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!
