Quiet Time

Work and family life have been more of my focus since returning from Washington. I have been feeling a lack in motivation and creative energy to pick up my camera. I know this feeling all too well, a creative funk has arrived once again.

I have made an honest effort to go outside and enjoy those first beautiful morning hours at our local peak with my camera. But to be honest, the handful of images I shot felt empty. I can’t even recall what they looked like or what was the subject matter. As I have done in the past, I dove into the social media platforms to hopefully become inspired by the surge of fall color imagery from the community. Hopefully that would kick start my creative juices once again. What I found this time around was that it did the complete opposite. Maybe it was a bit of jealousy, maybe it was seeing work that was resoundingly new. Either way, I felt a bit more separated from the craft than I had thought and wanted to be. My biggest fear was what if my creative juices don’t return for months, a year or ever? Perhaps this this leads me to another outlet altogether (creative or not). The creative arts, especially photography, has always been my place of peace and solitude so the idea that I couldn’t find shelter within it truly scares me.

After listening to a few podcasts with some of my favorite photographers discussing the subject of creative dry spells, I took their advice to simply relax and ride it out. Additionally, I decided to stay off of social media until Spring with the exception of checking in once a week to see if any messages were left for me on my social media. The hope being that if/when I do come out of this funk, I will have uninterrupted quiet time to focus solely on the craft. I may post some writings here and there here on my website so stay tuned.

Until next time, take care. - Marco