I Need a Photo Project and a Nap... Definitely a Nap

I feel a bit remiss lately and it’s because my photo content has been down. Honestly I haven’t been shooting a lot lately. I haven’t done a photo for PhotoTime Tuesday in two (or three) weeks now. Theme Thursday didn’t have any challenges for the past two weeks and who can blame them with the Thursdays falling on Christmas and New Years. I even skipped Photo Friday the day after Christmas. I think there’s a few reasons for the slump. Lets see… it’s cold, the days are short, I am busy trying to find a better job, lack of inspiration, and my ACM has been acting up and let me tell you that trying to shoot while having headaches and vertigo just isn’t fun. I’m in a creative slump. Maybe it’s the winter. I don’t know. I need to come up with some fun stuff to do photographically.

I need to get out with Geren, Tom and Tony and do an all day photo shoot like we were doing. Ah the good old days when we’d hop in the car, pick a direction and head off to find what we could find. No specific goal other than to fill a memory card or two, or shoot a roll of twenty-four exposures and just hang out. I’ve gotten some great stuff when shooting with those guys, like the day Geren and I ended up in Savage, MD photographing the Bollman Iron Truss Bridge and the ruins. Of course this time of year there is that “cold factor” to contend with and digital cameras – specifically the batteries – aren’t to fond of the cold. Neither am I for that matter. I do have photos to post from the holidays, but they seem like old news now and are probably better left for our scrapbooks. It’s just pics of the Christmas tree, the cats and wrapping paper, fun with the nieces and nephews… stuff like that. Not art or really creative by any means, but fun and cute and they do give a glimpse into our lives. I have to admit that I get torn when posting photos of our daily life and it’s not because they are photos of us – I did post a nude of myself after all – it’s because they are simply photos of just our daily life. Snap shots if you will. My photo for today’s Theme Thursday challenge falls in that category. It’s not my best photo – although my brother and his wife think it’s one of my best – but it is a cute photo and it’s of people I love dearly and it brings back fond memories of a great summer day. I think that’s what really matters. I guess I started to feel pressure to post mostly art photos sometime late last summer. Every image can’t be better than the last and not every photo will be high art. That’s just too much pressure and I can’t handle that much pressure. ACK! PRESSURE! Tweek… twitch. I do prefer to shoot the more artsy stuff. I enjoy the creative process of it… when I am not in a slump. I don’t know. Call it a presentation hang-up if you want to. I just get really picky when it comes to my photography and what to post and what not to post. That is the question. I always want to post the best images I can and I do set the bar pretty high for myself, and I am very critical of myself. I know that Jenne and several friends who would readily agree with that statement. I think that I am just going to start posting and sharing whatever I want to, and so what if it’s not my best image ever and if it’s not all artsy. Trust me though, when I make any photo I always consider composition, angle, lighting, color or B&W, and all that photography jazz. It’s always in my oversized melon of a noggin. I put my all even into the snap shots and even when buzzed on Zombies at Honolulus, and as Homer Simpson would say "... less artsy, more fartsy!" It is my blog after all and I can post what I want too. Maybe I could more easily get beyond my own hang up if I were to break down my one photography category into divisions or sub-categories so I could separate the art and the non-art (for lack of a better phrase). Realistically not all photography is art, although it can all be fun. Lets see I could call one category ‘Artsy’ for that artsy creative stuff. I could call another category ‘Fartsy’ for those daily living images of home stuff, work and day to day life. ‘Creatures Great & Small’ for our cats and other animals. ‘Family & Friends’ for… well for our families and friends. There has to be a ‘Civil War’ category and a ‘SciFi & Fantasy’ category too. Of course I could call the ‘SciFi & Fantasy’ category ‘High Geekness’ instead. And what photography blog would be complete without ‘Nudes’? That sounds like the start of my first subscription web site… BRUAHAHAHA! Well maybe password protected at the least. Just kidding… or am I? Those sub-categories are just for a start. I am sure that as I take and post photos other categories would develop. Honestly I have to do something to move me forward photographically and to get me out of this creative slump. I really need a photo day or a project… and a nap would be good too. I definately need a nap.