What to do when you don’t feel like photographing

I had a very intense year of photography in 2013. I photographed in the Outer Banks for a week, took six different trips to Big Bend, did a two week tour of four states in the southwest in October, and went to Death Valley for a week in December. By the time 2014 got here I had done all of the photography that I wanted to do. I was officially in the photographer’s doldrums and no matter what I couldn’t get in the mood to photograph. Some friends and I had two separate photography exhibits and not even that could get me out of the slump that I was in. I finally broke out of the doldrums last week and started taking an active interest in photography again. 

The reader might be wondering what I did to recover from my malady. Did I start doing yoga? Did I start meditation? Did I force myself to make images? No, I didn’t do any of those things. In fact, I didn’t put much thought into it. I had other things to do and I knew that I would eventually come back to my cameras and start making images again. While traveling back home from Minot, ND I started making images. I planned a photography stop in Wyoming but ended up making images in South Dakota, Wyoming, and New Mexico. By the time I got to Colorado it was dark otherwise I would’ve made an image or two there. Once I had framed the first image and heard the shutter click I was engaged in the act of photography again.

If you are in a photographers slump, don’t sweat it. Keep your camera close and some day, out of the blue, you will see something that you will want to photograph. 

I’ll try to be a little more diligent about posting to my blog as well.

This image was made in New Mexico on the second day of my drive home