Photography is a never ending discovery, there is always something new, something to work on, something that inspires. Sometimes we can be overstimulated, well I can, sometimes we can feel uninspired, thankfully this doesn’t happen to often for me, years of trying to write has taught me to watch my moods and be gentle with them. Fighting them only causes more problems. I find that my personal work is the best balm to keep my creativity flowing and maintain my enthusiasm.  It’s a catch 22 really, a good one :) As long as I’m photographing for myself I can give of myself when photographing professionaly. My professional work, my personal work, I’m always working at merging the two. For sure though one of the signs for me that I’m feeling balanced and creative is the inspiration to take self portraits.

Self portraits for me are a touch stone, I never try to force them, I never try to corral them into being. I love them because it’s as if I’m really touching the base of my creative soul, the photographer and the artist and the woman all feeding each other. They are one part of my art that I just let bubble up from inside myself, no pressure and they will come as long as I’m taking care of my muse. This then feeds the other parts of my artistic and professional life (and really all the rest of me too). If I am not doing them once in a while then I take that as a sign that I need to do something; nurture myself, try something new, and the one thing that always helps me, take more photographs of my Bean.

One of my amazing 2009 brides, Jill Jeziorski has done one full year of “365” or one self portrait a day (and she’s on her second year). Another great artist Hailey Bartholomew took a polaroid a day of things she was grateful for this last year, and Paula Burgoon works with image transfers, taking photography to another level. So many times those of us who take images for a living stay very one sided on our public websites, I was surprised not to long ago when stumbling upon Becker‘s website (such a rock star in the photographic community his full name shortened to Becker some time ago and now, sometimes he just goes as “B”) to see that every so often he’ll post fine art nude studies. Lovely stuff, and quite different then the beautiful weddings that he specializes in.

I wonder what other artists have as their touchstones. What is it that you do to keep your creative process going or what is your tell tale sign that you are enjoying the process itself? What is it that feeds your work and keeps you interested and alive? I’d love to hear.