Life often throws us curve balls and creativity is either propelled into something magical or completely stalls. For me, it stalled. Depression kicked the creativity right out of me. Don't get me wrong, I wanted it. I wanted it bad. I've always been creative, I've always used my creativity as an outlet to distract from the hardships of life. But this time, I couldn't grab it. I tried everything too. I bought a new camera, watched videos, read blogs, and even just made myself take photos of anything. I just wasn't inspired by anything. I eventually just stopped trying. I let that beautiful new camera sit in a cabinet. I did everything else but photography.
Then in 2017, it rained. It rained, and rained, and rained. In California, this was rare. We had so much rain they finally ended our seven-year drought. Even then, it kept on raining. We had mudslides, flooding, and my little town was just not equipped for that kinda rain. Sports were canceled because fields were flooded. It was so much rain. That rain saved me though. It saved my creativity. I walked out my front door and saw it. It was right there the whole time, this enormous aloe plant. The rain had left these beads of water all over it. It was glorious, it was wonderful. I grabbed that new camera, slapped my macro lens on it, and started shooting. I'd move around, squat, get low, up high...all different angles. Those beads of water were on every inch of that aloe, on every spider web spun during the seven years of dryness. It was then I started photographing again, and then I learned to love it again.
