JAMES & IAN

This handsome chap sitting next to me is my Dad. That gleaming cranium craves all knowledge extractable from any documentary, magazine, photograph or newspaper.

We didn't always see eye to eye my step-father and me. Growing up I was always getting up to mischief, my curiosity stepped me over the line more times than I'd care to count. It’s a distant memory these days, my father’s patience was Herculean now I think about it.

We don't cross paths as often as I'd like these days. In person that is. Living on opposite ends of the globe, the opportunity to do so doesn't crop up all that often.

We may not share the same love for sport, interest for technology, cheeky nature (Thanks mum) or inked lines. But without my dad I wouldn't be the man I am. I wouldn't of thrown on a backpack and explored the world, hiking up all those hills for hours just to enjoy the view at the summit, or the passion and drive to create a carbon neutral digital studio. Heck the man's helping me create it this very week.

What I always suspected to be OCD, turns out to be the teaching of my Pop. Having to check the back door just one more time, ensuring its locked. The compulsion to always align my knife to my fork in at the table, arranging my shirts in order of the seasons, or neatly arranging my desk; ensuring its symmetry or spending too much time ensuring designs are pixel perfect.

The sub-conscious teachings of my father are just as precious to me as the ones I knew I'd learnt. 

A shared conversion over a good whiskey, comparing notes on David Attenborough documentaries or heading to the deer sanctuary to walk, talk and photograph nature at its best.

More and more I realise what a chip off the old block I truly am. My Dad. My mate.

~ James