Images by John 'K'
Life as seen through my lens…
Going green in B&W: Dealing with an inspirational blockage
Posted by on March 2, 2011
If you’ve been following my work, you’ll know that I love to shoot nature. Flowers, the animals in our back yard, the sights we see around us while hiking, and so on… but every now and again I look at the beauty around me and see nothing that I feel the urge to shoot. It’s like I’ve seen it all already – why do I want to shoot it again.
Get me in one of those moments, add in a busy work schedule, and sprinkle liberally with some family “fun” and you have a recipe for a photographer’s block.
I hit one of these earlier this week – I couldn’t think of anything worthy of picking up my camera for, and for someone who has in the past made a point of shooting something every day no matter what, it was a strange feeling to have.
So last night I was sat at my desk, looking up at the ceiling as I tried to compose some thoughts for a presentation I was writing for work, and there above me was this CFL bulb. I looked at the shape and uniform light and suddenly felt the urge to try and capture it. I fired off a few hand-held shots, pulled them into Photoshop, had a play, and this was the end result.
The moral of this little ramble is… if you have hit a block and are lacking inspiration, look at something you wouldn’t normally shoot and just experiment.
Images by John 'K' 
Thanks John for the tips. I stumbled upon your works as I was going through the “recall issues for the D5000 ” I was keen to know more about as I intend to upgrade from Compact to DSLR, but buy an affordable second hand one. Can you be of help ? Do you know if these issues are now resolved and do you know what are the Sr. Nos of the affected cameras ?
I live in Goa, India and the D5000 is on sale in Dubai, UAE, where my bro in law works.
Truely appreciate your photos. My email is given below.
Thanks.
Blasco Fernandes email: blasco@nio.org
Hi Blasco. The D5000 is a very capable camera and I still have a D5000 body that I use as a second camera when I want to travel a little lighter or when I want to shoot in conditions that I don’t want to expose my D7000 to. Products shipped by Nikon have had these issues resolved for some time, but a product purchased second-hand should be checked as it is possible the previous owner(s) got the D5000 before the corrective actions were put in place by Nikon and they might not have known about the recall.