Personally, I shoot on everything from phones to 12mp slrs with a large archive of film. The film is constantly being scanned and both the scans and current digital work are often backed up via numerous drives and discs to make sure that they are there, should anybody be interested, in the future. At the same time, all over the world, people are doing the same. They store low res on the internet on various websites, and some even store high up there, and all kinds of sizes are backed up in many ways offline. With regards to pioneers like John Thomson, how many more like him had their glass plates smashed or lost or degraded in the last 100+ years? If it had been digital, and backed up, I think we would get to see even more of history so I’m not too worried about our present being preserved for future generations. i think it’s doing ok as it is.

Aside from that there are still people today who work like John Thomson. Have you seen Simon Norfolk’s photographs of Afghanistan which he took on a massive big wooden camera? And I’m sure there are plenty more who still wander the world, with quality gear, documenting lands and people and events because that’s what they want to do or feel they have to do. And I think that will always carry on. And what do we lose if a few journalist’s mobile photos of Cheryl Cole won’t blow up to a metre high print in 2150?

Anyway, you’re only using it as an excuse to yourself for wanting to buy a Leica!

Every other person I meet claims to be a budding photographer, many of them buy an expensive camera, some even take some photos. But almost none of them have that need to. Almost none of them have that burning thing inside which you have – that which makes you stress out about not creating the images you want to create, and worrying about what stops you. It’s the side-effect of creative genius.

As for your fears – it’s never about overcoming them – because that suggests they’ll go away when you get your head straight – it’s about overriding them with stronger emotions. If, at the moment you want to press the button, all you can feel is the fear of the situation and the anxiety of that moment, then you can’t move forward.

You’ll probably never lose that feeling which rises up and wants to block you the moment you want to act on the impulse, but you have to drown it in the feeling of success you’ll have from taking the shot. The retrospective pleasure you’ll have for years to come on the picture you take, just as you have with those stunning images above.

Instead of beating yourself up about it afterwards, you need to learn to beat yourself up at the time. In that instant when you need to make a decision to take a photograph, and every fibre of your being is making you chicken out, you need to jump forward in time to tomorrow and think about how annoyed you’ll be that you didn’t bother.

You have to harness that feeling of regret from the future, and tell yourself not to live a life of missed opportunity. There are far, far harder things in life than taking a photograph, and far, far more risky things to do. You’ll feel fantastic afterwards, and you’ll be able to use that to make the next photo ever so slightly easier.

Good luck.