Ah, the heartache that this flesh is heir to!
It’s fine this photography business when the creative juices are flowing - but what do you do when they congeal? I’ve had this nasty feeling that my own juices were at least thickening over the past year or so but managed to displace that with all the interminable business that comes with moving house. Why take photos when the loft needs boarding out?
But I can no longer dissemble. On the Photographs page of this website is the work that I have been doing over the last two or three years. It’s largely finished now and I have been feeling a bit stale and that I really need to move on to something new. But what?
Fortunately, help was at hand. I’ve been a keen reader of The Online Photographer website for a number of years. It’s a must, in my view, for all those wishing to improve their photographic bandwidth. The chap who writes it, Mike Johnston, has spent a lifetime in photography and photographic journalism so knows what he is writing about and knows how to write about it. Many of the people who comment on his posts are pretty knowledgeable too. I’ve picked up all manner of useful and interesting info there and, as chance would have it, the site came good again this time.
So the question is: how to overcome Photographer’s Block?
Digital etiquette requires I think that I should not steal Mike’s thunder. However, if you look here you will see the first of three posts about what he calls “A Little Game”. He explains this fully but the idea is to have a good look at the work you have done and then to make a list of at least 25 categories that you often shoot. The categories, if I have understood him right, do not have to be subject matter. For example this photo below could be: portrait, colour, square format and/or street performance.
I set to with this task and found that 25 only took about ten minutes! So I went back and kept going. The next step in The Little Game is here. But that and part three are for next month. And don’t cheat and go looking ahead. The whole exercise is best not rushed. (Also - there’s nothing like a cliffhanger, eh?)