dry spell

david1701

david1701

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Anyone got any tips for a photographic dry spell

seems to have hit me today that I haven't taken anything I like for ages and I have a pile of un pp'd images that I cba to look at (or even pull from cards)

I have a long term goal of making this my life (and job) and right now I feel I don't have 'it' that makes the photo art and gives it value I look at my images and see poor ideas, poor execution (all the time) and shots that are more luck than judgment

today I have been generally quite maudlin and right now I can't sleep which isn't helping but I'm sure there is more to this than a hangover and some insomnia as I have felt it coming for a while just ya know it all hit in the car today that I don't know if what I am doing is right and if I am good enough for where i wanna be

gonna go watch that ZA vid about this hope it helps some
 
Count it as a blessing if you are remembered for one great piece of work, in any field. In the meantime, hone your skills and do what needs to be done to support yourself, your future responsibilities and your interests over the rest of your life.

Being our own worst critic is normal. Read the last chapter from "On being a photographer". Slow down and think more. You'll still hate your work, but have less to deal with. Don't discard stuff, because the passage of time will allow you to enjoy your shots and see them in a completely different light.
 
i've hit on the same issue - i dont seem to want to take any pictures.
i'm a bit weird, i get people comment on how good some of my pictures are, but as soon as someone says one bad thing about a shot (bad composition, crap PP) i'm completely demotivated and stop taking pictures.

i am also like you - i see all the bad in my photos, even when everyone is praising them. i constantly think that people are just humouring me, and i genuinely believe that my shots aren't any good. take my Xbox Controller picture, there is so much about that picture that i hate and i would never have uploaded it if someone hadn't demanded i did (i would have just deleted it), yet people like it and i cant see why :P

how do i overcome it ? i look at the kit i have, realise that i really should be using it, find something in my room to take a picture of and just take pictures until i've had enough.

sometimes i produce a good image :P
 
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I wouldn't say that I get demotivated about taking photographs, it's just that it seems I 'forget' that I have a half decent camera lying around in the house, and it gets unused for weeks/months at a time.

To get around this, I have just undertaken to do a 52 project (idea taken from this forum) which means that I am now committed to take at least one photograph per week for the next year. In reality I will probably end up taking a lot more than that, which can only be a good thing.
 
hah, i committed myself to a 365 - took 8 pictures and gave up.

maybe a 52 would have been more sensible :P
 
I see what you are saying about having a ggreat camera, but I think that that is half my problem - I have good kit I want more kit and I get hung up about the kit and the technical side of things and produce technically good utterly boring and valueless photographs :(

not 100% I am getting my point accross
 
put a picture up, and then tell us what you think is wrong with it.
 
I have had one or two dry spells. I've found the best thing to do is go with the flow and don't push it.

The first time I kept pushing and pushing myself to get out, and I just ended up with stacks of mediocre shots that I never processed - never even deleted the howlers. I still have them...

Now if I don't feel like picking the camera up I just don't. I read and post here. I play some games. I fettle with my car or computers. Then without warning my desire to photograph stuff will return full force and often with a different approach.

Another approach I use is to combat the frustration of processing lots of raw files. I simply don't. I take great pleasure in getting rid of the howlers, and narrowing down what I will process only to the best shots, and by best I will take maybe the top 5 from the day. Sometimes I post em up sometimes I don't.

The clear thing is if you are loosing the will, you need to try something different if anything at all.
 
I kinda pushed at it today, sat up all night looking at images from the greats and from interestingness on flickr. Found some stuff I liked.

Went to sleep when the sun came up, blew the day off.

Feel better now, recharging batts changing backs and uploading cards with some tunes

thinking if I can keep crisisies of faith to a 24 hour period every year/few months I'll make it through and get better some
 
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