It’s a rather xenophobic phrase, “they all look the same to me”, some could say that about animals unless you take the time to look at the creatures closely. I’ve photographed a great number of Lions over the last few years and I’ve been struck at how different they look from each other. The relatively young male at London Zoo looks particularly haughty, a much different beast from the battle scarred and battle weary Notch from the Masai Mara. Granted, the later does have a lot of scrapes and scratches on his visage that the City dwelling relative doesn’t have – but it’s not the war wounds that make the difference it’s the whole shape of the face. Notch is your slum dwelling prize fighter… Lucifer (for that is the name of the Asiatic Lion at London Zoo) is more your City Banker. If you have the time (or more to the point you can’t sleep and need a distraction, then have a peruse through my Flickr Stream at the various Lions I’ve photographed throughout the years and hopefully you’ll come to the same conclusion as I’ve so in-eloquently outlined here.
Despite the few days away, I’m suffering from a lack of motivation when it comes to my photography not that you’d know from the number of shots I’ve taken over the last 7 days – close on 2800 images. I suspect it’s down to the malaise I mentioned before my holiday, that I need a fresh challenge, a new outlook or set of challenges. Luckily, football season has started again and so I’ll be out on the touchline tomorrow snapping away with my camera at the children’s football teams which may help with my apathy.
Guess what… I didn’t take away the software/laptop (I have two) I needed to work on my book, not that I had any time to work on my Magnus Opus whilst on my hols. Perhaps with things settling down, I might find the time to start work on it again – though really it’s more compiling than writing – what I need, like my photography, is a new set of challenges. I did join a writers guild in January and with all the work I put in to various projects, I didn’t get round to looking into what opportunities the organisation offered. But this is all talk, Dear Reader, and I need to translate talk into action… well, possibly tomorrow.
Andrew Skelton: 
For someone in malaise, you’re remarkably productive, and you’re writing well, too. I hope your observations about lions turn up in one of your books. It goes to show that it isn’t how you feel about the work that matters, only that you keep at it.
By: Writers' Resort LLC on 18/02/2012
at 4:56 pm