I’m on a roll these days. A roll creating imagery filled with delicate branches and fading leaves. It’s my own personal quest… Can I create just one more? Can I convey the grace and beauty of this transitory time? Can I create another piece that touches my soul? Maybe touches another’s?

What do you think?

Sometimes the thought pops into my head, I shouldn’t share yet another image like this. People will get bored. I remember feeling that last year with my bare trees too. But out of that came a body of work, Treescapes. Out of that came a more cohesive vision than I’ve had before in my photography.

So… maybe a fascination with something is really needed to develop vision. The desire to try to create just one more piece with a specific subject, a specific technique, a specific feeling isn’t so wrong.

I only need to look to the great masters, painters like Picasso and Van Gogh, to see they repeated themselves. They would often paint and repaint the same subject and scene, varying things slightly to see what happened. Why do I feel I shouldn’t do the same?

Maybe I’ll reframe it… I’m not repeating myself, I’m exploring the theme. I’m seeing how far I can take it. And when I get bored with it, I’ll move on. Until then, there are still branches with leaves to capture, for a little while yet. Then there are branches without leaves, too. Oh yes, I’ve noticed them. Their time will come.

What about you? Do you worry about repeating yourself, or do you follow your fancy even if it leads to the same place every time? Where do you think this idea that we must create something “novel” every time comes from?