trusting inspiration

 

I picked up the camera so many times and looked through the viewfinder.  Maybe fired off a couple of frames half-heartedly.  Sometimes I deleted them in the camera, but there are hundreds more sitting on my hard drive, unedited, unviewed.  The light stopped speaking to me.  The camera body no longer fit my hands like a beloved tool.

If I can’t see images, how can I think of myself as a photographer?  Worse yet, what does it say about the way I’ve filled my life, if it doesn’t inspire so much as a snapshot?

It was a long way to fall.  I finished a 365 project last October, totally inspired, totally proud of myself, totally grateful.  It is a powerful exercise to keep your eye and heart attuned to the beautiful and the remarkable in the midst of your everyday life.  To have a photographic record of your progress over a year.  To begin to see yourself as an artist.

But with the year up, I stopped shooting every day.  I stopped being so mindful.  I bought myself a fancy new camera but immediately lost my courage.  It is a Serious Camera.  In my head this camera deserved to shoot Serious Things instead of my everyday life.  I shot less.  I felt it as a little death, this loss of a fledgling creative life.  It’s not the sort of thing you hold a wake for though.  No one brings you red wine and casseroles while you wonder why your eyes don’t work anymore.  There was grief but it was mine alone.

But recently I’ve started to notice shadows again.  There is the color of autumn leaves.  There are long eyelashes and kids in mismatched prints and wet dog noses.  My eyes are hungry.  My hands are a little itchy for the heavy camera body, even though it still feels awkward in my grip sometimes.  I’ve started carrying it with me again, so I’m ready when it calls to me.

I’m starting to understand that it wasn’t a death after all.  It was just the change of seasons.  I’m starting to believe that just as I know that autumn always follows summer, I can trust inspiration and vision to return.

Have you ever had a dry spell?  How did you work your way out of it?  What inspired you to start again?

Image and words courtesy of the wonderful Corinna Robbins of Bird Wanna Whistle.

A Dream In Tangible Form

The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. -James Allen

Sometimes there is something that happens, some big thing (light a lightning bolt of awareness) or some small thing (a sight or smell or sound) that reminds you of the tiny seed of a dream you once had. You're taken back to the time when that seed just began to take shape and you can trace back the markers along the way; the little successes, the setbacks, and the many milestones. You are reminded of the journey and how nothing was ever wasted and that what you knew and felt, intangibly, deep in your heart would eventually be made tangible in some way.

Shutter Sisters began as a seed of a dream. And now, here I am sharing my thoughts in a hotel room at our second Shutter Sisters gathering, Oasis. Today, tonight, this week, I am reminded that this dream of mine has come true, in large part, because of all of you; those of you sharing this special time at Oasis with us, and those of you who are sharing this sacred space online with us every day. You are all my dream weavers. You have shown me my dream in tangible form. I am deeply grateful.

What do you dream of today? Share the seed and let's watch it grow together.

gathering leaves

 Spades take up leaves

No better than spoons,

And bags full of leaves

Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise

Of rustling all day

Like rabbit and deer

Running away. 

But the mountains I raise

Elude my embrace,

Flowing over my arms

And into my face.

I may load and unload

Again and again

Till I fill the whole shed,

And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,

And since they grew duller

From contact with earth,

Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.

But a crop is a crop,

And who's to say where

The harvest shall stop?" 

-Robert Frost

Tis the season when everything changes. When leaves change from green to gold and trees move slowly from full to barren. When the air grows cool and crisp and days get shorter. It's the season where routine begins to take hold and harvest begins.

Share today the bounty of the season by way of leaves. Each holds it's own unique beauty. In shape, in color, in size, in stage of life; just as it is with each one of us. Let's celebrate the glorious leaf today, with all of it's inspiring intricacies.

We are excited to begin yet another month of photo prompts. Won't you play along with us? All you need to do is shoot and share and tag your shots #shuttersisters for all to enjoy! \We are excited to begin yet another month of photo prompts. Won't you play along with us? All you need to do is shoot and share and tag your shots #shuttersisters for all to enjoy! Happy Autumn!

shoes

These shoes were made for walking. Or running, dancing, kicking up...you get the picture. Check out all the fabulous shoes we are seeing today in our Instagram feed. Share yours and see it here today by tagging your shoe shots with our tag #shuttersisters.

Walk on...

From the Street by Kriti Bajaj

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This collection of images from Kriti Bajaj is the perfect depiction of perspectives seen and captured from the street. Kriti writes of her travels this past summer, "I visited 8 towns/cities in 6 countries. Here are some of my favorite photos from Bruges, Belgium: a town that felt like it was straight out of a Jane Austen novel, but far more colorful!"

Today as you shoot and share, let our prompt be your inspiration as you capture your own perspective "from the street".

Photo essay courtesy of Kriti Bajaj. You can find her at Framed and Focused or on Facebook.