Liberated?

For what must seem the first time in, oh, probably 25 years, I actually think I have a new hobby. A proper hobby.

I must have really... As an aside, I got asked what games I'd played recently in the boozer earlier today and there's a few that I've chucked the odd hour at; Forza2, DiRT, Hotel Dusk and also Puzzle Quest - but the 5/6 unwrapped premium 360 titles told me something when I thought about it.

What told me even more was the passion I then spoke about a new interest in my personal life, when prompted, which I've found all-consuming since I dived in; that of Photography.

I love it because it's part technical, it's part creative, it's part luck, part art and most of all, part personal and utterly subjective.

I love it because for the most part it's a real step out of my commercial world and away from the day to day I'm used to. It's an opportunity to quickly capture and express the world around me and things I wish to enjoy again, or wish to capture a special memory.

Don't get me wrong, I totally love the work I do, the studio I helped create and nurture, I love the positive vibes from what we do, how we do it and who we do it with.

But for once, and it's been a long time, there's something else I can really enjoy and get personal, wanton reckless personal gratification from that my mother wouldn't object to... or my mates either. I feel a little self-indulgent, but it makes me smile inside and if that means taking a break from playing games all night after helping make them all day, then all well and good.

And for the record, I only got one badge as a cub-scout; at the age of 9... that of photography. My black & white shots with a Kodak Brownie self-developed in a make-shift dark-room will never, I guess, see the light of an exhibition gallery, but I know, I really know they've been lurking somewhere inside me for a while.

I do feel a tad liberated, it has to be said.