Just go shoot – about always bringing a camera

A few posts ago I wrote about how the perfect blogging camera made me fall back in love with photography. Run and gun photography has so many advantages in keeping you creative. For me it was made easier with a lighter setup. But the thing is; no matter what camera you have available staying creative is all about following these three words; just go shoot.

About pushing yourself to create something every day

This other day I was talking to another photographer about how to keep creating even when you don’t find your days especially interesting. He emphasized the importance for him to keep going and pushing himself to create something for social media every day. If he didn’t he found that he easily fell into a creative rut.

As much as I totally understand where he’s coming from, having tried to stick with the same program myself, I’m no longer sure that creating for the sake of keeping a flow in social media is what really makes us stay creative. I do think he’s right about pushing yourself to create something every day, but I’m not sure that the push should be social media.

Lately I’ve become a strong believer in just always bringing a camera and shooting when something gets my attention. My goal isn’t to create something for Instagram every day anymore. My goal is to enjoy shooting something every day. And I think it’s making me a better photographer.

Getting inspired by what I see, not what will suit my feed

If you look at Instagram profiles these days, most of them are highly curated. And I think that if you create only to fill that highly curated feed at some point or another you are going to experience social media burnout or get creator block.

Now it’s easy for me as a hobbyist to say that that’s not necessary. I do however acknowledge that to be successful in social media, you have to have consistency both in how often you post and in what you post. The highly curated feeds on Instagram is most popular. So if you’re trying to make a living from it, you probably need to think about what will suit your feed and posting every day. However that doesn’t mean that this post doesn’t apply to you.

I think that an important way of staying creative and avoid both social media burnout and creators block is to let yourself just go shoot stuff that inspires you as often as possible. Don’t plan ahead, just always bring your camera (or your phone even). When the moment hits and you think “oh I wish I could have captured that” you will be prepared. No thinking about how you want to use the image. Maybe it rests on your hard drive forever. But you’ve captured it and had a creative moment nonetheless. And the more often you spend a little time on perfecting the way you capture stuff in the moment like that, the more your creativity and creative skills will continue developing.

Just go shoot

Having to always think about what will suit your feed will possibly kill your creativity. Never thinking about how you shoot or create an image will never take you from someone who captures snapshots to a photographer. Some thought is necessary, but so is just going out shooting for the sake of doing what you love. Sometimes capturing the mere snapshot will help your creativity more than holding a planned photoshoot to capture images that flows nicely in your social media feed.

When it comes to social media burnout or creators block it doesn’t matter if you’re a hobbyist like me or a full time social media influencer. You’d want to avoid it, right? I think the way to start is by giving yourself a break from the pressure of only creating to share consistent content in social media. Get back to the roots, remember why you started, and just go shoot. Everything. Always.

 

Always bring your camera

Shoot mostly for the fun of it

Bulk shoot for your social media feed if you need to post consistently

JUST GO SHOOT

 

I hope you found inspiration to just go shoot through this post. And if you did I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment down below! Also if you would consider checking out my Instagram or YouTube it would be much appreciated! Stay safe, keep your distance and your hands clean, but get outside to shoot and explore locally!