Photo Time Out

This week I don’t have any new pictures to show you (beyond the cell phone camera one above which is rather out of focus, but hey, it did have nice rays in it so there it goes). It appears that I’ve taken a break from photographing the world around me, just like I did last year over Christmas and New Year’s. It wasn’t an intentional break this time, but I think it’s fitting, especially since the light conditions during November and now December in Sweden are...at best...well, abysmal. Also, last month was NaNoWriMo, when I busied myself with writing rather than photographing the world around me, which made for a nice break from triggering the shutter.

November this year was REALLY gray and drab, to the point where you look out your window and think...naaaah, I’ll take this day off from photographing. It’s been like that all month really, and now the first week of December as well. Hopefully the weather will clear up at least a bit (he says as the winds howl outside and the sideways rain stream down the windows) so I can go out and shoot some of the Christmas decorations put up in the city. That’s always nice at this time of year...that and observing the increasingly haggard look of the Christmas shoppers looking for that elusive gift they have yet to find!

Sure, I've read photographers’ suggestions to shoot in inclement weather, because that’s when people don’t expect photographers to be out, and yes that may be true, but since my camera isn’t weather sealed like the more professional models, I don’t want to drown the electronics or optics inside! :-D It can stand the occasional rain drop falling on it, but not the downpour we've had lately, so best to not risk it. ("Captain Cautious" at the keyboard!)

Okay, back to the timeout on photography. If I had had this long a break from photography without last year’s timeout (which I wrote about on the blog at the time)...I think I’d be worried that I was losing my “touch”. Now though, I know it is a good way to recharge the urge to be out there, camera in hand. I think at certain points during my photographic endeavors in the past I’ve gone out there more out of habit than out of actual desire, and that’s not exactly a good way to land good photographs! Now though I am eager to go out there (weather providing of course) to land photographs that are worth keeping! Regaining that urge can’t be a bad thing!

A Tall Stack Of Papers

This website is called Tomas Nilsson Foto (since I am Swedish I spell it that way), and it's obviously no secret that I enjoy photography a lot (anyone unfortunate enough not to be able to make his or her escape fast enough will probably know that ;-)).

I do however have other interests that will show up on this blog from time to time. One of these interests is writing. I feel it is time for that now that the month of August is over and the next exhibition event isn't until October.

I've enjoyed reading since I figured out that those strange squiggles could be translated into words when you put them together; according to my mother the first word I ever read on my own at the age of 5 was Tobak (tobacco in Swedish). I don't know if that was necessarily a good thing, but there ya go.

I was one of those kids who played a little bit of Dungeons and Dragons in my teens, mostly as the Dungeon Master, sending my brother and other neighborhood kids on quests here and there. It was fun, but in the end they liked doing sports more, and I found it was more fun to write than to actually play the adventures (plus I wasn't really that good a Dungeon Master).

When I was in high school my best friend at the time wrote a book, and challenged me to do the same ("you always said you wanted to write...now get to it!"), so I ended up with a ghastly poor First Novel. It's got very few redeeming features, but at least it didn't discourage me from trying it again! In the ensuing years I've written a few other things, both longer works and short stories. It's never felt like I've made something worth sending to publishers, it's always been something I've done for my own enjoyment.

In 2008 my dear friend Montie told me about National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short-ish) and I thought was an absolutely hair-brained idea; write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel in 30 days. That felt impossible, especially for a devout procrastinator like me. But I figured I'd give it a go, since at the time I needed a jumpstart to my writing. That ended up as "The New Leaves", a book that I think actually does have some merits, a book that I think I'll get back to soon to expand certain parts that needs something more.

Six years later I am about to do the writing challenge for the sixth time and it is still a lot of fun! I especially enjoy the group of awesome friends I've made through the write-ins and get-togethers we've had through the years, people I would never have met otherwise! What this year's book will be about? I haven't got a clue, but hopefully I'll have at least a first sentence by the time November 1 rolls in!

Here's the beast, ready to fight me all over again...

That being said, there's been this project of mine that's been ”on-going” for many years now, a book that I've not been able to finish, nor let go my hold of. It's currently in its...probably sixth or seventh re-write at around 135,000 words, but I still don't feel it is really there. It's an intimidating stack of papers, but it's also a nice feeling to know that I've been able to put together the story at least this far! So I am going to have a crack at it one more time in the next few months, hopefully being able to finish it at some point. If nothing else it'll be a nice warm-up for the November NaNoWriMo event!