Getting out of a creative slump
I was curious to see how many photographers get into a creative slump. By this I mean when you don't feel like picking up a camera and shooting anything. Or when you feel that it's time to start a project, but your ideas wether materialized or still just floating around in your head, just don't turn out to be what you originally had envisioned. What are the ways you have overcome this? How can you prevent it?
~nate
"Explore that which you would resist." Or, "What you resist -persists." It can take years to "get" what seems like irksome platitudes like "Just seeing is enough." However, they aen't like a defibulator that may shock you back into life. Never the less when used throughout the day bothersome thoughts of cultural imprintings gradually disapate so as to liberate one for fresh outlooks. Apparently you suffer from an internally imposed expectation with a consequential dis-appointment. Are you at choice or is it doing it to you?
Personally, I enjoy backcountry adventures and love nature first and foremost...photography second. So it has never been an issue as such - I tend to just record (with my vision) what natural light gives me. But, sometimes to motivate myself and procure some more creative juices I take out my rangefinder or DSLR and do photography projects not related to Landscape Photography...I would go out and shoot classic cars for example. I would also do candid street photography and pretend I was Henri Cartier-Bresson.. It's fun, and helps me see compositions/techniques that I've never thought of using before and now I can apply to my Landscapes.
Originally Posted by nbattlesfoto
Just pick up a camera and start shooting... The first one mightn't be a keeper, but I find I get there with a bit of practice. I firmly believe that creativity is about being in touch with your inner self, and often creative blocks are caused by being caught up in your head too much with too much stress and thoughts... If I am caught up in work, it takes a couple of hours or walks in the bush to let go, and find my creative self again. Dombroskis talks about his creativity coming only after a few days into a longer wilderness sojourn. There have been some great threads on this topic too, which are worth searching for.
I wrote an article about this on my blog which can be accessed here.
It was written from the perspective of a musician / composer at a panel discussion at Woodford Folk Festival on Overcoming Creative Blocks.
Enjoy,
Len
A couple ideas.
We have an exercise we beg students at Fine Focus Workshops to adopt: Make it a habit to set aside time to make one, and only one, photograph a day. This is in addition to any other photography one might undertake. Make this one special, and take a good, long time to make it the very best. Friend Richard Ritter mounted a very impressive show from a year's worth of one-a-days.
"Charge the Ambush." I knew a guy who adopted that strategy as a grunt in Vietnam on night patrols. He figured if he ran away, he'd probably be killed, but if he charged the ambush, he might survive. He did. Now, he says, he has no reason to put anything off, because any reason he can rationalize for procrastinating pales. When I remember to charge my own ambushes, they usuallly aren't as terrible as I imagined. It appplies to going out photographing.
Define projects. In a rigorous way, including what you plan to produce, how many, what size, etc. Get all those details decided, then go make the pictures. I find it enormously liberating to "limit" myself by making many of the other decisions in advance, and have a specific mission when I go out. If I feel stuck, I define a really small project that I can accomplish quickly and have satisfaction. I use projects to learn technical stuff: "print with Azo," or "test new wide-angle." Anything that advances my skills and abilities is fair game, and usually gets the juices flowing. I even made up a worksheet to help myself out. It works.
My way of seeing whether I'm getting into a slump is my blog. That's because it goes to show when I've taken photo's, of what, how many, etc.
I think it was two months without a blog. I took very few photo's, and I only got out of the slump by photographing MJ. Now I'm trying hard to get back into things and start the 'summer project' I've only just been given before term start of a new course on the 24th.
Hopefully the course will force me to avoid any further slumps
I just do something else until I feel like taking photographs again.
Art is like food, when you are hungry enough, you will Art.
Doyle
Yup. When you're ready you'll start making photos again.
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