Creativity is a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. But, you can also overuse the muscle and wear it out. For the last few years, I have been in a stage of extreme output for my creativity. Creating a short documentary now airing on PBS, three travel series totaling 27 episodes, a poetry book, an e-book to help other photographers grow their career, commercial photo and video campaigns, an assignment on every continent in a single year for both editorial and commercial outlets… the list continues. Looking back, I would do it all again, but I also have to admit, I am not surprised my creativity has been at a low.

Taking this road trip around Idaho, Nevada, and Utah has been creatively rejuvenating because my only responsibility is to write and photograph each day. No video, thankfully! Yes, I love video, but the lift is heavier because you need more gear, editing takes longer, and audio is a thing. Meanwhile, focusing on photo and video, which allows me to hone my storytelling craft, is my favorite two mediums. Also, this trip has unlocked some fun creativity that makes me laugh.

I hope this makes you laugh! Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

When Creativity Strikes

In the van, we have the Trelino composting toilet and I have always had this idea to create an Instagram account called “delectable dumps”. Now, I haven’t followed through on this idea and most likely will never follow through, but I think the idea is funny. So, funny that on our rest day, I grabbed the toilet and set up a couple of images that are supposed to make people laugh around pooping in beautiful places, struggling to grab the toilet paper because of the wind, and honestly just good ole fashioned childish humor. Something I am certainly not too old to enjoy.

Outside of the poop jokes, I’ve had a handful of inquires around projects and creating. As a freelance photographer, writer, and filmmaker, I pay my bills with these jobs. So, when an inbound message comes, I am always happy to take a look at the offer and potential job. Most of my work these days are travel-related; tourism boards, expeditions, and the alike. And, today, I got a last minute inquiry from a tourism board.

We exchanged a few emails, hopped on a call, and in the end it wouldn’t work. I would’ve had to be in Ireland within 24 hours. While I wished it would have worked, I appreciated the inbound message (which went to my spam folder EEK), and hope there is something we can do together in the near future. The team I spoke with mentioned future opportunities, so fingers are crossed that it will work out. I’ll keep you all updated if something does happen. Maybe I can do a travel series like this one?

A few ways to promote creativity for myself that could be helpful for you:

Noise canceling headphones, I use the Sonos Ace, and listen to handpan music if writing. No words!
Have a clean space. No visual mess to distract your flow. This includes a phone. Honestly, this has been very hard in the van because I am used to a work station in a room all to myself.
A desk. I am not a fan of working on a bed, a couch, or laying down. Those places are for processing and relaxing.
Avoid TV, YouTube, and all social media. Yes, on this road trip, I have not watched any TV or scrolled social media. I do read books, but not on my phone. The reason, distractions. Falling into a wormhole on these platforms really gets me and I lose all creative drive, so avoid like the plague.

Kristin soaking in the stellar colors at sunset. Photograph by Dalton Johnson, follow him on Instagram.

An Easy Day With a Stunning Sunset

As the day continued, I logged some running miles, wrote countless words, edited images, played the game of telephone with that Ireland client (this honestly took over the entire day), and stretched. I wish I had more to say about today, but honestly, it was a relaxing day. Much needed after the shit-show of climbing we had yesterday and very helpful to start getting caught up on the emails, writing, and photo editing. While this road trip is a personal project with a few paying clients, I’ve noticed I can’t really go full adventure all of the time. To create and publish at a realistic rate I need downtime. Heck, even a simple journal entry like this takes about 2-3 hours to edit the images, write, edit the post, post, and share on social media.

A pattern I’ve noticed about work flow:

two days on - travel and adventure
one day off - to get work done
two days on - travel and adventure
two days off - to get work done
rinse and repeat

This made me laugh and slightly worried: Chestnut chased a cow for a long while. Starting at the van, he barked until the cow ran, then he chased it down a hill for about 10, maybe 15 minutes. The cow never charged him, just ran around bushes in the field. I really hope he doesn’t get kicked. Is that a thing, or is that only horses?

A day behind the computer goes quicker than I could ever imagine. Sunset was here and Kristin shouted to me, “grab your camera, this sunset is stunning!” She was right!