Each year I get this overwhelming urge to log off accounts online and take a break from the scrolling and noise. This past time, I challenged myself to go longer and see if I could hit a year.

There is a delicate balance between consumption and creation. Not content creation as this is intended to give people a hit of dopamine, but creating your art. The goal was to log off and use that time to do something with the loads of work that piles up over the years that has been put off.

Film verse digital :

This past year had no lack of adventure and places to photograph. We visited 8 national parks, hung out at our favorite place, Disneyland, spent time in the Windy City and made it to the PNW two additional times in that span. When traveling, I find that I do not have as big of a preference over using film or digital. It is usually so fast paced that digital is honestly easier to manage. What I have noticed is that I prefer shooting anything B Roll related with film. This could be rest stops, the janky gas station, the quick random pull off to stretch our legs, prepping meals or even just hanging out around camp. To me, this is made for film. The nostalgic look helps tell the story of these times and make them timeless.

The big realization is when we are not traveling, I rarely reach for a digital camera. I am much more motivated to pick up a film camera to document daily life than reach for a digital. I find myself grabbing a digital when I am taking a photo for “straight to the screen” use. Does this make one better than the other? Nope, just an interesting observation about what I am motivated to use.

What did I accomplish?

My biggest goal was to see if I could take the time away from scrolling other peoples work and start making sense of the years and years of photographs and my own work. The biggest barrier was now that I did not have social media to distract me from dealing with my own pile of work, where to even begin…. Once we got home from our travels, I could keep busy with photo editing and developing the film, but once that was complete, there was a good portion of time that was filled with just staring blankly at my archives trying to piece anything together that resembled a cohesive message. It was when I stopped staring at my work and channeled that into journaling that it started to make sense.

Get your photos off a screen:

Like a finely crafted library, having a physical archive makes it so much easier to get to work at a task. Everything else becomes much more important than actually dealing with the task at hand. Photos stuck on a screen give you a reason to do something else, so you will probably keep distracting yourself. When they are in print or in negative form, it’s more likely to keep picking them up and “living with them” daily. You get to make it apart of your day and can quickly lay them out and organize them when an idea sparks.

Stepping away to gain clarity:

Even if you are not writing, writers block is a real thing. Part of the process was to log off and run into these situations on purpose. Instead of dealing with it by distractions of others via social media, I had to deal with it by finding other outlets to occupy my time. This looked like journaling, traveling, writing, drawing, walking, gardening, fishing, etc. when I had to face my roadblocks by exercising other creative outlets, it actually gave me more clarity back to what I was originally trying to overcome. What seemed like a big mountain quickly became manageable tasks with fresh ideas and direction.

Removing the distractions of others also removed the pressure to do things for others. This drew the focus back on myself. When you are creating for yourself, you remove the pressure of trying to appease others or trends. You start to find your voice and follow your style. This is when you can truly tell the story you are wanting to tell.

Yesterday and tomorrow:

Did I make it the full year? Not exactly, but I did make it longer than I have previously. In total, I was logged off about 8 months, but this thing called the election derailed that.

Habits do not change overnight. From this process, I am still working through a lot of ideas as well as projects I would like to accomplish. What I will say is my priority list has changed. Picking up a journal has helped me compile thoughts and keep building upon ideas and start having them make sense. This has been instrumental in my days and peace of mind.

I was able to start piecing together a project I had the idea for over 10 years ago and finally put the 1st draft into book form. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. Because I removed the distractions, I was finally able to sit down and use that time to find the story I was always trying to tell with these photos, but couldn’t. (more to come soon from this project)

My attention span for the online world has dwindled. I find myself wanting to read or write more than scroll (most days of course). I almost get fatigued quicker with social media these days and easily overwhelmed.

Lastly, I have now discovered what is Important to me and I have found myself leaning into those areas more. This past year, I have photographed and documented my family and daily life significantly more. This is the reason I photograph, and getting back to that feels really good. I am aligned on what makes me happy and am not trying to do what the online world says you should be doing.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or at a stand still, give it a try. The worst thing that will happen is you get some time back in your day.

Best of luck,