Bird by Bird Translated to Photography

I've added a new book to my ever growing list of ebook downloads. It is  Ann Lamott's book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.  I discovered the book through my weekly newsletter from Brainpickings. Quite often I find that reading about any kind of creativity, but especially about writing, gets translated in my brain to my pursuit of photography. For example, Lamott writes and I take the audacity to translate it for photography because it so clearly says what photography brings to me:

One of the gifts of being a writer (a photographer) is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing (photographing) motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.

Most of the other quotes by Lamott in the Brainpickings article get translated in my head to what it is like to continue to be a photographer, how to find your way even if the world isn't beating a path to your door and how to be able to find the nourishment you need in the on-going practice of photography.

The name of Lamott's book comes from an incident with her young brother who waited until the last minute to write a report about birds for school. He was overwhelmed with the task ahead of him when his Father gave him a hug and assured him it would be okay. He just had to write it down bird by bird.

Writers write a story sentence by sentence. Photographers photograph a project photograph by photograph. The photograph above is just one photograph from the Port Aransas project.