Pandora's Box - Do You Have The Patience?
The dreaded creative block
What happens when we create? It’s like Pandora’s box. Sometimes we know in advance that the box is open and brimming with tangible objects that bounce out at us. It’s easy to articulate details about these objects and clearly deliver a message about their value. Other times, we stand over the box staring down. Where are the shiny objects? Why has the lid been closed so long? Wait - is something wrong with me? Why can’t I open it?
I am starting to understand the years that I wrote only from the place of having my Pandora’s box burst open and what a delight it is to not have to work for your words! Both words and ideas just come flowing through! That’s an incredible feeling. When you have to wait, it’s not at all fun.
As we mature with age and writer’s prowess, we begin to see our patterns in our writing. How I navigate my expression with words is not dissimilar to how I navigate the rest of my life. I can be quite impatient but then excited and energized when I see a result.
It’s kind of like wildlife and bird photography. I started exploring this as a side genre in 2020, like a lot of photographers did, but I still love it! What I don’t love is the patience it requires. If you’re a seasoned wildlife photographer, you may sit and wait on a bird or animal for a full hour, perhaps more. So much waiting - and the payoff may not happen.
I’m feeling a life pull towards what is required for this type of photography and this type of rhythm in my life. I’m ready to let go of the younger, less wiser me who just wanted results. So much magic can happen in the process of just taking a step, even if you don’t know what’s going to happen and then just allowing.
I had no idea what I was going to write when I sat down to write this. There was no Pandora’s box in my face. Yet, I wrote. There’s a payoff in there somewhere.
How about you? Writer’s block? Photographer’s or painter’s block? How do you handle it?
I do not...at least not yet...experience photographer's block. I do wildlife, bird, and Aurora photography for sport. If the sport is not happening, then I get random visions for creating abstract images while out there, which is my real photographic passion.
I do regularly experience writer's block, especially now that I am here trying to use my imagery to spur some deeper thinking and meaning. I do get the sense that there needs to be a rebuilding phase in between the flourishes so that may explain the "block" phase.
But yes, when it does flow, it is like a Pandora's box of inspiration.
When you think about it street photography is really just a sub-genre of animal photography….