Today is my last day on the Hebrides until the 28th of May when I'll be back for a workshop with what looks like a nice group of photographers :-) I've enjoyed coming to see Barra, the Uists and of course, my beloved Harris. Harris, I must say, is the jewel in the Hebrides. There is something very magical about the landscapes here and the seascapes specifically.
I feel I was in need of a rest. I didn't do much photography whist here, but instead, just seemed to be happy enjoying the daylight, the silence, the sound of the ocean waves crash periodically. I had taken a little iPod with me to keep me company, but strangely, I found it to be too much 'noise pollution'. It seemed that the silence, the noise of the wind and rain and ocean were more than enough to keep me company after all.
One thing that has come to mind over the past two weeks is the 'need' to make pictures. I've been fighting myself about this. On one hand, not making pictures feels very alien - it is after all what I do, but I also recognise that there is a time and a place for such things and sometimes, I'm just not in that mode.
We're a greedy lot, Photographers. We always want more images.... and we're never satisfied. The light has to be just right. I feel I've done a lot in the past year: India portraits, Nepal Portraits, Bolivian altiplano landscapes, Harris, Skye and Assynt landscape portfolios. Normally I produce that amount of work over two or three years, not one year. So I think it is 'take a break' time.
I don't feel any urgency at the moment to make any more images. I feel at peace with that. I would normally feel concerned - perhaps I've lost what it takes? Perhaps I'm not good enough? Perhaps my muse has left me for good..... these are all, I feel, very common concerns, but making images for the sake of making them, when you feel you're not into that mode, will only create mediocre work.
So I have one last workshop for this side of the year - my Harris trip this May 28th. Then after, I don't have another workshop until the end of August on the isle of Arran (trip only has a couple of spaces left). So I think it's time to work on some new projects.
I have a few things in the pipeline: a hard bound book, workshop schedule for 2011, trip to Ethiopia in September (if I can get my passport renewed in time), folio collections that I hope to start selling - nicely bound, presented collections of my photographs. Lots to work on.
So I'm off home now, going to set up that Eizo monitor and see how the colour management stuff hangs together. Wish me luck.