Hashtag Vanlife

4 years and counting as a photographer living on the road

Lives in a van. Bimbles with a camera. Often pointing his pixel box at scruff. Has been known to run long distances. Would consider cake as a form of payment.

Recovering.

Welcome back to another #ThrowBackThursday and today I’m looking back at almost 4 years (and counting) of life on the road with the pixel box.

At the time of writing, I’ve been living, travelling, and working full-time from a VW campervan for 1,120 days. And to think, when we (my wife and I) sold our home and rolled out of the driveway on that first morning, we gave ourselves six months to give it a go. Those six months came and went, and here we are in our fourth year going full-time.

Our travels have taken us as far south as Greece and up to northern Norway, with a lot of wonderful locations in between. To date, I think our favourite places have been Norway and Slovenia, with Finland and Estonia coming in a close third.

Before going full-time, we had owned the campervan for four years and had taken many short and medium-term trips, with Scotland being one of our favourites. That first time, however, travelling in mainland Europe, a whole new way of life was revealed to me with much more acceptance of this lifestyle. Service points plentiful, community thriving and overnight parking spots sometimes a few steps from an incredible landscape.

Travelling in the van as a photographer has a number of benefits, with my ability to wait out inclement weather inside, be close to my chosen location for sunrise /sunset, or indeed be flexible with my plans.

Just the other day, I had been visiting Cathedral Beach in Northern Spain, with the original plan to stay two days. With tides and weather against me, I was able to extend my stay, which actually resulted in some of my favourite moments from this incredible beach.

Of course, it’s not without its drawbacks. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, I am travelling with my wife (who also works), and so balance is key. I feel I produce my best work, photographically speaking, when I’m allowed time in a location. Seven years living on the Causeway Coast, and I think I have just about enough images to make a calendar. Donegal, despite numerous extended trips, I’m still lacking portfolio-worthy images. In the van, extended stays this isn’t always possible, as while we may travel slowly, we still will move on every 3-4 days. This isn’t really enough time to make work that goes beyond the obvious, but I’ve learnt to accept that this is unavailable.

And sometimes, obvious is still rather beautiful.

In 2019, while living in Portrush, I purchased myself a printer, and while it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns (like those pesky photographers tell you), I loved printing, especially creating my own small bodies of work and zines. This is obviously something that isn’t possible right now, although I do use some online services to send home the odd postcard or two.

Still, despite these drawbacks, I love this lifestyle and the opportunity to travel (with my wife) exploring new areas, meeting different people, and of course, making the odd image or three.

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Other corners of the inter webs you can find me.

• The X100 Diaries

• My Portfolio

• Bimbles magazine

Thanks so much for allowing me a few moments of your time. I hope you have enjoyed my words and images, and if so a quick share amongst your own community will help spread the word.

And if you really enjoyed it you can even consider throwing a few pennies into the tips jar. It helps most with diesel costs for the van to keep me on the road making images.

Until next time .. Happy Pixels …