Creative Block

4/2/2021

For the last couple of months, I’ve been experiencing a creative block where I had a hard time being creative and finding inspiration. I didn’t pick up my camera much and didn’t have many ideas on my next photo or video project. It’s not uncommon for this to happen, but I felt a bit stagnant and stumped, and was itching to do something artistic.

Usually when I have an idea, I want to execute it perfectly and exactly the way I envisioned it. This can be a specific photo I want to capture, a certain way of editing a photo, or an engaging video. Sometimes I set unrealistically high expectations on what I want the output to be that I don’t end up enjoy the process itself. And it doesn’t help when I see well color-graded photos on Instagram or an amazing vlog on YouTube and begin comparing that to my work. I’m well aware of the dangers of social media, so I constant remind myself to use it as an opportunity to learn from other creators instead.

I also have a mindset that everything needs to be a grand project, like a photoshoot on an epic hike or a video of a special trip. But let’s be real, my day to day is pretty mundane and there aren’t a lot of crazy excitement going on. But there are still plenty of creative outlets in the most ordinary routines. One area I want to improve on is being able to capture ordinary moments as is because they feel more genuine. I want to create photos or videos of common things or activities that I do on a daily basis.

To that end, I took one photo every day in my apartment. I did it for just over one week and it was enough to kickstart the creative juice and push me out of this slump.

I remind myself that done is better than perfect, and if I’m feeling stuck, I should just do it instead of thinking about what to do.

So here goes the photos I took during that one week.