Luke Copping has assembled the advice of 18 creatives talking about breaking your creative block. Love this entry from John Keatley:

Rather than talking about getting out of a creative rut, I am going to try to help you avoid getting into a rut all together.

I probably don’t need to tell you the life of a professional photographer is filled with many highs and lows. Victories and rejections are a weekly occurrence. The highs are obviously fun, but the lows are not so great.

My first piece of advice is to avoid the highs and lows. Don’t get caught up in the tidal wave of ups and downs. It takes a lot of adjustments to do this, but it is possible and well worth it. You don’t need to live in each high and each low. Learn to enjoy and appreciate accomplishments and victories in your career, but understand that it is temporary and tomorrow is a new day. Typically the phrase “tomorrow is a new day” is reserved for people who are living in a low and need something to look forward to. However, in photography, “tomorrow is a new day” also means someone else is going to do something noteworthy tomorrow and the spotlight will shift to them.

Second, learning how to not live in the highs and lows of your career keeps you from freaking out when you have a slow week or two. Create a consistent marketing plan and stick to it. Aside from shooting, there are plenty of important tasks and projects you need to put time into if you want to be successful. Making sure you are taking time for these activities and tasks will help you keep your mind off of shooting all the time, and personally I find this to help keep me balanced and creative.

Read the rest of this entry and 18 more on the Luke Copping Photography Blog.

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6 Comments

  1. Very worthwhile thoughts on the life of a professional photographer, and equally valid with regard to life in general, really. Thanks for this.

  3. I second James’ comments. The creative life offers a little higher highs and a little lower lows than other routes – but that’s probably why many of us choose it.

    It reminds me of my time playing baseball. Sport is geared for the dramatic and if you can’t weather that, then you won’t be around for too long.

  4. Now “photographer” should be more than the photographer ;)

  5. This is a great post. Thank you so much for posting. It’s so important to read notes like this.

  6. I like this piece and I think that this is a great way to look at the world as a photographer.

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