Digital Nesting

I like to describe myself as solar-powered. Perhaps it’s my Trinidadian ancestry, but I seem to really come alive in the sunshine. It makes me happier, more optimistic, and more inclined to take pictures. Everything seems possible when the sun is shining! The trouble is that I live in England, where the winters are long and dark. Even at noon on a cloudy winter day there is not much light to work with. So I take fewer pictures and feel less inspired.

But rather than letting this get me down, I like to spend the winter months pursuing my photography in a different way. I call it “digital nesting”. The best thing about this time of year is spending time with family and friends, sitting by a roaring fire, enjoying good food and drink, making plans for the year ahead. That’s what I try to do with my photography as well. Instead of taking pictures outdoors with my camera, I bask in the warm glow of my screen, looking for new sources of ideas and inspiration, recharging my creative batteries and figuring out where I want to go, and what sorts of pictures I want to take, when the light returns.

Here are some of the tools I’ve been using this winter as I look forward to trying new things in 2016. The important thing with all of them is to set them up in the right way so that you don’t have to scroll through lots of stuff you don’t like to find the stuff you do. That fine-tuning process, in itself, can help you identify what you do and don’t like, as you zero in on a particular style, technique or approach. Here are some examples.

PINTEREST
This is one of the best places to look for photographic inspiration, and you can of course maintain your own scrapbooks and mood boards of stuff you like (as I’ve written before). I actually find it’s best to look at Pinterest on an iPhone or iPad where it’s easier to go exploring, browsing from one pretty image to another and, in the winter months, seeking out that summer vibe! Over Christmas I’ve made myself spend at least five minutes a day on Pinterest, hopefully training my eye.

FLIPBOARD
Flipboard, a news-reading app, might seem an odd place to look for photographic inspiration. But it’s where I go to look for news about photography. It has lots of sub-categories in every topic, including photography, so you can get it to show you images of a particular style or genre such as street or polaroid photography. Again, take the time to choose what you would like to follow to get the best out of it. And make sure to check out upcoming exhibitions. I’m looking forward to the Saul Leiter exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery in London later this month.

BLOGLOVIN’
I’ve recently rediscovered blogs as a source of new ideas; I’ve been gathering them up with a blog reader. Here are some of the blogs that are currently inspiring me now. I have to admit most of them are food-related! It is winter, after all, so I’m all about the yummy food.
• Hungry Ghost
• La Buena Vida
• Marta Marie Forsberg
• Mimi Thorisson
• Canelle Vanille
• Local Milk
• 101 Cookbooks
•Smitten Kitchen
Not strictly a blog, but a good place for film-photography inspiration is Kate Holstein’s site.

INSTAGRAM DETOX
This is the time of year to prune your Instagram follow list. Remove people who no longer inspire you, or whose work seems familiar or cliched, and add people who are doing something new and exciting!

MEDIUM
If you know me at all, you will know that I love a good read. For more word-focused inspiration, I like to roam around on Medium, a communal blogging platform that is becoming increasingly popular (here’s a post my husband and I did for Vantage, its photography section). The website is cool, but I think Medium is easiest to read using its nifty app.

SPOTIFY
Listen to Discover Weekly, one my very favourite things about Spotify’s latest updates, while doing all this, to keep the sonic background fresh too! Listening to new music that you enjoy creates a special kind of buzz in your brain. It’s also a good soundtrack while checking out new tools and apps. Take the time to learn to use them now, so you’re ready to go when the opportunity arises. Make sure your backups are up to date, too.

And remember it will be spring very soon!