For all those aspiring photojournalists out there…….

I came across the blog of Chicago Tribune photojournalist Alex Garcia while searching for “How to get photojournalism assignments” on Google.  If, like me, you have a compulsion to want to tell stories with your photos, but happen to have the mis-fortune to have your day job get in the way of your photographic aspirations, it can be a long and tough road trying to photograph projects in your spare time. This I experienced last year while working on two projects simultaneously: the 2011 New Zealand Rugby World Cup and the Compassion Centre Soup Kitchen.

Admittedly I felt physically and emotionally exhausted after completing these two projects and for a while, I fell into a bit of a photo-funk and lost my photo-mojo i.e. having plenty of ideas for new projects, but limited energy and motivation. If you ever reach this state, on his blog, Alex Garcia lays out six steps to diagnose this condition (I scored three out of six) and offers plenty of useful tips and advice  for aspiring PJ’s to stay motivated: six traps to your photographic creativity.