Going Rogue — Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England

Photo by: Olimpio Fantuz

For over a decade, any time I find an image that speaks to me in some way, I save it in a folder on my desktop called "rogue." I 'don't know why, but I just love the word; the way it sounds, what it represents — often someone with wild tendencies who chooses to move away from the herd. I once had a very emo blog called "rogue as a postcard: capturing this existence." Yes, you can actually click upon that link and read it. It's a bit embarrassing, but having just found it and then skimming through it, the words and images still touch me deeply. This silly little blog still captures a lot of who I am, what I care about, and why I want my creative work to be focused on uncovering the "beauty in the blur." I adore slightly creepy photos, poetry with infinite interpretations, and song lyrics of longing, and then combining them together to create a story that didn't exist before that moment. Words and imagery have a unique synergy when merged that they just don't when alone — and I think that's really beautiful.

So — what does any of that have to do with this photo? This is one of those images that felt a bit eerie and strange but deeply beautiful when I discovered it years back, but until today when I did a reverse image search on Google, I had no idea what the location was or who it took it. Turns out, it was an incredibly talented landscape photographer named Olimpio Fantuz and it was taken in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England — not all that far from my brand new home in London. It is now at the top of my travel bucket list.

I love when things like this happen. I very randomly choose to write about this photo today, only to discover that this particular image that spoke to me years ago is now just outside my doorstep as of a few weeks ago. When’s the last time you had a serendipitous moment like this?