Within two weeks my time as an undergraduate comes to an end. Out of a starting class of 48, we are down to 33 and from that 33 we are down to 23 showing at Free Range and from the overall group I expect that I can maybe count 5 as being people with whom I have kindled some form of friendship. Only time will tell.

This weekend I have been privileged to meet up with old friends. One of whom I last worked with some 21 years ago but today it was if nothing had happened in the intervening years. Yesterday it was our ex-next-door neighbours of 21 years who were paying a visit to Ipswich just 14 months after leaving. Again it was if they were still here and the conversation picked up where it had never left off.

It is a testament to enduring friendships that this can be the case. I hope that in 21 years I will still be in touch with some of my University chums.

The one lasting friendship I have is that of my wife of 35 years. That is my yardstick.

Going forward I’d like to think I can kindle friendships in my newly defined business sector. I have recently started business friendships with Kodak and Metro Imaging. I’d like to think I have another 20 years shooting in me to nurture these friendships. Certainly I’ll glad to be able to carry on shooting on Kodak negative film for the next 20 years. I’ll get plenty of practice in now that I can dictate when and how I work photographically.

Of course I’ll be shooting digital and using analogue to digital workflows  but that is the way it is these day- an amalgam  just as it was in the pioneering days of photography.