Boston West End dog park, February 2022
In mid-December I had organized an outdoor photo outing for a group of photographer friends. It would give us a chance to gather in person before the holiday season got too crazy, and we’d get some early winter shots before the weather made it harder to get outside on a regular basis. This being New England, you never really know what’s going to happen with the weather until a day or two before a planned event. You just have to pick a date and hope for the best.
Unfortunately in this case, the weather didn’t cooperate. Two days before the outing, the weather forecasters were predicting a complete washout. Even photographers used to shooting in all kinds of weather wouldn’t have wanted to be outside. I sent around a message cancelling the event, and hoped to reschedule in the New Year. Several people responded along the lines of “sorry we have to cancel, but not surprised.”
One response really stuck with me. It said “I’m sorry we won’t be getting together, but it will give me a chance to catch up on my creativity.” Apparently this photographer was overdue for getting into the darkroom for some photo processing, so now that the outing was cancelled, he’d use that time for darkroom work.
I keep thinking about the phrase “catching up on creativity.” I completely know what he meant, but it also made me wonder. Is that how it works? Can we catch up on creativity? Schedules and time constraints are a normal part of our creative lives, especially if art isn’t our full-time gig. But at the same time I’m not sure creativity is something I can catch up on. If I don’t have a big chunk of time, I always find it helps to do little bits, even 10 or 15 minutes, which is better than nothing. True – darkroom work doesn’t lend itself to 15 minutes here and there, but a short camera walk, or a sketch, or a quick watercolor - or whatever is in your toolkit - can often be tucked in the margins of our schedules. This can keep the creative process flowing, and it’s always surprising what can result from these short sessions.
And….big disclaimer: I confess I don’t always follow my own advice here. For example, since the aborted December photo outing, I haven’t gone out once with my camera. So many excuses – the holidays were so busy, the weather has been bad, or too cold, or too dark, and on and on.
Until yesterday. It was a sunny, almost 60-degree day, which is kind of unheard of for February. There was absolutely no excuse, so I took my camera out for a spin. It was heavenly, but I did feel kind of rusty. It took a little longer to find a rhythm, and there were some missed shots.
I guess I have some catching up to do.