Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Sep 11, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Richard S. Taylor wrote: > So "power through it" is the advice. Anybody just take a week or > two off? > TAKE A WEEK OR TWO OFF!?!? Hell, I got a PAW to do! I remember a comedian (maybe George Carlin) years ago talking about the hospitalization of a celebrity for exhauation. He said, ?Exhaustion!! Now?s THERE?S a rich man?s disease!? I spent 15+ years as photog for the smallest daily in North Carolina? town of 10,000, less than 3X5 miles. After a few years, I burned out, just couldn?t get inspired. I couldn?t just quit, so I looked harder and took photos I didn?t like as much, but I kept plugging away due to bad habits (eating and sleeping under a heated roof, that sort of thing). After a while, the eye and inspiration came back. It went away and returned periodically for the rest of my time there. Still does, but it aggravates more than scares me now. So, I guess discipline is my cure for the blahs. Discipline for some is prayer or meditation. It?s a routine that becomes part of what centers you. The PAW is a good way to focus, it?s a good discipline. It is sometimes the thing that makes you get the camera out of the bag. If you make yourself do it for a while without waiting for inspiration, you will find it part of your life, not just something you do to produce pictures. Move beyond inspiration. Maybe this is just a verbose way of saying: "Keep pushing that shutter release, it will come unstuck." Ric Carter http://gallery.leica-users.org/f/Passing-Fancies