Missing mojo
Hi All…welcome back.
For those of you who are creatives, you will know how it feels when you are not creating. There is something inside that needs to get out…but something is stopping it. The longer it goes on, the more the pressure builds. Your whole being is one big blob of frustration. You feel like you are going to explode…or maybe implode…
When your everyday job uses the same equipment, skills and techniques as your creative outlet it can be an even bigger problem. How do you seperate one from the other? How do you motivate yourself to go be ‘creative’ so that it doesn’t just feel like more ‘work’?
Sorry, but I don’t have the answer.
Given the up/down nature of my workload, I feel I should be using my downtime to go out and be creative…but I am seriously struggling.
I feel I could be falling out of love with photography…and that REALLY scares me. Photography has been my creative outlet since I was 16. It has sustained me financially since I was 17.
See the parallel? See my problem?
This week I decided I needed to try something to try and break the connection between work and art. I grabbed one of the vintage cameras from my display shelf (I have never used this camera before and I have no idea if it is actually functional), loaded it up with a roll of film and headed out to see if I could make it work. The theory being, that if I move as far away from the technical wizardry that is my work equipment and get totally back to photography basics, I can create a degree or two of separation.
Focus is via the very front ring on the lens. The shutter is cocked using the lever at the very top of the lens. Aperture is controlled using the fan-shaped slider at the rear of the lens. I’m not sure, but I think the viewfinder only gives you a very rough approximation of your field of view (will find out when the film comes back).
The camera is a Nettar by Zeiss Ikon, manufactured in about 1949. It uses 120 roll film, has a 75mm f4.5 lens, a fastest shutter speed of 1/200th and focussing is by distance scale (in feet). It produces 6x6 square images.
I played around to try and work out how everything worked…ran a film through it and have sent it away for processing. This first film is basically to test to see if everything is working how it should, and if it is worth persevering with.
I’m pretty sure next time we catch up it will be the big film reveal (could be scary).
Until then, be nice to yourself. Stay safe.
Cheers