I'm halfway through my annual summer sabbatical from landscape photography. Every year I take six weeks off during which the big camera, tripod and all the other paraphernalia stay packed away and I spend time just being with my family. I'll take the occasional phone photo or holiday snap but effectively I switch my mind off from locations, weather, compositions, posting to social media etc. I also suspend all workshops for this period.
View to the north from Staithes
This period matches the time when my wife is off work for the school holidays and also the time during which the Lake District (and Scotland for that matter) is at its busiest and parking is at its most difficult. Additionally due to inconsiderate parking even making headway around some of the roads becomes a challenge. It also overlaps with the time in which the weather is often least supportive of my preferred conditions and it represents the height of our midge season.
Making a considered decision to suspend operations represents a decision to take control rather than to allow oneself to experience frustration at any of the above impediments to calm landscape photography. I have never favoured any passive response to challenges that are presented and believe it to be unhealthy.
House name in Staithes
During this time, I don’t try to cut myself off from any thoughts about photography and will happily read, visit exhibitions, engage in discussion or watch video material. I’ll devote some of it to study of some sort. The combination of the immersion together with the ban on practical engagement serves to gradually build a growing excitement to be back out in the field once again. By the time September arrives, I am like a caged creature straining at the leash.
I channel some of this energy into a review of the year gone by and much into plans for the one that lies ahead. By the time August finishes, I will have a plan for the autumn that consists of a photographic agenda, locations, trips away and usually a number of elements of life planning.
Staithes, the ‘standard’ view
I often see posts from photographers who have lost their ‘mojo’ or who seem to have lost enthusiasm in one way or another. I think there are two main causes behind this. One is when their prime energy comes from extrinsic motivation; they are driven by likes and positive comments on social media. If these diminish, are unfairly distributed in their opinion or become negative their reward reduces and it becomes harder to get up and get out to make pictures. For those of us who are entirely intrinsically motivated, we are driven by our own inner desires and rewards. We set our own goals and have a tendency to be overly self critical meaning that we spend much of our time failing to meet our often unreasonable expectations. This causes an attritional process leading to an almost inevitable burn out.
My view is that for a healthy, sustainable, creative life, time away is likely to be beneficial. Whether that is other activities, other work, time off, holidays, inactivity and whether it is frequent or in chunks will vary of course but the the alternatives of burn out, unhappiness, dissatisfaction and frustration are all unhealthy states of mind whether related to the creative process or not.
It seems to me that one can spend time being dissatisfied and wishing that time away or one can spend it being relaxed, productive, reflective and building up a head of steam for whenever it is time to return. I’m assuming that for each one of us, depending upon our aesthetic choices and where in the world we live, different seasons will offer different possibilities. However in my case, finding some down time has been an immensely beneficial processes and if you don’t already do it, I recommend that you give it some consideration.
Tale from the riverbank (strictly speaking the canal bank near my home in this case)