I didn’t know it yet, but this would become one of my favorite experiences with San Juan photography.
It’s a place I’ve been to before. A place that I was excited to visit for the food. For the weather. And because there was nothing to tidy, nothing to clean, nothing to declutter, nothing to paint, to repair, to wash, to feel guilty about not doing. Because I needed the honest-to-goodness, “I’m actually going to relax this time” break and the vitamin D.
And I packed three lenses for the entire trip; two toy plastic lenses I bought for less than $50 each and a lens that’s permanently fogged up and destroyed because of water damage (it was dropped in a river at an elopement last year).
I was compelled to just take some “bad photos” and I wasn’t sure why at first.
Then I realized it was because I wanted to play. To REALLY play. To have permission to mess up. It’s the same reason you’d be told to draw a bad picture with your left hand to warm up. It’s the same reason you’d play with markers, even though you’ve mastered acrylic paint. It’s the same reason you’d learn a song in a different genre that doesn’t suit you.
I wanted some growth and I had just been feeling a bit stagnant and growth comes from play.
So I went to an island and I played. Nothing counted. Everything counted. It felt good. So here are some photos taken with plastic lenses and a worthless one, making up some really beautiful memories that I absolutely love and cherish from a few days in San Juan this week.
