Weekends Are Awesome | Simon Bills Blog

Since going full time with photography the structure of my life has been turned upside down. Previously I’d sit in an office Monday to Friday counting down the seconds until 5pm Friday, then when Sunday night rolled around I’d go into lockdown mode, maybe iron a few shirts and lament the fact I’d be spending the next 5 days crunching numbers in an office.

Friday nights are the new Sundays, but in a good way. If I’m shooting a wedding the following Saturday I’m in lock down mode, but rather than lamenting my predicament it’s more of a nervous excitement about the day to come and frantically checking and rechecking all my equipment to make sure I’ve got everything and it all works. I’m still sitting in front of a computer for a fair chunk of Monday to Friday editing photos and taking care of admin (I can’t believe how much admin is involved in this gig!) but for the most part it really doesn’t feel like work, especially when you’re still wearing your pyjamas in the afternoon. The downside to the new regime is that I don’t really get weekends any more. If I shoot a wedding on a Saturday I’ll probably take most of Sunday off but come Monday morning it’s back to work. I’ve thought about taking a day off during the week, but it’s hard to justify when there’s always things to be done.

When a weekend comes with no weddings it’s really time to get out and do things. The last place I want to be is at home and as luck would have it South Australia is a super awesome corner of the earth will millions of weekend getaway options. Over the last couple of months I’ve managed a trip to the Riverland, a weekend riding the Reisling Trail in Clare and a trip to Yorke’s, and in a month’s time it’ll be a trip over to Pt Lincoln in search of Olympic gold medallist and Lincoln local Dean Lukin.

I take my camera with me on these jaunts, but photography’s really the last thing on my mind and I certainly don’t go crazy with it (but if there’s some kangaroos in a vineyard, a sweet bearded dragon on a driveway or a couple of pelicans at the beach it would be a shame not to snap a few frames to remember them by).