It’s spring and time for new things to grow. We retreated to the small mountain town of Fairplay for a weekend before re-planting our roots at the end of the month.

I’ve been so focused on projects, puppy training, work, and life that creative guilty pleasures have fallen by the wayside. In these cases, even small doses are enough to fill my cup and do wonders for self-care.

It’s forced me to be more efficient at squeezing in creative indulgences. That sounds icky at first blush, but it means letting go of the need for perfection and embracing limitations.

Shedding those inhibitions is a skill that requires practice, and exercises like these are wonderful for learning and recalibrating.

For example, when we first arrived, I was having trouble “seeing” and capturing the beauty of our place. After reminding myself that the process is usually messy and complicated, I allowed myself to stew while I explored and tuned my eye to the setting.

This is an uncomfortable but necessary discipline for all creatives to master.

I’m grateful for my wonderful wife and her superpower for finding the most beautiful locations, our pets for being travel troopers, and this little cabin in the mountain valley and the lessons it taught me.

These images were made using Fairplay, a custom-desaturated Classic Chrome Fujifilm recipe with the X100F, one of my favorite travel cameras.

Fujifilm Recipe: Fairplay

Film simulation: Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: 400
WB Shift: R: 4 B: -2
Grain: Weak
Color: -1
Highlight: +1
Shadow: -1
Sharp: -1