{"id":77813,"date":"2018-02-05T07:16:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T15:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=77813"},"modified":"2018-02-06T02:55:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T10:55:46","slug":"how-to-motivate-yourself-to-make-photos-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/05\/how-to-motivate-yourself-to-make-photos-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Motivate Yourself to Make Photos in Winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most challenging things in the wintertime is to overcome the feeling of depression, gloom, and to discover inspiration and motivation to make photos, explore, find joy and optimism, and make art.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why is it hard to be motivated in winter?<\/h2>\n
\"London,
Red leading lines at Ippudo ramen, on the way downstairs to the toilet. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last few moths, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent pretty dark and cold winter times in Berlin, Prague, and now here in London. Many people get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seasonal affectiveness disorder\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d which means feelings of doom and gloom in the dark, cold, winter months.<\/p>\n

Why do we feel negative emotions, thoughts, and feelings in the wintertime?<\/p>\n

My theory:<\/p>\n

\n In the winter, it is colder and darker, and thus we are less motivated to get out of the house, wander around, and walk.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that the more time we spend indoors, the more miserable we are. Not only that, but the colder it is, the less we walk. The less we walk and the less we move, the more miserable we are.<\/p>\n

So therefore, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it is the darkness which actually makes people feel depressed. I think it is simply the lack of movement, activity, and making of photographs or art.<\/p>\n

Therefore my simple solution to overcoming the doom and gloom in winter: Make more photos and art in the wintertime.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to find inspiration during winter<\/h2>\n
\"Yellow
Yellow arrows. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First of all, spend less time indoors at your apartment. Spend more time going to exhibitions, shows, and museums. While here in London, I had a huge flash of inspiration when going to the TATE modern art museum, where I was inspired by futurist sculpture, the work of Piet Mondrian<\/a>, and seeing the photos of Stephen Shore<\/a> (American surfaces) and Martin Parr<\/a> (luxury, common sense, and the last resort).<\/p>\n

Use a flash<\/h2>\n
\"Ricoh
Ricoh selfie flash. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also a practical suggestion: shoot with a flash<\/a> in the wintertime. You cannot always shoot natural light when it is dark in the winter.<\/p>\n

Just use the integrated flash in your camera, and if not, just buy a small flash and shoot in program automatic mode.<\/p>\n

\n How to shoot flash street photography<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Practice shooting different types of surfaces, textures<\/a>, and colors<\/a>, to illuminate your scenes, and find inspiration to shoot regardless of the lighting situation, and regardless if it is dark or not.<\/p>\n

Go on night walks<\/h2>\n
\"Silhouette.
Night walk. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been more inspired to shoot night photography<\/a>, even though it is cold. Just put on a warm jacket, and go on more evening walks, and take your camera along.<\/p>\n

Shoot high iso, like 1600-3200. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect to make any good photos. Just enjoy the brisk evening walk, and even experiment shooting blurry and out of focus photos.<\/p>\n

\"Cindy
Cindy walking and blur. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If there is nobody to photograph, just shoot selfies<\/a> and shadows of yourself.<\/p>\n

\n

Go out to dinner with friends, family, or even by yourself<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make yourself miserable at home. Go out to a bar, restaurant, or cafe. Bring your camera along, and shoot whatever you find interesting indoors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Remember, the point isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to make the worlds best photos, but for you to keep shooting, and just keep your eye sharp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Never stop shooting and making visual art (photos)<\/h2>\n
\"Man
Man alone at night in office. London, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No matter how shitty the weather, find inspiration to just go out, be more adventurous and shoot more!<\/p>\n

True happiness comes from shooting more, making more art, and exploring more!<\/p>\n

Stay bright,
\nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most challenging things in the wintertime is to overcome the feeling of depression, gloom, and to discover inspiration and motivation to make photos, explore, find joy and optimism, and make art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/E06E9117-88DF-4BD5-9716-DF65E2ECFD9A.jpeg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77834,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77813\/revisions\/77834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}