repetition of blue and shade (2023) (Patreon)

A shot from the way to Bannack that I composed with a square crop in mind. It's fine, I guess? 

I go back and forth with how I feel about minimalist landscape shots; it feels like after having shot so many photos in the past few years where 1) a high-contrast side-evening-light mountain is the focal point 2) the road is the leading eyeline, and it likely criss-crosses itself in the shot and 3) the sky is a cloudless gradient of blue, I should have tried something more ambitious. 

But what, exactly? There's not much else out here, and if I get too ambitious with old houses and cars and people, I'll probably get shot for it. I'm relegated to mountains and skies (at least, for now - perhaps the move to Seattle will spur something). In the meantime, how do I make this view novel in a way that feels meaningful while still also keeping my style?

I have been idly working on fiction again, inspired by reading more of Casey Plett's phenomenal work, and this same theme seems to be cropping up in my writing. A lot of my pay-the-bills writing lately has been relatively rote and unimaginative (which is good, sometimes, in its own right!), but it means that I'm struggling to feel like even my creative writing is interesting or worth the time. I have read so many good books that I wonder how to add something of worth to the library. I have already written so much about being a car enthusiast or a trans woman or a creative etc. that I worry I'm just covering the same ground even when given the endless horizons fiction allows. But that's what I know. It's what I have to work with. 

How do I make the mountain on the horizon feel exciting again?