Mid-Winter Blues

So we are now coming to the end of January. I have to say that this year, December and this month have been particularly dreary and photographically un-inspiring. Here in the UK apart from the very rare (probably a handful) of days illuminated by the winter sun it has been dark, dank, damp and particularly horrible.

However, I cannot blame the British weather for all my inactivity on the photographic front. I have been largely lethargic and uninspired. I have been restricted in getting out and about by a foot injury and my vision and imagination have been blocked by my (thus far unsuccessful) attempts to find a subject for my Royal Photographic Society associateship panel. I have however enjoyed printing up my photographs with my new Epson printer, and I have enjoyed catching up with my processing. But as far as new material is concerned, the last couple of months have been a creative drought.

Then I saw an article in this month’s Fujilove magazine by Ian MacDonald who talks about ensuring that we make time for our creative side, be it photography, painting, music or some other activity. He says that time can pass very quickly in the modern world with all the responsibilities that we have and before we realize, it can be weeks even since we last pursued our creative hobbies.
Ian says, that our photography etc., “…are the things, however that balance and centre us so that we can focus on everything else. These are things that we need to make time for.”

Ian also makes the point that we need to use our creativity in order to strengthen it. We need to immerse ourselves in our craft, whilst still fulfilling our daily responsibilities.

What particularly spoke to me in his article, in my current uninspired and creatively lazy state is that he reminds us that we should not wait for motivation and inspiration to automatically come to us.
“The truth”, he says, “is that motivation often follows effort, so just start doing the work, and let motivation and inspiration find you.”

So, I am going to set my RPS associate panel to one side for a while. I’m just going to get out there and do what I enjoy – taking photographs and work my way to the motivation and inspiration that I need.

Ian’s article is in the January issue of the subscription-only  Fujilove magazine.