Through the winter holidays I spent much of my time on the business side of my photography. Activities included, updating web content, expanding my social media activity, as well as producing and shipping prints to customers. I needed something to jump start my creative juices in the new year. I challenged myself to take 50 pictures, in 50 days, within 50 yards of my home, using only a 50mm lens. With that the #50x50x50x50 challenge was born.
I jumped right in and posted a dozen images taken over as many days. None were portfolio worthy, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to make time to make images and push myself to create on a daily basis.
Around two weeks in I made a trip out to the coast to drop off a print at the Dare County Art Council gallery for the annual Frank Stick art show, and do a bit of landscape shooting, at some locations I had scouted on prior trips. That trip marked the end of my work on the challenge. The trip produced a couple of excellent images, including the cover photo of this newsletter, Lake Mattamuskeet Trees.
I once heard that you must do something 21 times to make it a habit but skipping it as little as two to three times will break the habit. Well between the trip and the processing, printing, and posting of Lake Mattamuskeet Trees, three days past without a creating a challenge image and the streak ended, hence the word “failure” in the title above.
But it wasn’t a complete failure. The goal was to fire my creativity, and the image of the trees is clear evidence that my creative juices are once again flowing. Also, I have rediscovered my oldest lens, a Nikkor 50mm f1.8, circa 1980. Many of my early film images were taken with that lens, but it has been decades since I really put it to use. I prefer to think of the #50x50x50x50 challenge as being on pause. I will likely return to it the next time my muses are mute, and I need a creative kick in the arse.