When Life Gets Blurry, Adjust Your Focus

This past year has been a one-two punch of working from home, adjusting to the socially accepted weirdness the pandemic has had on life in general and weathering a colder than usual winter which I haven't experienced in a few years while living in Las Vegas.

All these changes right after one another has had an exhausting affect on me.

I stopped creating; stopped taking photos; stopped post-processing; stopped framing; stopped exploring; stopped being active and if I am being transparent, just stopped being in the now.

My view of the world became a mirage of news headlines and what I could see through the lens of the Internet and the windows at my home. So, yeah, you could say that life got blu-rrr-y (and a little depressing).

It's now March and we are on around day 390 of the pandemic and I woke up this week thinking it's time to adjust the focus. Time to get back to who I am and take life off pause.

But what does that mean? Well for starters it's about changing broken routines formed through these circumstances which we have been living for the past 390 some-odd days with new ones that will refocus us to how we want to live once we press play.

Flipping the script required me to find the one thing that would make me take a look at 2021 differently, or maybe just take a look at the outside again. This is, for starters, starting a vlog to document my journey as a Fine Art Photographer and creator as I get back in the game and re-engage with the outside world. I envision it as a place to speak to people, share my work, my process and the pursuit of my passion for photography. 

You can watch vlog.01 at https://vlog.jmgalleries.com.

So what's my plan? Instead of getting bogged down by the details, my friend Bryan encouraged me to simply pick up the GoPro and started recording. It didn't haven't to perfect, just authentic, he reminded me. And, so after a few days of footage I tossed all the video clips into iMovie and made something.

Honestly though, I probably wouldn't have been able to kick start this episode if it wasn't for a few other people and their encouragement and inspiration: Enok, Dorian, Evan Ranft and my girlfriend Michele.

I will close out this field note with something Evan said in one of his vlogs, "Put the things you want to be known for out there".

So, what are you waiting for?