The last time I was up at such a cruel hour was when I waited overnight at Manchester Airport for a flight to Iceland. It was the same as before that…and the time before that. (Hell, EasyJet, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR GODDAMN FLIGHT TIMES. I can’t while away another night in the bleakest airport ever built.) When I initially woke up, I didn’t know who or where I was. But I quickly re-established myself as Katie Metcalfe in the village of Osmotherly after a cup of tea and I actually found it really…enlivening to be up so early for a good cause.
A friend and I arranged to meet this morning, pre-sunrise, to shoot some photos, and by about 6.45am, I was leading us up onto the moors. I was excited to be shooting (I’d much rather shoot other people than myself), but the light wasn’t anything to write home, and it felt a little bit, I don’t know, insipid? Like the morning just could not be bothered.
The place I took us is somewhere I’m always happy to visit and shoot portraits at, but the night’s rain left this usually epic rocky cleft in the moor looking quite dreary and not good dreary. But we got creative, laughed a lot and managed to stay upright when the wet ground wanted nothing more than for us to plummet down on our arses, so it was worth it.
We then headed to the woods, where the light was marginally better. We shot some more and laughed some more. I didn’t pay enough attention to my camera settings and we almost fell on our arses again because everything was sodden. But goodness, what a good time we had in those woods empty of other people.
Afterwards, I made some fucking delicious porridge – because I only provide the best cuisine for my guests – and we ate that and drank tea. Then I forlornly fondled my friend’s beautiful new camera, lightyears more advanced than mine and which, in hindsight, I should have borrowed for the shoot, and we talked about the pros and cons of life online and how to manage it without losing your shit completely.
It was an awesome morning (and I don’t use the word awesome lightly), and while I’m not overjoyed with the photos I captured, I’m proud I managed to get up early and get shit done despite the horrifying state of my mood these past few days. It’s 16.50 now, and I’m not lagging yet, which shows I can function ok with getting up at 5.30am, so I’m going to do a test run of early mornings this coming week and see how my depression likes it.
Here are a few of the shots I captured.
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 