Monday 15 February 2010

Getting out of the doldrums

I know that we all go through those periods when we fall out with our photography. We struggle to see what the point is, why we're doing it and we wonder if we'll ever make a decent image again. Couple that with the inevitable destructive practice of comparing our work with others and that's it – photography depression.

Well, I've been suffering with this for the past few weeks, after a good period of photo-making running up to new year and a burst of enthusiasm for all things creative in the new year, things have gone a bit.... flat.

So this morning, having woken up late having not slept well last night, I was feeling rather miserable. I didn't want to stay in and work on stuff I didn't want to work on, I was sick of sitting about not wanting to do anything so, by midday, I'd managed to muster the motivation to go out with the camera.

I was out with Paul Arthur a couple of weeks ago at the Roaches at the south end of the Peak District, where I thought I'd made a good photo only to discover when I processed it that something had gone horribly wrong with the exposure (I'm guessing I'd nudged the aperture ring round to the wrong setting, I couldn't have got the metering that wrong!). So I decided to return there for another go as near by webcams were showing up some fog which I needed to make the composition work.

Although there was no fog when I arrived, meaning my second attempt at the photo wasn't going to be today, my little outing made me realise how important landscape photography is to me on a number of levels.

It's easy to get dejected sitting at home, thinking about creative direction, about the next stunning location where your most brilliant photograph is waiting ready for you to rock up and take. The fact is, it's not going to happen, imagine all you like, you've got to be out there, and chances are, the next great photo you make is probably not going to be something you've pondered over, it's just going to be something that arises from being out in the field, working at a composition that's presented itself. So I realised whilst I was out there today, standing in the rain, that new ideas present themselves whilst your out 'in the zone' – forced to look for new ideas due to the weather I decided to make some black and white images which I think could make for an interesting series of photos. I wouldn't have come up with that sitting sulking at home watching re-runs of the news on Sky and eating mini chocolate eggs!

Photos aside, it's just good to get out there, it's great to see how the colours of the moss and heather intensify in the rain – and there's no cup of coffee like the one from a flask after you've climbed your way up a muddy slope :o)

Another good thing about getting out there to do some photography is the drive there and back – it's a great opportunity to have a think about life and get some ideas going in your mind about how to get things moving and how to get yourself out of your creative hole.

So hopefully by motivating myself to get out for the afternoon I've come back with a couple of decent sheets of T-Max, if not, I've got myself an idea for a project and I got some exercise out in the rain!