Regenerate, rest.
Make time for yourself to recover.
For about 5 months of the year, from about May to September, I don't take any photographs outdoors in Qatar. For those of you who live here, you will understand why, but for the uninitiated, the heat coupled with humidity (mainly the humidity) and the laws of my biology and the tech of the camera do not permit for it.
I would often spend those summer months working on indoor projects, macro, portrait, fun personal projects, but this year I took a break… Why?
I remember in a history class in school, a teacher was talking about how in agriculture, farmers would leave some of their fields fallow. Leaving a filed fallow (unplanted, left alone) allows the land to rest, to regenerate itself. No crops are grown, the land does not have to ‘give’ of itself. This can happen for years and when the farmer once again sows seeds, the land is rich with nutrients to feed those tiny plants and help them grow for us all to enjoy at our tables.
I think we can all learn something from that, we need extended periods of quiet time, we need to let our minds wander and sometimes work on other things to expand our creative thinking and do other things…
For me and my family, our fallow time was travel. We hadn’t seen some members of our family for years, due to Covid-19, due to other commitments and several other factors. But in 2022 we spent a lot of time with family in the UK, in Denmark and in Egypt. We made connections again, we spent time outdoors and we refreshed ourselves and filled our emotional buckets with all of that good stuff.
At the end of September, I will begin to head out again with the camera. My rested mind ready to wander and yet focus again on the images I have in my mind, but am yet to capture… The FIFA World Cup comes to town in a few weeks and there are several road closures, so for me it will be a time to visit the quiet deserts, away from the crowds and still enjoy a few games on the TV with my family.
Here’s to cooler weather, some great photography opportunities and making new connections…
Remember to allow your mind to be fallow from time to time, remember to be offline and recall the joy of silence and peace.