Green Frog under lilypad, in my backyard pond, Sterling Heights, MI
After some momentum I seemed to take on with my April posting challenge, it seemed to have the reverse effect. I ended up just taking a break from it. The fact is, it was during the last half of that April challenge that my site became the target of a lot of unwanted visits, causing my host to start hasseling me about excessive resource use. I wish it was real traffic that was causing it, but it was more a function of automated bots, and quite a few hacking attempts.
The back and forth trying to deal with that put a real damper on me wanting to do anything with the blog, or be sitting in front of the computer for that matter. Instead, just a few posts here and there on my social media accounts, and more time just spent in my yard. The camera isn’t always with me, although many times I wish I had had it. I didn’t even venture to local spring wildflower spots.
Now it is quite hot out, weather I hate more than bitter cold. I am trying to kick my butt into gear to create more, but sometimes it just feels forced. And if a photo feels forced just to say I was photographing, I just stop caring about it, and I don’t like that. A day spent just watching the birds and other critters go about their own days isn’t exactly a day wasted in my opinion.
I’ve often wondered, had digital photography existed my entire photographic life, and had I kept all my photos, what would the graph of number-of-photos over time look like? I suspect there would be peaks and troughs and plateaus. I also suspect that would be true for most photographers. Such a graph would be even more interesting if timelines for seasons, holidays, big life events etc. were superimposed onto it.
Anyway, as you say, it’s not worth forcing it in the downtimes. Like everything else in life, the downtime will pass.
With all of my photos in Lightroom, I will from time to time look at the yearly totals out of curiosity at first, but ultimately resulting in self judgement later on. Even though I tell myself that’s pretty silly, I do it anyway.
Ah, human nature, you gotta love it 🙂
It is easy to get into a creative rut. I seem to be in one now.Had great expectations with the longer summer days to go out photographing in the evenings. But like you say, after a long day of work it just isn’t happening!
I do like your frog shot. Great reflection and another great example of how breaking the rules can work (dividing the frame in half)!
I am not sure it is a rut vs pure mental exhaustion.
Either way……
I’m so sorry about the problem with unwelcome computer traffic. That stinks. I wish you all the best and hope to see more of your lovely photography.
I’m with you on heat. Ugh. If not for the flowers, bees, praying mantids, and hummingbirds I enjoy watching winter would be welcome.
Thanks Darla. I wish I had more mantids around here. I some egg casings a few years back but it seems they all wandered off.
The heat is usually a big deterrent for me going out. I’m usually alone which is a little concerning if the heat gets the better of me. And since I’m always looking for reptiles or amphibians they’re not out in the mid-day heat anyway.
I’m in agreement with your last statement, “A day spent just watching the birds and other critters go about their own days isn’t exactly a day wasted in my opinion.” When I’m forcing myself to be there rather than being there, I am also not mentally or spiritually there. What you are saying is to be there, present to life.
Indeed Monte. Indeed.
I think that this is kind of normal summer behavior for we photographers. I know when it’s almost 100 outside and it feels like more than that, I have no interest in being out with my camera. Strike that, in being out at all! 🙂 The mornings, I use those for getting some much needed exercise. The evenings, too many mosquitoes wishing to feed on me. Not interested.
Forcing it doesn’t work either, but I do step out on the back porch and take a picture or two of the birds at the feeder. Cool that you have a pond in your backyards and photogenic frogs to keep you in practice!
Strangely enough, the mosquito factor hasn’t played much role this year around here. Normally with this heat, they are seriously awful. But it has been quite dry here also, which may be playing a part.
My yard has been my primary source of subjects this year so far…
It’s difficult to keep up momentum sometimes, I’m having similar issues. I’ve been making quite a few photographs but haven’t been doing anything with them. Something about sitting in front of the computer at work all day makes it tough to continue into the evenings. Hang in there, though. It will come back and you won’t be able to stop it!
Hi Tom,
Interesting enough, even though I am in front of a computer most of the day for my day job, I don’t mind so much when working on my photographs. But it is the mental exhaustion that occurs in my day job that does have an impact. By the end of the day, I just don’t want to think about anything.