Some days it's tough to get that creative flame ignited. Winter is approaching and temperature is dropping down into the 30s again, making it that much tougher to get out of a warm bed and stand in the darkness waiting for the sun to rise. Wind off the Hudson River is constant and biting.
It's 6:30 am and the city is enshroud in a blue-grey haze and I'm fairly certain that the sun - not interested in my desire to record its brilliance cutting through the mist - has decided to stay in bed a few minutes longer.
There is also the fact that I have not been out filming as much as I'd like. Family and our daily production work comes first and recently, I have spent more time at the editing and photographing than filming. Unlike falling off a bicycle, I do lose my focus if fall out of my usual routine and it takes a while before I can get back in the groove. When I do return to it, I instantly want to jump in at the speed I was previously moving and that doesn't always happen.
Adding to the morning chill is the after taste of the camera issues I've been facing in recent weeks. Several stunning sunrises had to be scuttled because the images appeared soft. Not soft like Elvis singing "Love me Tender", more like "Killing Me Softly" or plain out of focus, which in HD is the death card.
Perhaps my EX3 was annoyed that I was using other the PMW-500 Sony let me borrow last month. Certainly, it had been the top banana up until that day.
And of course, there's my day job. After spending all day looking through the viewfinder and staring at monitors, do I really want to get away from it all and spend my personal time doing the same kinda thing?
So, what do I do when the urge to create isn't exactly feeling... urgent? Well, I do find that not unlike jogging, biking or any other activity, once I get out there, I'm usually pretty glad I pushed myself to do so and even though I might not have the slightest spark of inspiration, simply setting up the camera and looking through the viewfinder will give me some sort of direction.
Once, I resorted to flipping a coin to decide my shooting location. Heads, I'm heading for the east side.
I've often read the same about writing. You may stare at your blank page with absolutely nothing coming to mind, yet, you still have to discipline yourself to sit down and write something every day, even if the only thing you write is that you are sitting here with nothing to write.
Sometimes a new lens or tripod will inspire me to get out there to test it, but it's not a sustainable practice. It's not only the expense of always needing the next great piece of kit, I actually find it often gets in the way of creating decent imagery. It's only after I get totally familiar with a piece of gear that it becomes transparent enough to enhance the picture rather than become it. The recent over-concern for depth of field or over-use of camera sliders and follow-focus devices is pretty obvious evidence of this.
A few times, what seemed like a plain vanilla morning turned into a blazing sunrise and on one occasion the Queen Elizatbeth II glided past in the mist of the early dawn. I was so excited that I almost forgot to press the record button. It was certainly a day that I was glad that I didn't sleep in.
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