Avoiding the Hustle

I’ve fallen off the “Jar of Inspiration” project wagon.  There. I said it.  When we first moved to Colorado, I thought I could re-ignite the whole thing and I officially made it through 2 whole months and 10 days into the 3rd before I lapsed.  Again.

You can call it whatever you want, “My priorities changed,” “I got distracted,” “Life got in the way” but really, I just stopped.   I was posting my images to Flickr, Instagram and Facebook and I was exhausted with trying to manage all three separately.  Even though I have API’s that export my images from Lightroom to my social media accounts, hash-tagging, commenting and creating wording for all of them just took up so much time.  I tried exporting images to Dropbox, and cutting/pasting wording but then I found myself sitting at my computer with my phone on one side and my iPad on the other trying to get it all sorted.  I realized the hilarity of it all and I stopped.   My project had turned from being a fun learning opportunity into a time consuming distraction aimed at likes and followers.

And still – I miss the challenge of daily shooting.  I miss spending an entire month focused on one topic.  I miss the feeling of creating something even when I don’t feel drawn to create.  I  miss the connection of a small group of photographers.  I think if I were to start it up again, I’d only post to my website.  I’ve been meaning to spend more time there anyways and then everything would be in one spot.  I could share as much or as little as I want on social media and it would all point back to the same source.

I’ve been considering what I should do next to get myself back into the shooting groove.  I started brainstorming a list of topics that interest me and thought it might be fun to share, in case someone else was feeling a little lost, too.

• Shoot at the same exact time each day
• Make a map of my local area and throw a dart to choose a location to shoot at
• #JacktheCat – portraits of our infamous photo-bombing feline
• Create abstract images
• Shoot the alphabet
• Diptych Collaboration, Round 2.
• Portraits in front of painted walls to create a gradient rainbow
• A month in the life of our family
• Phone camera only
• Double exposures
• Film camera practice
• In my new studio
• Off-Camera Flash play
• Words and images
• Shoot for a cause

Of course, none of this is set in stone, but I’m hoping that I’ll give myself enough of a nudge to at least get started again.  Staying on task is always the hardest part.  If anyone has any votes on what they’d like me to start next, whether it’s on the list or not, I’d love to hear.

Trying to avoid the hustle – Angie