And Then There Was Nothing

“Bricked Up” Shot with the LENKA app on iPhone, no further editing


As I mentioned in my post "Looking Back Over My Shoulder", I am putting together sets of images for an assignment so I was out again today with my camera and our dog Ben. We went to the same forest as we did yesterday because that is the only one in walking distance and our car was not available today.

The weather was still the same — overcast and very little sun. But as I was shooting with the 35mm only yesterday (not on purpose, it just happened that way) I thought I’d use the 50mm today and just get closer, for which the even light of an overcast day might be okay.

So again we walked all over the place and a few times I saw something, but it never really talked to me. So before I got really frustrated I thought why this was happening. I couldn’t believe there were no images in the forest that day. And I also couldn’t say that on my second day out for that assignment I’d be all stressed out already (I got at least two months for doing this). So why didn’t I see anything?

The day before it was totally different. Both Ben and I were very enthusiastic and walked through nature looking left and right, up and back all the time. And I found at least two things I liked, photographed and published. But today — nada. Zilch. Niente. Nothing.

And at some point, I thought it just had to be me. That somehow I wasn’t open to views that day. Maybe the mostly overcast skies of the past few weeks got to me, a cold that was neither really there nor done with. Whatever. But most importantly I thought that I shouldn’t beat myself up over it.

You can’t force art. And for something like this you certainly need to be in the mood. Usually, I am thinking about life and art and all the good stuff most of my waking hours. But sometimes the magic just doesn’t happen and all you bring home is a picture of a bricked up window on your way home.

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