Do you ever give yourself a creative break? Do you let your creative field lie fallow to rejuvenate? Do you ever down tools and give yourself some space?
I have been giving myself space.
But, the problem with doing so is that I fall so quickly out of habits. The habit of writing and posting daily is so easy to stop, and so hard to start again.
It’s no different to any other creative endeavour. It’s the starting that is more fearful than the actual doing. After writing three paragraphs that fear has lifted and I am back into writing.
See Len, the fear was just in your head, the actual doing is easy.
Fallow Fields (a term I borrowed from Brooks Jenson) is a healthy thing. Just remember to dive back in the moment you need too. And not to let that fear build up to become an overwhelming monster.
So I haven’t been ignoring you all, I have been in a state of rejuvenation.
I thought it might be nice to make an announcement to start again with. So without further ado.
Valda Bailey and Doug Chinnery are coming to Australia to teach beside me for a few weeks in May 2021. We are running a number of seperate workshops, from an evening, a day, a weekend and two longer residential ones. As the details become clearer, and the venues become confirmed I will tell you more. I will be releasing the bookings in March.
One residential will be in the Blue Mountains and another in a Kiama. The weekend will be in Sydney. We are designing them so you could do all of them or just one.
Ok, so you may not know who these two are? They herald from the United Kingdom and specialise in teaching creative abstract photography. Their work is stunning. I love looking through their Instagram accounts.
https://instagram.com/doug_chinnery
I am so excited. They are so excited. People who are hearing about them coming on the rumour mill are excited.
For me it’s a chance to push forward on Non-Representational Abstracts. The ones that elude me so much. It’s a chance to learn new techniques. It’s an opportunity to immerse myself for a couple of weeks with two inspirational photographers and teachers.
If you are interested in seeing what some of my students are doing in the free weekly photography exercises, you can see some at https://www.lensschool.com/lens-weekly-photography-exercises/project-of-nine-feedback-and-results
Ok, it’s back to work for me now… I am rearranging my studio. Turning it into layout that is more conducive to filming tutorials and lessons for the upcoming online courses and membership only content. Can’t wait to tell you more about that, but that will have to wait for the moment.
Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2020