Sometimes when you go out to take pictures, you just want to have fun and push the shutter button.
The Moon and the street lamp.
I have written previously about all the decision making that you have to do as a photographer. You spend a lot of time thinking and calculating. For some you just want to get back to basics and just have fun. In a world where we prize effort and production over balance and downtime, it’s important that we take a break from pursuing improvement and skill building and remember why we started to do something in the first place.
The sunlight through the tree.
For creators, no matter the discipline it’s important that we take the time to play. Taking time to have fun and do something that might not be commercially viable but makes us happy and recharges our creativity. There shouldn’t be any special processes or steps you should have to take. The nature of playtime, is that there shouldn’t be any rules. Just go and have fun. forget all the things you think that you have to do and just go.
This could be hanging on your office wall.
Recently I took some time before work to do just that. I went out with the idea that if I didn’t get a single image it didn’t matter. I didn’t worry about what time of day it was, what kind of light there might be or where the best locations would be. I just went out and pointed my camera at things and pushed the shutter button. There were even images that I captured using my phone and even that was fun.
No Parking. shot and edited on iPhone.
Doing this helps avoid the feelings of fatigue or burnout with your craft as it shows you that you still enjoy your craft and that your interest level is still high. When you do have to ‘work’, it doesn’t feel like work and you continue to enjoy what you do. Sometimes you do something during your playtime that will give you a solution for a project that may have been causing you stress. Even though you set out to just have fun and not actively work on improvement, that’s what ends up happening anyway.
Light through really clear water. Shot and edited on iPhone.
Always make time for fun, you may end up with some really surprising results.