Text and photos copyright Royce Howland, all rights reserved

Last year was highly fulfilling for me in terms of photography, and I had more goals for this year, building on everything I felt was going well. However, as they say, life is what happens while you’re making other plans. A number of things didn’t work out as needed, and most of my photography goals were scuttled. I fell into a photographic funk, and passed through most of the spring and summer hardly picking up a camera. It was a downward spiral – the more I didn’t photograph, the more I soured about my photography. It took a simple, repeated suggestion and a small pepper plant to help me reconnect with my enjoyment of photography.

Editor's note: This article appeared originally in Mark Graf's blog. Our thanks to Mark for agreeing to republish it here. Mark opens: "Quite a few folks talk about failure as part of the process of learning, especially when it comes to expanding creativity. [It is] part of the process - an actual requirement. You are going to produce some crap - so get over it."