Stumped

Ever feel stumped?  Out of ideas?  Staring a blank computer screen or your camera and wondering what you will do with it?  How will you fill the screen or the camera’s frame?  Yep, good old fashioned writer’s block.  I wonder what you would call the equivalent for a photographer?  Photographer’s block just sounds silly.

Anyways, what do you do?  How do you get past that block?  How do you move past no ideas to creating something interesting and of value?  How do you go from nothing to something? 

This was my problem this morning.  I woke up with no idea of what to blog about.  Instead I checked my email, drank my coffee, surfed a bit.  Came back and stared.  Nothing.  Stumped.  Ha!  Not so fast!  That’s what I’ll write about!  You can take no idea and turn it into an idea!  Sometimes people will say to just start writing about anything – even about the fact that you have nothing to write about.  Eventually, just the process of putting fingers to the keys will help you get past that block.  I’ve been known to type over and over “I have nothing to say today”  and eventually, some random idea pops into my head and we’re off to the races.

I do the same thing with my camera.  On those days I’m thankful for digital and use the delete button liberally.  But I’ll just pick up my camera and shoot.  Anything.  Sometimes I wander around for a while with the camera in my hand just looking. Put the camera to my eye and look again and won’t press the shutter release.  Finally, I’ll see something that catches my eye and then the fun begins.

I’ve taken many shots of random things in my house.  Some good, some bad, some just plain interesting.  But I don’t allow myself to stay stumped.  And in my mind, one idea usually leads to another…and another…and another.  Here is one of my interesting shots when I put a necklace on a light table.

So, when you’re stumped, the best thing to do is something.  Anything.  Just get up and start doing and eventually you’ll find that you are no longer stumped – and you may even get something interesting!