087 - Welcome Back! The Travel and Adventure Photography School Returns!

 Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back everybody. Whew. That feels good to say. After 16 months away from behind the microphone. I'm Robert Massey. This is the Travel Image Photography School, and I am beyond stoked that we are bringing this back to you, that we have found a way to bring this podcast back live cuz damn, did I miss bringing this out here.

Did I miss talking to all y'all and discussing creativity and some of the ways we can bring more art and more photography and more travel and adventure into the world around us.

One of the big things you'll notice is this, audio's gonna sound way, way different than anything else I've produced. That is because I'm outta the studio, I'm outta the office. I'm not actually behind a mic in front of a computer

I am literally on a pathway beside the Bow River in beautiful and fantastic Banff National Park. I'm walking right now up to Surprise Corner staring at the Banff Springs Hotel. I can't ask for a better place to be able to talk about adventure and creativity.

 This is one of the ways that I have discovered that we will be able to start doing this podcast again, is making it a little less polished, a little less finished. You're gonna hear some birds, some other people, some cars, hopefully some water and some wind and some beautiful nature sounds as well. What that means is we're gonna be doing podcasts while I am canoeing, while I'm out walking, maybe a few times when I'm out for trail runs. Who knows? We're gonna get me out on these trails and giving away some knowledge and some information, doing some interviews with folks out in the great outdoors. A lot of it taking place in the beautiful Banff National Park.

Really one of the big things that happened two and a half years ago for me was taking on a dream job for me where I get to work with, manage and create content in Banff National Park.

This means I get to work with beautiful and fantastic creators, wonderful models and people. I'm running photo shoots and video shoots and getting to live in one of my favorite places on the entire planet.

I couldn't ask for a better place to be, but what it does mean is I ran into a bit of creative burnout. My full-time day job is creating content. It's thinking about content, producing photos producing video, working through long-term strategy around those things, and that meant that something had to start giving.

I tried to keep running the podcast almost for the first year that I was in this position, and eventually it caught up to me. Part of the reason I wanna be in Banff, and part of the reason I love doing the type of photography that I do is I get to adventure and I get to be in the mountains and I get to be outdoors but having a job that dedicates that much time and creative energy and then also needing to produce my own photography work on the side and editing. I didn't have enough time to be outdoors and enjoying creating the podcast and creating photos and doing everything. And something had to give. And the podcast was, was the thing that gave.

I'm inside a lot of my day when I'm not in productions and shooting and when I'm done that I don't wanna be sitting in front of a computer anymore. I wanna be out on the trails and I wanna be out on the water. And so we've found a way that we think will work really, really well to be able to get this podcast back up and running.

Cuz, I've missed it so much. It's, been something I talk about all the time and I miss being able to discuss things with everybody and create community around this and. And talk about everything I've learned in 10, 15 years of being in the creative industry. So yeah, wanted to get this going again.

 All right, so let's talk about the actual reason that all of this went on hiatus. And that was creative burnout. A year and a half of running photography business running this podcast, all the learnings around it and working full-time directly in the creative industry, setting up productions, writing blogs, running content, doing all those kind of pieces.

And it was nothing but creativity 24 7. And it admittedly led to the point where I didn't start running out of ideas necessarily. I stopped wanting to create new things and I stopped wanting to challenge myself to learn and grow and present the best possible work that I could in this podcast, in my photography and in my day-to-day work.

What that meant was everything kind of suffered. And so what I want to talk about today, is the things I have done over the last year and a bit to really work through those issues with creative burnout, to identify when it was occurring and how I helped overcome this. Now, not at all is this meant as a replacement for properly talking to a mental health professional or doing your own work or finding the pieces that help for you.

But what I'm hoping that this does is this helps you identify when you're hitting a point of creative burnout. It helps you avoid hitting those points. And if you feel like you're in there, it gives you some strategies and tools that you can try.

And if this isn't something you've experienced and this isn't something that you have suffered with, awesome, super stoked for you. But there are a lot of people in the creative industry who do suffer from creative burnout and don't feel like they have anywhere they can go to, to deal with it and to have somebody to talk to and listen to openly and have some ideas that this is what's happening to them.

Some people just think it's like, oh, I've hit a creative wall, or, oh, I just don't have the ideas anymore. That's not at all the case. What this really is, is it's a mental health issue that's going on, and it's actually something because creatives need space. We need downtime. We need our brains to rest and not constantly be in the mode of creating something to be able to come up with the best possible ideas.

All right, so let's get into it. Firstly, identifying creative burnout. So I just kind of addressed it a little bit right off the bat, but really it's when you start to notice a few different things. And for me, these were all very, very personal. One is that I noticed that my want to go out and create images was dwindling.

I didn't feel like carrying my camera with me places. I didn't really wanna deal with the weight of it and the size of it, and having it on my back and having to stop and shoot and do all those things. When I was done work for the day. When I was done being in that creative space, I wanted to put on my running vest or put on my bike helmet or snowshoes or whatever time of year it was, and just leave.

I didn't want to take my camera with me, and that was an interesting moment. That's one of the few times since I took up photography that I didn't want my camera with me, that I didn't want it to be front center with everything that I was doing. And that was weird. That was a struggle, and it took a long time to identify why that was happening.

At first, I saw it's like, oh, I just wanna be able to run faster. I wanna be able to go further. I don't want to risk breaking the camera if I slip and fall. But really what it amounted to was I, I wanted away from the creative space. I wanted to be able to shut my brain down and just, just go and not have to worry about looking for those perfect angles and not have to worry about anything.

And it took a while to come to the fact that that's okay. I live in the mountains. I live to explore in the mountains. And what that really means is that sometimes I'm gonna go on a big quest and I don't want that giant camera with me. I don't want to have to think about taking photos. Sometimes I just want to be in the moment and experience it, and I want to just, run a trail and see how fast I can do it.

I wanna be able to focus purely on the physical aspect and being there in the moment. So the first thing that you wanna know is, is yeah, when you start to identify that you don't want to be doing your creative endeavor, and you don't wanna pick up your camera or you don't wanna pick up the pen or whatever it is that is your creative outlet and you don't want to be doing it anymore. And then to come to terms with the fact that that's actually okay, that is one of the ways that you can actually combat creative burnout is that you, you just stop doing that thing all the time.

So there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean you don't like that creativity anymore. It doesn't mean that you don't want to be doing it. It just means that you need a little bit of a break. And to give yourself that grace to be able to stop and breathe a little bit. So, identify that you don't wanna be doing that creativity thing anymore all the time and be okay with that and give yourself the space because I promise you it's gonna come back again. Like now, I'm out with my camera quite frequently. I'm shooting a lot, not just for work, but personally I'm heading out when I get the chance. And it's, it's fabulous. But I also know that like today, I didn't have my camera with me at all.

I was up at Lake Minniwanka, climbed Tunnel Mountain, went for a long bike ride and my camera was nowhere with me. I took a couple photos of my phone and that was it. But I just wanted a day where I wasn't thinking about my camera being with me

The next thing that I noticed that was happening is when I did need to create things, it all became very routine.

There was nothing really unique or interesting, and I wasn't wanting to create something different. And I really noticed this in particular with my photography. So I'd take my camera out and I'd start looking for angles and it used to be that I would crawl on the ground and I would lay down, I'd climb up on huge rocks, I'd dangle the camera over the ledges of bridges and do all these other fun things. And that kind of stopped. I'd take my camera, I would be, oh, this is pretty, snap a photo, maybe squat a little bit so it wasn't quite at eye level, but, I wasn't getting in there.

I wasn't getting dirty. I wasn't trying to find the things that represent a unique perspective. . And that, spread over. It started in my personal photography and then went into my day-to-day work as well.

I find that, we'd need to write a blog or contact a photographer, create a shot list, do anything like that. And, when I first started, I had all these ideas just pumping through my head constantly. Things that we could do, where we could shoot, who we could shoot with, how we can include people, everything.

It was spectacular. It was full of energy, but it kind of stopped and then I started realizing that, oh my goodness, I have to find one more person. I have to hunt down these models. And everything just became this drag. I didn't, I didn't even enjoy wanting to start thinking about creating these productions because instead of finding life and energy in them, I was finding them just to be a giant suck on my energy.

And that's something that I really needed to identify. It took a long time to realize what was going on, and it didn't actually clue in to that this was the issue right off the bat. It took a little bit and it actually took some conversations with a few of my colleagues and with my wife to, to identify where I was feeling stuck and how I was feeling stuck.

And. I knew that there was something going on and I knew that there was something a little bit funny going on with my creativity, but I couldn't put a finger on it. And I needed that outside voice to, to look at my work, my professional work in photography and at the organization I work at.

And it took some people kind of going, Hey, you know, where's that spark? Where's that fire? Where are those things that that drew you into this work and drew you to doing this?

So, if you're feeling off, if you're feeling like your creativity's not quite there, if it's a day, great rest. Go for a hike. Have a bath, whatever it is that you do to relax your brain.

But if it's a week, if it's two weeks, and if things are just feeling funny. Get up the courage to ask somebody that you trust and somebody that you know is going to listen to you, somebody that you know is going to want to help, and somebody that will give you an honest answer.

I find that there's so many people that I love dearly in my life, but I would never ask these questions of, because they would never tell me honestly, what is going on. They would just be, oh, it's beautiful, it's fabulous. And I love those supportive people. But in this kind of situation, that's not what you need. You need somebody who's gonna be the honest truth of like, yeah, that kind of sucks. Like, what were you doing? What's going on? Where's your brain at?

And if that's a friend that you have, your partner, a colleague, it doesn't really matter. It needs to be somebody that you know will give you an honest answer and that you trust and that , you're open, willing to listen to.

So, have some open conversations about your work. Reach out to people and be like, Hey, this is how I'm feeling. And, you know, that might help you identify what is going on that might help you identify that there, there might be a little bit of creative burnout going on for you.

So alongside that I actually realized that my relationships with friends, my colleagues were, were actually not doing as well. I moved to the mountains and I was surrounded by these people who live very similar lifestyles to me, who are really interested in very similar things to me.

And I really struggled to connect with people out here. I really struggled to build relationships outside of that direct work product where you have to work with people. And I actually spent that first summer out here exploring a lot by myself because I, I was struggling to find that balance and to find where I fit in with people and where things were going.

And once I put the podcast on hiatus and once I started to identify a creative burnout, my relationships with my colleagues and with my partner and with my other friends really flourished. Last summer we were adventuring a lot and exploring all over the place, shooting weddings and doing all that kind of fun stuff.

And what that really showed me was that I wasn't able to fully connect with those who were around me because I was in such a difficult situation with my own mental health and with my own creative burnout. It actually was preventing me from engaging with people and being real and honest and upfront, and it was something that was just kind of nibbling away at me.

And, and people who didn't know me, didn't know that. They just like, oh, and we just, we just didn't connect. They're lovely people. I could tell they thought I was a lovely human and we just, we couldn't connect and it's because I just did not have any more bandwidth to be with people. And so if you find that something else that's going on for you, if there's people that you're struggling to connect with people or there's people that you had connected with and they're seeming to be pulling back from you a little bit, it could be a sign that there's a little bit of creative burnout going on for you

Now that's what I kind of started to notice.

For you, the, the signs that you're hitting creative burnout could be entirely different. Or they could line up really well. It's, it's a giant mental health game without being in your shoes and being there with you and how you understand things you can't know for sure.

And so if you feel like this is something you're struggling with, if you even somewhat identify with what's what I'm saying right now, you really need to go and meet up with a mental health professional and have a real conversation and , they'll be able to help you the most.

But I can offer you some skills that have worked really well for me. So we talked about the first one off the bat. It's being okay with not wanting to be creative all the time and actually giving yourself space to not be creative all the time. And this is really hard, especially when creativity is your job.

And to find that balance that you need. Be okay not having your camera with you. Be okay, not looking for angles and shooting all the time and living a little bit more in the moment than a lot of us photographers tend to. I know we're always looking for that perfect light and that perfect angle and that perfect spot, and that definitely for me anyway, takes me out of moments a lot, especially if I'm biking or running or doing something that's a little bit more high activity.

I don't wanna be also looking for angles while I'm, while I'm biking down a trail. I just want to enjoy the fact that I'm on some dirt and I'm flying down and it's, it's fun and I'm laughing my head off.

Number two, reach out to people who support you. That is going to be a huge, huge benefit for you.

We've talked a lot about that already.

Number three is actually, weirdly enough for me finding a totally different creative outlet. Photography is my main way of creating and videography is along the side there too. I cut videos and I'm starting to learn how to film things and I actually had to turn around and look for a totally different outlet for my creativity.

So, a while back I actually took up drawing during the pandemic and I kind of turned back to that a little bit. I started bringing out a notepad and a pencil, and what I found is that, drawing for me is something that I have to look inwards to do, not outwards. And so, photography and videography for me are about capturing what's in front of me and what's going on in the things that I'm documenting.

But drawing is not, I'm not drawing a landscape that's sitting in front of me. I'm creating a vision in my head. So it's a very internal process, whereas my other activities and creativity were all external.

And so for me to build something internally was a huge break for that other part of my creativity brain, and still scratch that itch of wanting to make something and be out there creating.

All right. And the next thing that I found really helped was making space for reflection. Making space for reflection is about finding out what truly matters to you and looking back on that, on those moments.

So it could be reflection every day. It could be a reflection at the end of a week at the end of a shoot, whatever it is, but making space for you to recollect your own internal thoughts and not just constantly have outside input coming in. I find that a lot of the times I am always engaged with something and it's always an external input.

That's one of the biggest things I found was taking time to have some internal input going on and to be just quiet, even for five minutes and just actively think about what's going on around me.

You could do this as meditation, you could do this as a journal. You could, you know, just monologue into a camera if that's helpful for you. Whatever it is that's going to help you have those moments of reflection, you need to do them. And I actually found that when I started doing those, that is really when the creative tap started turning back on.

For me, that is really when I was like, ah, there's an Aurora show, it's 3:00 AM but I gotta go out. Like, yeah, I have to get up for work in four hours, but come on, like, look at this show. Whereas previous to this past March, April, I would see the Aurora and it would be 10 o'clock at night, I'd be like, oh, I should go do that, but I don't want to.

I wanna stay home. But once I started making space for that reflection and working on, looking back on my day and actively understanding what impacted me, what I liked, what I didn't like, all of a sudden I was hopping outta bed to, to go and shoot things and to be up at 2:00 AM And it was amazing.

It made a world of difference for me. So I fully suggest you find something that works for you. It could be journaling, could just be internal reflection, could be meditation. Just something that works for you to really be able to focus on yourself.

All right. I am a huge proponent of creativity challenges. We've talked a lot about that in some other episodes, and, I challenged myself when I'm out shooting a lot too. I was a terrible astrophotographer before moving to the mountains, and now I am a mildly terrible astrophotographer. I have definitely gotten significantly better, but I'm definitely still not great at it.

And so I'm challenging myself to make that better and I'm, I'm getting there and I want to get there and that's where I'm working towards. But when you're in a moment of creative burnout, when you are in that space of creativity is hard, the creative tap is turned off, you just can't do it, and , you're struggling to even output when you are shooting, if you are even out shooting.

You don't want to be encountering those challenges. What you're doing to yourself there at that point is literally setting up roadblocks to your creativity. And sometimes those challenges can be a great way of forcing you to think differently and forcing you to engage. But that's when you feel like your creativity needs a boost, not when you are at a point of total creative burnout, which is, I do not want to be doing this thing.

And you are actively resisting and fighting against it. So challenge yourself when you feel like your work has become stagnant. Do not challenge yourself when you're in a moment of creative burnout. Instead, when you feel like you're ready to pick up that camera again, when you feel like you're ready to get back out and start creating again and adventuring again and carrying that camera with you, shoot what you love, shoot what gives you joy.

Shoot what inspires you. It doesn't matter if it's gonna be good or bad or anything like that. What you want to do is you want to take that camera up and you want to actively document the things that matter the most, the things that literally fill you with life.

I thoroughly enjoy shooting astro photos. But if I would have stepped into that challenge of wanting to learn how to do it and struggling with it, and then seeing admittedly the horrendous results that were coming out of learning how to shoot the Aurora and learning how to shoot the stars then I probably would've kept putting my camera down over and over again because I would've kept telling myself, I'm terrible. This is horrendous. I don't know why I'm doing this.

So instead I actually turned around and I found some people to photograph. I got to do a few engagement shoots. I did a couple of weddings, and really what I find truly amazing is being able to take photos of people in amazing spaces and helping them tell those stories.

And that's what really brings me life. I like shooting landscapes. I like doing all the other typical photography things, but man, working with other people to create something, that's what just lights me up. In a beautiful way. I come away from a 14 hour shoot day. That's been huge, and we've been on site for a long time.

We've been bouncing all over the park, and I'm just thrilled, like I'm happy to get up for work again the next morning and bounce around into the office, and I just want to be there and that's what I want for you. If it's being quiet and shooting landscapes and running some long exposures, or if it's astro or whatever it is that gives you creative joy, go and do it.

That is going to be the best thing you can do once you, feel ready to start being creative again. And give yourself grace with those images. Give yourself grace with what you're making and how you're feeling about it, and understand that you're coming out of a point where you're not feeling your best, you're not doing your best, and honestly, the work you create might not be its best.

But the point isn't the work at this point. The point is to engage yourself and engage that creativity and find joy in it. And that's really what I've worked on in the last year and a half or so, was actually , just finding the joy in creativity again, and finding the joy in wanting to be out and shooting things.

So yeah, that's it. That's, that's what I've been struggling with for the last year and a half. That's why this podcast went on hiatus for so long and why we had to fight to find a way to bring it back because. One of the things that brings me joy in my creativity is talking about it with people and engaging a community of people to bring more art into this big, beautiful world of ours. And getting to talk about it and hearing your stories back about your creativity and your photography and your travels and your adventures.

That's why I had to bring this back. I was missing all of you, and I was missing this community in this space. So, yeah. Let's keep it going. I promise. In the future these will not be episodes all about mental health and things that are going on, but I thought this was a great way to start to come back again and to have this conversation because our mental health is important and it makes a huge difference to everything.

It's one of the most important things you can do. And so work on that, build it, and you'll actually find that by building up your mental space, you're gonna become a way stronger creative. All right.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed this first walking and outdoors. You can hear the train coming at the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed the first one that was outdoors and walking around. There's gonna be a lot more of these coming in the near future.

We are going to start doing episodes where we bring people onto the podcast a lot more so you get the chance to learn from some of these spectacular creatives that are around this park and that are all over the world. There are so many diverse and amazing opinions out there, and thoughts and perspectives on things I wanna bring as many of them to you as I possibly can.

And we're gonna be doing 'em outside.

We're gonna be doing them while we're out on adventures. And so some of these episodes, you're gonna hear us talking while we're on a trail. Some of them you're gonna hear us talking while we're sitting at the top of a mountain or in a canoe or just, you know, on a patio somewhere, chilling and hanging out.

But if you're anything like me, you're not standing still while you're listening to something like this. You're not waiting , for life to come towards you. You are actively on your feet and you're going and you're pursuing after something. And so I figure let's bring that mentality to this space, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

 And that's it. Thank you for coming back on this journey with me. I am super stoked that we get to be here and doing this. And yeah, if you have anything that you wanna hear about, talk about, understand a little bit better, a creative industry that you'd like to look into a little bit more, or type of creative you'd like to hear a little bit more from, let me know.

I'll see what I can do. I'll see if I can arrange anything. You can reach me on Instagram at Robert Massey Photography. You can find all the other contact information on my website at robertmasseyphotography.ca. . Reach out, even if it's just to say, Hey, or if you got a question or anything. I love talking to people about this stuff and my goal here is to encourage more people to bring their art out into the world.

So I'd love to hear from you and love to hear about your travels and your adventures and your creativity. Thank you so much. I'm so looking forward to where this journey goes.

Let's adventure. Bye for now.