This is a photograph of me. It wasn't actually taken by me, to state the blindingly obvious, but by my girlfriend Jo. It shows me sitting upon a hillside on Amantani, a remote island that lies far from the shores of Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake.

The photo is special to me for a number of reasons, it symbolises several different things simultaneously. As I write this accompanying text I am seven months into a one-year around-the-world adventure. It may seem strangely conceited to have chosen an image of myself as a favourite when I have had the opportunity to capture on film any number of more impressive sights during my travels but allow me to explain.

Firstly, and all modesty disappears here, the photograph appeals to me because it shows me in a good light. Literally. The clear yet subtle golden light cast by the sun, low on the horizon, at 4,000 metres above sea level. I have, almost uniquely in this photo, avoided the normally irresistible temptation to pull a "funny face" in an attempt to dissolve the embarrassment of posing. I'm not squinting too much and I like to think that the funny Peruvian hat lends an air of the exotic to my otherwise plain Anglo-Saxon features.

But the photo conveys so much more to me than just a pleasing view of myself. It represents the successful culmination of a series of decisions that allowed me to be photographed in such a splendid and beautiful location in the first place. In order to embark upon this year of travel I had first to find the courage of my convictions.

I had to hand in my notice at a well-paid job in which I was very happy, I had to decide to leave family and friends behind for twelve months as well as to wave goodbye to those familiar things which bring so much reassurance and comfort to our daily lives; TV's, comfy sofas, washing machines, a wardrobe of clothes, familiar streets and shops, telephones, neighbours, a garden, etc. etc. I had to surrender myself to the unfamiliar, unpredictable and uncontrollable events that are inescapable when travelling. I had to be prepared to face the challenges presented by unfamiliar cultures, strange languages, unusual customs, uncomfortable transport and, more often than not, lumpy mattresses. I had to invest the small amount of savings that I'd managed to accumulate in twenty years of employment and be prepared to exist solely upon it. I had, in short, to be prepared to swap safety and security for vulnerability and uncertainty and I had to do so with a smile.

Not that the sacrifices might not produce equal or greater rewards. Of course, that was why I was doing it. But at the point at which I left my salaried position and handed over the keys to my house such rewards were no more than an aspiration, a dream, a possibility. There were no guarantees. Whilst the prospect of such a journey was hugely attractive, there is, quite literally, a world of difference between dreaming about it and actually doing it.

And so this photo serves as evidence of two things. Firstly, it serves as proof that I did indeed find the courage to gamble everything on the fulfillment of a life-long ambition. Secondly, it proves that the gamble paid off. At the moment the shutter clicked, capturing my image on that rugged Peruvian island, it also captured the very essence of my journey. If there could be a definitive image of my year's travelling then this would be it. All of the places I have visited, the people I have met and the scenes I have witnessed are captured, in some small but unique way, within me, they will stay, hopefully, in my memory for the remainder of my days. Throughout my travels the one thing that has remained constant has been me. As Buddhists so accurately and concisely observe, "Wherever you go, there you are".

If you look very, very carefully then you can see, reflected in my eyes, all of the images that constitute my journey. In there somewhere are the snow-capped mountains of Tierra-del-Fuego, the lush meadows of Patagonia, the ancient Inca ruins of Macchu Pichu, the dusty plains of South America's Altiplano, the azure seas and crimson skies of South Pacific islands. You will see the footprints that I left upon the surface of a glacier in New Zealand; the swiftly-changing, early-morning light that held me spell-bound during an Ayres Rock dawn, the blurred colours of traffic whizzing backwards past the windows of a speeding tuk-tuk in Thailand. If I'm smiling then I'm simply echoing the smiles of dozens of friendly people that I've met, mirroring the laughter of a lady dancing in Samoa, the giggle of a woman bus driver in Tahiti.

Sure, it's a nice enough photo on it's own and from the point of view that it doesn't make me look too gruesome it will probably find itself sitting in a frame on my mantlepiece - just as soon as I have a mantlepiece! But when I look at it I don't just see myself or the memory of a pleasing day, I see the memory of a hundred pleasing days and more. For all the discomfort and uncertainty, for this photo alone, it was more than worth it.

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