from car accidents to saying goodbye to my beautiful dog – 2018 tested me in more ways then I will ever be able to comprehend.

My life is nothing like what it was this time last year, or even two years ago and that’s okay. Whilst scary, change is okay and change is good.

So in summary, resolutions or not, I want to end 2019 in a position where I am proud and ready for 2020.

PS. Since writing this post I have come up with five, ‘Non-Resolutions.’

1. Read 25 books (I used to read 25 books a year from aged 5-15, why can’t I do that as an adult?)

2. Travel to new places (whether this be Australia or International, I am looking forward to exploring the world a little more)

3. Take more photographs (a big thing I want to achieve this year is creating some photo albums from my travels, turning my beautiful memories into books that I can look back on)

4. Write more. Through the nature of my job and the way the industry is constantly changing, I would like to spend more of 2019 writing. Whether it’s a scrawl in a notebook, a blog post somewhere on the Internet or a press release for a client I’m excited to spend more of my time writing.

5. Be a little more thankful. Thankful of where I am, thankful for the people around me and thankful for the life I am building for myself.

Hello 2018!

January 11, 2018

Well can you believe it. Another year has flown by and we're already one week into 2018. Whilst I do want to start this post quite positively and express how excited I am for 2018 I want to briefly reflect on what a crazy year that 2017 was. I wrote a huge soppy post on my Instagram Account (@laurenparkinphoto) where I shared some of the photographs I shot and the amazing people I got to work with.

Looking back at 2018, I can't actually believe half that stuff that happened. I started off the year in New Zealand on a cruise with some of the best people I know, I finished my Bachelors degree at University and qualified to graduate in April, I travelled to Spain by myself to visit a friend in need, shot some of my favourite bands AND booked a trip to the city of my dreams.

So in honour of this new year, like every Blogger, YouTuber type person I thought I would share with you the little things that I want to try and implement into my life. Now I know that there is a lot of pressure and emphasis that goes into resolutions and there is this ridiculous idea that if you don't achieve your resolutions/goals you're some kind of failure. I don't believe this kind of thinking is healthy because failure and loosing is normal, humans are meant to make mistakes and imperfections are just part of life (something I kind of need to take on board, lol). So, after a lot of thinking and trying to decide what would be physically achievable I have a short list of things I want to do more of in 2018.

1. Make my bed every morning

Don't ask me why someone who is 20 years old struggles to make their bed, but some people just do okay. I don't know whether it's the laziness that sometimes takes over or just the fact that I can't push past the idea that you are going to get in the same bed in the night and mess it up all over again.

Regardless I was watching a video where someone was explaining that you may achieve nothing in a day but if you come home and your bed is made you can at least say that you did something productive and I guess that's kind of my mantra for 2018. Some days are going to be shit and unproductive but if you can say you achieved one thing, you can't be doing too badly.

(Side note, this is not my bed - it's Jeneane's bed in Madrid)

2. Listen to the radio

Now this may seem kind of weird as most people listen to the radio in their cars or just constantly, but since getting my license and actually having control of the music that's played in the car I haven't listened to the radio once. I don't know whether it was the ads, the annoying voices or the lack of control that I didn't like, but I've vowed to try harder to listen to the radio. Not only because it's kind of an awesome way to discover new music, but because I really enjoy the idea of supporting Australian creatives and also supporting diversity in the industry.

3. Shoot more photos

At the start of 2017 I kind of vowed to shoot more photos and whilst I did get to work with a lot of awesome people and create some amazing photographs I feel that I kind of fell out with photography towards the end of the year. It felt like I was drowning in Uni work and that Uni was my number one priority. I wasn't shooting or working on any passion projects or even just taking my camera out for adventuring, I was just shooting paid jobs. As a photographer paid jobs are nothing to complain about, but without working on your own ideas and shooting your own projects you kind of drive yourself insane and loose your passion for what you're creating. This is something I think that so many photographers forget easily and if you are in a creative rut, working on something solely for you can sometimes really help. Especially if you are struggling with the pressures of the job.

4. Write more

As I said before 2017 challenged me creatively, when I started my new job I thought I would have buttloads of time to write and shoot and do my uni work. Unfortunately however, this idea was quite unrealistic considering the course load for 3rd year students. With piles of readings and looming deadlines it can be really stressful to make time to write.

I used to always say that writing on this blog was kind of like therapy for me. I would take time out of my day to express my thoughts and share my feelings and I would feel so much better after putting my thoughts on paper. For fulltime Uni students there is very little downtime and after a long day the last thing you want to do is come home and stare at a screen, whilst I feel I am kind of making excuses for my lack of inspiration I think there is kind of some truth behind it. I also think that not being able to write has contributed to quite high tension in my life. Without writing I am missing not only one of my favourite creative outlets, but I'm missing the ability to release any tension and thoughts that are circling around my head. So 2018, I've decided I want to write more. I want to fall in love with this platform again and I want to be brave enough to submit my work to other publications.

5. Look after myself

I think most people will relate when I say that's it's easy to get into a rut. You wake up each day and do the same thing, but because you're stuck in this insane routine it often means you aren't taking care of yourself. Not only your physical health but your mental health too. In 2018 I want to take more time to focus on looking after my mental health, trying to avoid overthinking and putting an unhealthy amount of pressure on myself.

I also think it's important to take care of my physical health too. Like, taking more walks with my dog, drinking more water and putting more time into my skincare routine. Not huge changes in my life, but just little things that can I input that will have a positive effect on my general wellbeing.

6. Read more

It's crazy how studying or even just a change in routine can shake some of your most primal habits. When I was younger I would read every night without fail. I would spend hours pouring over books and spend more time reading more books than doing anything else. I would say since late High School I have had to devote more time to other things, and the books I vowed to read are sitting on my bedside table gathering dust.

In a world where we are constantly staring at screens or creating content, to take some time out of the day to spend some time reading a paper book is definitely not going to do any harm. To kick of the year I am reading the ultimate classic, 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' by JK Rowling. I don't know why but I just craved the comfort of reading something familiar and I think for me, Harry Potter is linked with that cosy, warm feeling.

I think reading is not only important for "No Screen Time" but I think it's important for writers to be reading other people's work. It inspires the creative in you and the more research and time spend training and honing your skill the better you will get. I'm kind of starting to think that my lack of reading and lack of writing may be linked, funny that.

7. Put more effort into Instagram

To any non-social media person this may seem like a really stupid resolution, but for a creative, Instagram is such an important tool. It is not only a marketing tool to sell yourself and what you create, but it is a way to connect with other creatives and share your own work. In this industry having an online presence is so important and creating a portfolio which you can carry around with is such a great asset. I also find Instagram really inspiring as you can view some amazing photographs for FREE. For me this is so important as you can not only see gorgeous images, but I love getting inspiration for my editing.

As a professional tool I do love Instagram, but I also love the personal nature of it too. Where people are putting a little slice of their personality online and sharing a little piece of themselves. I love watching people's Instagram stories, to see what they're getting up to. I think this kind of lowkey stems from being a nosey person. So in 2018 I vow to share more of my photographs and also just engage more with people on Instagram!

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So I'm back, it may not be perfect, but it's me. We're kicking of this year with my short list of resolutions for 2018. Nothing too big and scary, only small achievable hurdles which I really want to focus on. We're 11 days into 2018 and it's been pretty great so far, I really love the idea of a fresh start to be honest, a kind of clean slate to kick of what is hopefully going to be a very productive year. I can't wait for what's to come and the adventures and challenges that 2018 will bring.

Life on 35mm #1

October 16, 2017

Like records or flared pants, film has well and truly made a come back. As per usual I was pretty late to the bandwagon, but earlier in the year when I started a new job in my boss urged me to start shooting some film, as having an understanding of how film works and how to edit film is really important to my job. So here we are, a couple months and a couple of rolls of film later and I'm finally getting around to sharing some of my film photos.

Let's just say I have fallen in love with film. I love the colours, I love the nostalgia and I love the idea that you only get one chance to get something right. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love capturing moments and how nostalgic I get going through old photographs. I love digital photography and I adore creating images with my big camera, but there's something about shooting on film that really hits home. I don't know whether it's because I genuinely think it just looks cool (lol) or that you genuinely have to think about your composition and what you want your shot to look like. I kind of like that you don't have a lot of control over the outcome of your shots and I love the feeling when you get a fresh roll of film back from the lab.

By creating these little series, it's not only giving me an excuse to procrastinate my Uni work (and most of my other responsibilities) but I'm really excited to start sharing some of my favourite snaps and I hope you all enjoy this little series.

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SO this first roll was shot on a cheeky little Kodak disposable, which remind me of school camps and excursions. This first post is probably the shortest so far as I wasn't 100% happy with my composition of a lot of the images. Most of the shots were created as I was shooting for a submission to my Uni's student publication: Grapeshot. Two of my images, which I haven't shared were printed and published in the September issue and to be honest I was pretty damn STOKED. There is also one other random photo (that my finger is in - lol) from my cruise to New Zealand at the start of the year.

I hope you enjoy, annnnnnd don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the next roll of my life on 35mm.

All images shot by me.

Cockatoo Island.

April 27, 2017

So I'm writing an article on Cockatoo Island, so I thought it was probably a good idea if I actually, I don't know, went there. I've seen the phrase "Photographer's Paradise" thrown about when people share their pictures, describe their experience or talk about the Island in general. So as a researching writer and a curious photographer, I decided to take myself on a little adventure.

I hadn't been there in 10 years. You know it's weird, how your memory of things you did as a kid is normally completely different to reality. As I got off the ferry I wracked my brain for any possible memories I had of this place, all I could remember was random little blurry snippets. I remembered my mum being the only one interested in the audio tour. I remember running around in leggings, some kind of dorky hat and I very clearly remember posing for a photo under one of the Island's infamous cranes.

Whilst the main aim of Cockatoo Island is to preserve Sydney's history. We are so lucky to have a place where you can run around and be absolutely free. You have this amazing link to Australian history and you can think about all those who have come before you. Our country has a dark but strong history and I want to explore more of the beautiful place that I live in.

I could really go on and on, I have so much to say about Cockatoo Island. From the stunning architecture to the beautiful harbour views, it has got far too much to offer for a place that's only a $2.87 ferry ride away.

Keep your eyes freshly peeled for my article that will be gracing your screens in the next few months and enjoy the photos from the photographer's para-ara-ara-dise.