Hello everyone, hello from Innsbruck, in Austria
We got here... gosh, almost 3 days ago already
I haven't left the apartment much since then, to be honest
And sure, there are good reasons why I haven't
I had a lot of things to catch up on
Also, it's nice to have a break from so much driving, after driving through all Spain, France and Germany
And, of course, the weather. It hasn't stopped raining since we got here
and the temperatures have just plummeted in the last 2 days
When we got here the highs were around 60 degrees, the lows were in the 40s
Right now, the highs are in the 40s and the lows in the 20s
It's not that I'm afraid of the cold, but of what it means: rain in the city means snow in the mountains
Which sounds great, but my car is not properly equipped for driving in winter conditions
I highly respect mountain roads in winter conditions
I had a couple of very scary moments in the US
I prefer to stay out of the roads when the conditions are not good
But as I said, all of these are just excuses that I've been making up
because, at the very least, I could've gone for a few walks around the city and
sure, I did but they were very short, I was not making any images or anything like that
The truth is, this place is very nice, and warm, it's very cozy and comfortable
I can eat chestnuts while I watch some YouTube videos
The problem is that when I don't go out, I don't feel inspired, I don't feel motivated
It makes me feel lazy, and this piles up
This is a cycle that the longer I let it grow, the harder it becomes to break
The only way to do it the only way to break this cycle
is by just simply getting out there and doing something, creating something
And that's what we're gonna do right now
And I personally find that the best way to get out of a rut
is to keep it simple and to keep it short
That's what I'm doing today, I'm going on a very short hike that is nearby the apartment
I came to this part of Innsbruck called Hungerberg, I just love the name
It's very, very close to where we are staying and there's usually a cable car that runs year-round
all the way to the top of the mountain, there is a big mountain just behind us
But it's closed once a year for a couple of weeks for inspection works
and of course, those 2 weeks are happening right now
It's going to reopen just the day before we leave
Which is good news, I guess, because we'll get to use it at least once and go to the top
You can still hike up there, not all the way to the top, but very, very close
I'm not gonna be doing that today
As I said, I'm gonna be keeping it simple and short, but maybe in the future, in the next few days
This is just to check out the place and know what to expect from here
It's beautiful around here, look at all the fall colors on the trees
Yes, it's true, you can hear the noise of the city far away, but it's still very nice
What I'm trying to do here today, the goal for today, is not to make images
That would only put pressure on me and lead to frustration
I haven't made a single..., I mean, I took a photo at the beginning of the hike but that was it
I haven't made another single image and I'm ok with that because the purpose for today is to
To do what I like to call "Build momentum"
I believe that starting anything is the hardest part
no matter if you are talking about running, the first mile is always the hardest one
or if you're talking about photography, getting out there
and the first photos are always the hardest ones, but then it gets easier
you might know the book "The war of art" by Steven Pressfield
I highly recommend that book and another one of his that is called "Do the work"
I read them a long time ago and I actually intend to read them again soon
because there is a lot of information there and they need more than one read
to assimilate all that information
But in those books he talks about a concept that he calls the "resistance"
The resistance is any kind of excuse that you make up so you don't do anything that you are afraid of
something that you fear
and by fear, we're not talking about my fear of driving in winter conditions on ice or snow
That'd be reckless on my part
We are talking about creating something, writing a book, taking photos
sharing them, creating a photo book or doing an exhibition
We are fearful that that is going to expose us
That that's gonna make us vulnerable
That happens to me, sometimes I wanted to create some YouTube videos
with my opinion about some topic
I ended up not making them because you know, it's just my opinion and maybe no one would care
or maybe everyone would think otherwise, or they'd think less of me if I shared my opinions on some topics
It's that fear of creating something, of sharing something,
or the excuses that I've been making up these past 2 days to not get out here
because it's too cold, it's really comfortable at home
Those things that he calls the resistance
It's the same idea that I was talking about earlier, it's about that cycle
that builds up and that is very hard to break
Today is not about creating great images, even though if that happens that'd be great
Today's about breaking that cycle, about beating that resistance and about building momentum
A momentum that will get me going for the rest of my time here in Innsbruck
and for hopefully, the rest of the trip
All right, made it through the forest and look at that, that's beautiful
You can see... well, I can see at least part of Innsbruck there, and you can see more mountains there
It is beautiful around here
That is a little shelter / restaurant that I think is open year round
I'm going to try to keep going farther up to see how far I can go on these mountains
see if I can reach some snow
The screen on this camera is not working very well
It usually fixes itself... there you go, you just have to hit it a few times and it works again
You probably can hear the noise, there is some heavy machinery working up there
yeah, this is not exactly the wilderness, as you can see
but still, really beautiful and for photos it might be even better
There is a car coming right now, well, I wasn't expecting that
Anyway, as I was saying, a few years ago
A few years ago this would have bothered me and annoyed me quite a lot
because I was looking for just pure nature and pure wilderness
But now I find more interesting to actually photograph stuff like this, some human structures
or some sign of human activity, in the middle of nowhere, or in weather like this, very eerie and moody
I think it gives the images some character
Sometimes nature can be just too beautiful
and that's awesome
but sometimes for the images I find that this kind of landscapes / scenes work better
Looks like there's quite a bit of traffic here
It's so much better on this side of the mountain
It was way too loud on the other side with all that machinery
but this is exactly what I meant by that I look for a little human touch in the landscapes
This is an example, it's not the best example
it's a sign that I can contrast against the trees in the background
I think it looks pretty nice
The battery's about to die
Look at this place
And take a listen
You can hear the highway very far away, but otherwise, you can't hear anything
You can't hear anything and the mountains around are so beautiful and this atmosphere
With this fog, it's just so cool
I think I'm pretty close to the to the cable car, to where the cable car goes through
Maybe I can make some images there of those cables disappearing in the void and the emptiness
Hopefully, maybe, but yeah, this is beautiful around here, look at those trees!
This is exactly what I needed for today
That's one of the towers for the cable car and, how cool is that view? You can see the cables
Well, that's cool, I guess they are testing or trying the cars
They could make for a good image, I wasn't ready this time
I recorded the video, but I didn't have time to take photo. Next time, hopefully
Okay, so that was super cool but the view from here is just something else
Not on this side, but on every other side
Here, you get the view up the mountain
Here you see all the mountains to the side, sunset is happening right now
There's a slight pink color to the sky that you can't probably see through the camera and through the video right now
But yeah, it's super beautiful and down there you can see
the cables going down, the city of Innsbruck, the lights are being turn on
Camera died, but I was saying that you can see Innsbruck down there
The lights are being turned on right now, because sunset is going happen in just a few minutes
and that means that I should start thinking about going down, because I don't know this place well enough
I'm not too far from the car, probably just 20 minutes away
But still, I like to play it safe, I'm going to head back
This landscape is just incredible and I can't believe that I have it pretty much in my backyard for the next 10 days
and this is the perfect place to come to, even if the weather is bad and even if I don't
feel safe on the roads, because I don't really have to drive, I can just walk up here and that is amazing
Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful view, I'll be back here for sure
It's time to head back down now
Finally made it back to the car
I always find myself hiking in the dark for some reason
It's well past sunset, but made it, going to just drive back home
Alright, so it's a couple of days later, I just want to wrap this video up
I'm happy to report that what I was trying to do a couple of days ago, worked
Yesterday, I went on another hike, a much longer hike, and today I visited a couple of nearby towns
So I'm getting out more often
I'm getting images as a result of that
and I've gone a little bit crazy, made a decision that I will probably regret very soon
but I've started a daily vlog on my Instagram TV
I'm going to leave the link down below for those who don't follow me on Instagram
or just want to check that out, yeah...
You might be thinking that all of this is easy for me to say
because I'm here in Innsbruck, it's a beautiful location and getting out is easy
Well, I have to tell you that it wasn't easy for me at first, I had to face that resistance
that happens no matter where you are
because it is within you, it's not anything to do with the location
It's everything to do with the person
I can guarantee you that no matter where you are, no matter where you live in the world,
there is an image to be made
I have a video that I made a few weeks ago
I'm going to link it here, about what to photograph
it could be anything, and you can find inspiration anywhere
But I'd love to hear what you have to say about this, of course
I read all the comments, I'm just now getting back to all of you
I haven't for weeks because I didn't have any time
But I promise that now I will start being more reliable with that kind of stuff
Anyway, enough for today
Thank you so much for watching again, see you in the next one