Creating with no inspiration

Whatever the planets are doing with themselves currently needs to stop because it isn't helping to spark any creativity...

That being said, I do realize that one can't wait around for strokes of genius and lightning bolts of inspiration to strike before even thinking about making art. At one point or other the writer's block or the doldrums will descend and there isn't anything we can do to stop it from happening. I am finding that for me it is probably a good thing to have some sort of escape plan or coping mechanism to deal with the absence of inspiration. Art muscles need to be exercised as much as anything else or we can become quite useless for a very long time.

Blah blah blah, whatever.

So, after a madcap episode of fairly good artistic output (mostly watercolor paintings), I descended into a non-creative funk. Sort of miserable. I don't even want to take the camera out of the bag. Part of that might be due to the fact that I've been daydreaming hardcore about a full-frame camera, telling myself how much better my photos would be if only I had LMNOP camera and WXYZ lenses, etcetera, etcetera, and so on and so forth. Also, I've been confronting the limitations of my humble Nikon D3500 with regards to video, so it wasn't hard to get sucked into the rabbit hole of picking apart the rest of the instrument and wishing for something else better. Everyone has been busy so there was no one to snag and place in front of the camera. That, and I need to commit to reading more about white balance and how to deal with harsh light outdoors... (Dislike reading anything remotely educational unless it's my idea, and even then it's still a bit of a struggle). I've been moping about for the last five days, telling myself even without the supposed limitations of my camera that I was a very mediocre photographer at best with no eye for anything interesting at all. Sad, ungrateful child.

But of course, like with everything else in life, you have to practice at something in order to be good. And practicing more or less means giving yourself permission to suck at whatever it is that you're practicing. I never made much progress while practicing singing until I gave myself the permission to crack or make an ugly sound. I would be so careful even while all alone that I'd paralyze myself into not making any sound at all--counterintuitive. It wasn't until I told myself to stop trying not to crack and let it happen that I began to learn what was actually causing the cracks and could then take action to remedy them. So, the last couple days I've told myself that I just need to get out wherever with my camera and take some photos, and if they're super shitty-looking, well, cool. That was my plan. Go out and take a few pictures with no purpose other than to take a picture. Slowly, I'm hoping that I'll regain some momentum and inspiration, but at least it gets me out of my room and away from my pity-party of one.

Here is some of what I came up with: