The Struggle Was Real!

Inspiration lost!

Last September I became a member of a local photo club. For a long time I had the feeling of getting stuck a bit in terms of photography, I was no longer inspired, I am tired of always going out on my own for photos ... and due to lack of good transport I often get no further than a square miles around my house. Where unfortunately not such exciting things happen. The situation has changed since I lost my job and it changed financially a lot, and a lot more negative things, my circle of friends has also become very small.

Where I was used to take my car to go out often with the dogs, or with a friend to take pictures, that part also disappeared. After that I had to deal with failing equipment, so my motivation to go out was also gradually decreasing.

New Camera and lens thanks to Crypto!

In the meantime I have been able to buy a new camera and a new lens, thanks to help from various sides, not least the cryptocurrency, which I am very happy with. But now something had to be done about motivation and inspiration. I mean, my dogs are grateful models, but now to always only photograph my dogs ... no! I had and have really different ideas in my head that I really want to be worked out.

Even though I have been photographing for years, I want to continue to develop because in photography you have never finished learning. And I wanted to increase my circle of acquaintances again. To rebuild. That is where the idea came to me to become a member of a photo club. After some research on the internet I came across a photo club in my hometown and the membership was still payable.

Club Evenings!

And there I went to a first club night in October. Not that I immediately had a lot of contacts about it, but that had its reasons. However, this first club evening was very interesting. There was a lecture by a Dutch photographer, Lieke Anna, and the work that she did did unleash some inspiration from me. I wanted to get going again, and my dip seemed to disappear a bit.

Surprise Photo!

However, cards were also drawn for the surprise photo on this club evening. And the theme this year was ... You draw a card where someone had written his name, and his favorite song with artist. The photo that you had to make for the other person had to be inspired by that song, or by the artist, or a line from the song ... whatever if it had to do with the song. The interpretation is free. The advantage of this is that there can be no "right or wrong". But the disadvantage is that you really have to let your own creativity flow. And let it be blocked for a large part with me.

Jimi Hendrix ...

On the card that I drew from the large bucket full of lottery tickets was "Little Wings" by Jimi Hendrix. And believe me, I know that Jimi Hendrix is ​​a guitar legend. I also know that Jimi Hendrix belongs to the so-called club of 27, but I didn't know the song at all. Of course I listened to it several times. I went through the lyrics ... but no real inspiration flow came up. I just couldn't do anything with this song. I didn't feel it. Only I had to! Asking for another song is simply not an option.

November 26th is the evening on which we are going to present the photos to each other, beautifully printed and framed, so by November 20th I had already decided that I should have the photo ready. But how do you get something done without inspiration? I didn't know, but time was running out.

Something came to my mind ...

I ended up in front of my pc, thinking of it yesterday morning. Thinking, brainstorming and searching ... until the moment that I decided. I take a picture of the guitar that I have here at home. And I don't want it to be 100% clear that it's a guitar ... Think a bit, and that you have to look again before you know what you see can also work well. The 'wings' I suddenly knew would come from a bird of prey that comes from the sound box of the guitar. And when I suddenly got that idea, I went into photoshop. I spent a whole day photoshopping to finally see the following result.

Am I ready now? Did I nail it? Is this the ultimate? Maybe not ... maybe it is, but this is MY project. I am happy with this when I see it this way and I hope that the recipient will also be happy with this piece of photoshop.

So I photographed the birds and guitar myself and of course I couldn't photograph Jimi Hendrix's overlay myself, so it comes from Pixabay. But at least I am happy that I have been able to make this and I am looking forward to the photo that I will receive as a gift on 26 November.

My source photo's ... all taken by me, of which the second photo on itself is a real failed photo. In this project it was useable.