Yes, that is a photo of the sky. Let me explain.

I was set the task this week of photographing my idea of happiness which is a pretty big ask to capture in a single image. Just off the top of my head I can think of many things that make me happy, running around in the park playing Rugby with my Nephew, drinking a cold pear cider while sitting in an English country pub garden with my best mates catching up, seeing my Dad laugh at episode of Only Fools and Horses that he's seen a million times before... can I sum all that up and a lot more in one picture? I don't think so. Happiness is different for everyone, those thoughts make me smile and I enjoy those times when they happen, but do they all add up to happiness or is it something more that can be cancelled out by negative things happening in life?

Don't worry, I'm not going to go off on one trying to figure out the 'meaning' of happiness so I'll explain how I came to the image of the beautiful blue sky. When I was first set this challenge for the 'Whiskey and Things' - Shot of The Week by 'RachOnToast' I started thinking about what happiness was and when I was most happy, and as I explained above, it's tough to narrow down, but what I did realise, is that many moments when I'm remembering the good times, happy moments in my life, when I realise how lucky I am, I find myself looking up.

We spend our whole lives looking down at things, right now I'm looking down at my keyboard as I type, or I'm looking down at my phone, or I'm looking DOWN at the screen on my camera to make sure something's in focus, or looking DOWN at where I'm walking so I don't tread in any dog turds in the street... and that's just a few minutes of my day, and I'm sure it's that same for most people. When it's a nice sunny day and I'm not rushed off my feet looking down doing at things then I find myself looking up, taking a deep breath and thinking, everything is pretty sweet for me right now, life is good, and I reflect a bit on why that is and be totally aware that it may change at any second.  

I remember once walking down Sunset Strip in LA and few years back listening to Frank Turner on my iPod after seeing a show at The Roxy, happy that I was in an awesome place doing something I loved, and what was I doing when I was thinking this?... looking up, no joke. A few weeks ago I was working in London on a warm sunny day and had an hour to kill so decided to walk through Hyde Park, and I remember again looking up, getting the sun on my face and thinking about the things that were going right and why I was happy. Try it, stop looking down so much, look up when you get the chance and think about why things are good right now, and if you can't think of anything, then it'll probably help you work out how to change things.

So yeah, it's a photo of the sky this week, but hey, I love clouds, they're pretty, ever morphing and I can look at them for hours. Also in this shot is a plane heading West which is where so many of my happiest memories were made from my touring days in my 20's, playing music around North America and making some life long buddies to add to the amazing friends and family I already had here in the UK. Happiness in one image... the above is often what I'm looking at when I'm experiencing it. Thanks for reading.