In truth, the event is really an excuse for the hard working farming community to cut lose after the tough graft of bringing the crops in and the races still retain a unique character. When I asked why the event was always held on a Thursday given its broad appeal the reply was simple yet revealing: “to keep it local.”

But one day that ceased to be enough. I had hit the limitations of what I could do so blessed with the fortitude of total ignorance I left my trusty point and shoot behind and took the step up to the next level and what a murky and unforgiving place it has turned out to be.

As I peeled back the layers of understanding any belief in myself or my ability was slashed away like virgin forest under a chain saw. It very quickly became apparent that I knew nothing and just about every photo I had ever taken was worthless. Numbers and jargon towered round me like an impenetrable jungle, focal lengths and ISO numbers would loom out of the shadows leering at me and the nagging doubt that I should be shooting film buzzed around me head like a swarm of obsolete mosquitoes.

But worse was yet to come, a clawing, corrosive uncertainty that threatened to destroy my very faith in the art of photography and it can be summed up in a very simple question: What is a photograph?

Well ‘duh!’ I hear you cry, it is a picture of something. Easy. But it isn’t, is it? Just about every photo you and I have ever seen has undergone some form of post processing. And if photo is meant to be ‘of something’ but that image has been manipulated then it ceases to be a representation of what was photographed but becomes what the photographer wishes had been photographed.

And that is cheating.

And not the good sort of cheating either, no, this is the bad sort that distorts reality and makes a mockery of life and nature. Is it not enough to see that the garden is beautiful without having to Photoshop in fairies as well?

So today I slay this personal demon before it consumes me. I herby promise you that any shot of mine you may see herein is as close to possible the original shot. I reserve the right to, as Nat Geo put it, “[adjust] the basics needed to achieve realistic colour balance and sharpness” but more than that I shall not. And so help me God if I ever touch a HDR shot I give you all the right to hunt me down and insert any 3 pieces of my camera equipment in any orifices of your choice.

I will insert one caveat at the end though. I am not discounting all heavily processed works, indeed there are some fantastic images out there that owe everything to Photoshop but I see them as works of art closer to a painting than a photograph. After all, being a great photoshoper is not the same as being a great photographer.

……….you just never grow out of.

Brilliant isn’t it.