When you stand under the night sky, everything seems to be dark and still. I enjoy such moments and let the silence take over. If you start listening and keep your eyes wide open, what you realise is that the lack of sound doesn’t breed loneliness but a greater sense of belonging. You feel connected to the stars above and your surroundings too. The eyes adjust and the light from stars makes everything visible around with its cool temperature. If you haven’t experienced this phenomenon, I suggest that you go out of the city and try these surreal moments. 

Although my advice today is not limited to the field of art, creativity, photography and filmmaking, I would use photography as an example. Just like this boy standing on the edge of the mountain, looking at the night sky with curiosity, I also once stood in front of a giant canvas called “photography”. In it, were shining examples of many photographers and their amazing work. The more I looked, the more inspiration I drew from the photos, which were like stars, and the more curious I became.  I felt connected to the sky of photography, and when my eyes adjusted, I started seeing the amazing nature of our planet around me with an eye of a photographer. That’s when I started investing in myself besides my nine-to-five job. I acquired a camera, lenses and various equipment within my budget and allocated time for learning the art of photography. I read blogs, watched videos and approached people from whom I drew inspiration. I practised and try to understand my camera better. Just like an astronomer who discovers new stars, I made my own observations and found that the sky is the limit and creativity has no limits. Everything imaginable is possible and all I need to do is learn, practice, improve and repeat. 

That’s all I want to say today. Where I am today in my journey is because I invested in myself to learn new skills, gain knowledge and buy tools that help me in achieving my objectives. I grew personally, but the side effect has been my attempt in passing on my knowledge to others to grow and inspire them as well. Whether you want to be a painter, baker, chef, scientist, photographer, filmmaker, athlete or tailor, you will need to invest in yourself so that you become a tree that bears fruit and provides shares to the ones around it.

Lift your head up, and don’t be distracted by social media, TV series, and other wasteful activities, there is a place for such activities, but they take the back seat. There’s no alternative. I leave you with an image below… that’s me, and that’s you… under the sky of my dreams. All I see are possibilities and ideas with my cameras… what about you? What do you see?

regards

Muji