Just show up, like a professional.
365project: Day 6
Day 6.
I recently posted a story in my Instagram to show the view we have 5 meters away from our door and somewhat jokingly said that that image will probably become a regular feature on this project. And I was honestly hoping that I would manage to stave off the use of this scene as it is ultimately the easy way out for my daily photo. Actually, once I have certainty on what our future living arrangements are it might make an interesting new project to take this exact same photo everyday for some extended period. Ill cross that bridge when I get there.
For now I’ll focus on my current project and my attempts to learn a lesson or two every day or two.
It was quite recently where I the lesson I took away from the day was to not settle, and it paid off in that instance to put in the extra effort and get the best possible image.
Having said that, days like today were inevitable and I was wondering when one of them would cross my path. I ended up “settling” for the below image which as I mentioned is practically taken out the door.
As I was pondering my perceived failure though, the words of Steven Pressfield came to mind again. Later in The war of art, he explains the difference between an amateur and a professional, and one of the main differences are that a professional shows up no matter what, even if its only to not let your boss down. The general argument being that there’s a lot of improvement to be made if we acted like professionals when working on the hobbies that we are passionate about. So in that sense I eased my conscious that even if I do take the easy photo, I at least showed up. And its not the worst photo of all time, I mean I could have settled on taking a selfie with my phone.(Which might also still happen in the next 359 days.)
The second concept that stuck with me is another from Nigel Danson mentioned yesterday on frequently visiting a specific location. If you go there enough, and you spend time there and take the obvious shot enough times, you eventually start seeing the less obvious and way more interesting photos hidden in your surroundings. Not sure if that will apply at this spot as it is quite a narrow little alley, but who knows. There are many more seasons coming and many more angles of sunlight to play around with.
Funny enough, on the train of thought of The war of art that served me well today, I happened to have used a photo from the same spot for the original blog post cover where I spoke about it. Maybe there is something about this spot that makes me overcome resistance.
The little red boat of the across the stream neighbours being beautifully highlighted by the sun.
Lets see what day 7 has in store. Also last day of week one, time flies when you’re creatively engaged.
