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# 009 - When Creativity Feels Low: Lessons from Amsterdam
- URL: https://www.luisnatera.photo/009-when-creativity-feels-low-lessons-from-amsterdam/
- Published: 2025-10-13T19:39:56.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-15T07:21:06.000Z
- Description: A weekend in Amsterdam reminded me that creativity has its ups and downs — and that sometimes, the best thing we can do is simply keep looking.
- Author: Luis Natera
- Tags: amsterdam, cities, social media, street photography, xt50

Hello dear reader!

Welcome to another issue of this newsletter. This week I want to talk about creativity. To break up the text, I’ll include some photos from that I took around Amsterdam during the past weekend.

In this issue:

- Seeing Amsterdam over the weekend
- Dealing with creativity lows
- Photos around the city

This past weekend, I got to see the Amsterdam from a different perspective, as a tourist in my own city. While showing the city to family that were visiting us, it was a good opportunity to carry the camera with me, and take some shots as we wandered through the city center.

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Photography, creativity, cities.

I must say, it wasn’t my most photographic weekend. I don’t know why, probably it was one of those times in when creativity feels low. And that’s fine. I have come to accept that creativity, like other emotions, follows a [rhythm](https://www.luisnatera.photo/002-on-rhythm-consistency-and-progress/) of ups and downs. The important thing is to be consistent.

![Amsterdam street scene captured during a low-creativity day](https://storage.ghost.io/c/19/ae/19ae7b7e-3267-4ec9-a3d4-d56fe8dd66fb/content/images/2025/10/DSCF0217.jpg)

And consistency was the key. Today, when I started looking at the photos from the weekend, I saw some moments that caught my eye, and small stories worth telling. From little corners in the street to a random encounter with a group of people doing parkour. Consistency in carrying the camera with me was the difference between capturing that moment of time, or not.

![Family walk through Amsterdam finding unexpected photographs](https://storage.ghost.io/c/19/ae/19ae7b7e-3267-4ec9-a3d4-d56fe8dd66fb/content/images/2025/10/DSCF0220.jpg)

There are times in which we -or at least I- don’t feel 100% “in the zone” or with the sharpest eye. And that’s ok. It’s part of the process, part of being creative. As long as we recognize that it’s just a moment, embrace it, and build from it.

![Urban detail discovered while pushing through a creative low](https://storage.ghost.io/c/19/ae/19ae7b7e-3267-4ec9-a3d4-d56fe8dd66fb/content/images/2025/10/DSCF0224.jpg)

In a world and time where we are constantly bombarded with success stories, where social media makes it seem like everyone is always performing at their best (remember it’s a performance) it’s good to be reminded that not everyone is creating, winning, or shinning all the time.

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Photography, creativity, cities.

Maybe that’s one of the lessons that photography has had in me: to keep looking, even when the light isn’t perfect, or when I don’t feel “creative”. Because in between the dull or “every day” moments, there’s always something happening. Keep looking, it will reveal itself.

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That’s it for today! If you enjoyed this issue, **share it with a friend!** Know someone that might need a reminder to keep looking? Send it their way, it might inspire them too.

Luis