Brown bear cub photo, Katmai National Park, Alaska
Lately it seems like I have had a bit of attention deficit disorder in my posts and in my photography as well. In between working some orders for clients, I would pick a few images, work on them, get a bit bored, and move on to something new. I have probably started and stopped a half dozen posts of so of ideas that started, but never quite came to clear conclusions. I have have a few projects in the works, but not enough material to formulate where I am headed with them yet.
It is a situation that reminded me of this moment with this bear cub. While waiting around for some fish to be brought to shore by Mom, the cub would wander around, sniff rocks, and gnaw on this branch. The cub would again wander off, and then wander back, gnaw on the stick some more. He (she?) really didn’t seem to know what to do until that fish was on shore, but just kept returning to that stick. It was coming back to something familiar. Is it just a way to pass the time, or does it serve some purpose?
In a lot of ways, I see similarities in this little story to how I have been working on photography . Sometimes there is a nice juicy fish to dig into (like a new lens , new project, client order or idea) and stay with for awhile. Food that nourishes, food that replenishes body and soul. However, when its done, it is back to where I was. I am just wandering around gnawing on familiar sticks. I am not sure how much nutrition that is providing other than just keeping my teeth clean. I am certainly fishing for myself, but the meals are leaving me hungry. Perhaps this is part of the process of discovering new and different nourishment?
Whatever it is, bear with me. Sometimes you will see splinters from the stick, other times maybe some leftovers of the fish. And if I should find a new delicacy, I will certainly be writing about it here. 🙂
p.s.
I have had some comment spam get through lately and have implemented a new control. One of these yahoos really hit the blog hard last night. There is a checkbox in the comments section that you need to mark stating you are NOT a spammer. It is a small extra step, but from what I have read it is effective for now. There is nothing I hate worse than to think someone checked the box to be notified of new comments and then some spammer ends up sending something to a reader through my site. So sorry if any of that got through to you.
Really great post, Mark — a really creative way to share your mindset. I love the analogy as well, and clearly it connects with many of your readers. It’s definitely frustrating when I feel like I’m spending all of my time gnawing, but I do often find that whatever I’ve been unproductively gnawing on often comes out better in the end — and often seemingly by random inspiration that I might not have gotten to had I not been chewing for so long.
I love the shot of the cub too! It’s just too cute — especially since it seems to be using its paw to keep possession that very important stick!
Thanks Pat – I was somewhat going out on a limb on this analogy, glad it clicked with some. ;-p
I can sure relate to gnawing on a stick myself. At times I seem to lose total focus and just meander around playing with an image here and there knowing good well I am not making progress on anything, but keep returning to “the stick”. With the good one must be willing to take the bad, with the productive times one must understand the unproductive times. I guess it’s all part of the learning and growing process.
Fortunately there are plenty of sticks around Brad. Thanks for stopping by to comment.
Alright…now it worked twice.
Sorry for the spam problems. It seems they get to EVERYONE eventually. 🙁
Hmmm…for some reason I don’t seem able to post my comment now…
Sorry for the spam problems. It seems they get to EVERYONE eventually. 🙁
I know the feeling well. Thanks for putting it into words so I don’t have to.
Mark, I’ve come to believe it’s part of the process of growth. There are times I feel much the same way, believing no real progress is being made only later to understand this period was mostly a part of the journey.
I’ve found I often learn more about myself during these unsettled periods.
Perhaps Earl, or I am just headed into producing a lot of junk. 🙂
Great this blog and wonderfull the photographes!
thanks for the beauty
Thank you Petra.
Hey Mark
Interesting way to tie 2 ideas together – the bear’s and your own deficit disorder. 🙂
I need to blog about this very subject; I’ll post something in a few days, I hope.
Cheers
Carl
Hey Carl – thanks for stopping by. Blog about which subject – my ADD or more bears? And since you have already done the latter in spades, I don’t know if you should be doing an exposé on me quite yet. 🙂
There seems to be this restlessness prevailing in many artists/photographers lately, myself included. I don’t fully understand what’s at the root of it, but I am sure growth as an artist….as a person…..will result. I blame Alaska! How can you be content with a relatively mundane regular life after experiencing such power, such beauty….everything else pales in comparison.
Thanks for your thoughts Roberta. Alaska does provoke inspiration for sure when you can turn 360 degrees and be in awe, or spend 6 hours in the field with Grizzly bears. Now I see squirrels and the occasional deer. 🙂
I don’t know quite what is at the root either. I know many that only travel to the grand places because they cannot be inspired at home. I am not convinced yet that I cannot find things here that are just as magical, but different.
Bummer about the spammers… sorry they got to you 🙁
You’re not the only one going through this. The holidays and the coming winter frequently bring out the melancholy in me. I think part of it is the reminder that the year is nearly done, and I start looking back at my year, and feeling like I need to catch up… but that I’m out of time. Plus, with the holidays there’s the illusion of some extra free time in which to catch up. 🙂
I think that inspiration is definitely where you find it. I have a lot of trouble getting myself inspire when I’m *at* home, because it’s in the city, but the area around my home never fails. I found plenty of inspiration in Maryland, even though the grandest mountains there were the Shenandoahs. Now the challenge isn’t finding places to inspire me that are close to home, but rather deciding on which muse to follow on a given day 🙂
Mark, what a creative, insightful posting. I can SO relate to all your thoughts. As you point out, the trick is to keep “picking up the stick.”
For me, I think working in Lightroom is part of the problem (“part” being the key word as there are many other things that factor in). I use to work primarily in Photoshop and did one photo at a time which made it a more thoughtful process as I chose carefully, the image I wanted to work on. Now, I experiment on many and find myself scattered. Does this make sense? I wouldn’t give up LR for this reason but I recently have been trying to work differently.
Thanks for letting me know I’m not alone in this creative problem.
This bear cub image is, as always, beautifully captured.
Hi Diane, thanks and I have noticed the same thing in Lightroom. One thing I have tried to do to alleviate jumping around too much is that I color code images to work on later. It doesn’t help all of the time, but at least I get rid of the urge to need to “work on something now before I forget.” I can then filter by that color code of images that I once thought of working on. However, remembering the idea I had for a particular image at the time I color coded it is an entirely different issue! 🙂