If you read my last post you will be well aware that I am suffering from a bit of a creative block.  Looking for inspiration in a busy life can be tough and usually personal pursuits such as hobbyist photography take the back seat when the family needs me. In my previous blog, I talked about taking a deep dive through my photo archives from previous experiences and opportunities to see if there was anything worth a second look. As it turns out there was.  My first search was through my photos of my 2015 trip to Tokyo.

Then I took a look through my photos from my 2016 trip to Japan.  On this trip I visited Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima. On that occasion I took just short of 7,000 images.  Mostly street photography but also lots of lovely scenery, architecture and historical sites.  I imagine that most photographers would take lots of images and only pick out the best.  I am exactly the same.  Photographers have different ratios of 1 usable image to 24 unusable images – things like that. Some days I will go out on a shoot and have a fantastic ration of usable images.  Other days I will go out and when I get back I will hate every single photo I have taken.

That’s where I am at the moment.  I just don’t like anything I am shooting at present.  Hence my digging through the old stuff to find something I can work with.  I did not find as many usable images this time around.  Perhaps if I were to come back to them in a number of years from now I will have a different perspective on what is worth using and what is not.

I think like most of us in the creative arts, we tend to be our own worst critics.  Especially in a visual pursuit such as photography. Sometimes I look over my photos from 2-3 years ago and can’t believe I thought I had any talent.