Losing my mojo

the black fox

the black fox

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Jeff
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Over the course of my long life 76+ years I have indulged in many varied hobbies and sports ,and gradually lost interest for the same reason I’m now starting to feel with my photography
And it’s the reason every time money , it seems the more disposable income you have to throw at something the easier it is to get the results . I.e if I had 10k spare I could get a better camera and lens and archive better results ,but it’s not there to spend so stuck at the level I’m at for now .
Not sure what to do whether to wait things out or just sell the lot and find something else to do .. it’s not just the gear it’s the ancillaries to I.e fuel/ diesel costs limiting travel thus limiting a variation of subjects ,old age and health limiting time spent wandering plus weight of gear limiting it as well ..
Time to sit back and take stock of my direction of travel I think ..
 
Sorry to read that.

It looks like you're putting a lot of effort into your photography as you're factoring in fuel and travel so maybe you could slim these down and try and put the thought of buying new kit to the back of your mind.

I suppose this depends on what your interests are as if you want to shoot a particular bird or animal or location or event then you're going to have to travel so you may need to rethink the whole hobby and decide if you want to continue with it but with different subjects? Maybe just do photography more locally such as macro and local walkabout and when on trips that have a photography side to them but aren't primarily photography related and are generally more day out and holiday related. The weight and cost of the gear will I suppose also be subject dependent as a camera and a small light lens wont be much use for birds in flight.

I get a lot of pleasure from my photography and the vast majority of my pictures are taken on local walks and trips to the seaside. That wont suit everyone and I don't know if more local and casual photography of less challenging subjects not needing so much larger and heavier kit will interest you but maybe it could be something to think about just to keep it going.

Alternatively if you've just lost interest and motivation and don't think it's coming back there's nothing wrong with looking for other interests. I can't see myself getting to that point and I think I'll always have a camera and take pictures but it's maybe not for everyone forever. In your place I'd keep something though, a small body and a compact prime would be enough for me.

Good luck thinking about what you want to do and a way forward.
 
Re-think what you want to shoot and with what.

While I love my XT3 and stuff, I do get more satisfaction just walking round with my X100F - in a pocket (sometimes) or in a pouch on my belt. No weight, great IQ and there is something liberating about 1 camera with a fixed lens. You could sell your gear and get something like that, which may even free up some £££

Obviously no good if you do things like birds or wildlife but a 35mm lens is hard to beat in 95% of situations!
 
Looking at your pictures Jeff there's a lot of birds and birds in flight which will explain some of the bulk, weight and costs.

I don't know if more general walk about and day out and holiday stuff or even macro is for you but all those might reduce the hassle and costs.

Good luck with this, I hope you can either get your mojo back or go in another direction.
 
Try to be satisfied with what you have got, still a lot more than many others.
There will always be something bigger, better, faster etc.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems to have affected you more since the OM1 came out.
Its todays star, but it will soon be just a faded memory whwn the next latest greatest is released.
 
Back in my film days I went Nikon and spent a fortune on kit.
One day my son (14) was going on a day trip with his Nan. I gave him an old rangefinder loaded with 36 Fuji.
When we got the shots back at least 15 were better than I'd ever shot. He just had "the eye".
I realised then that technology and knowhow were a tiny part of photography.
I guarantee there are great shots to be had with a nifty fifty within 5 mins of your house.
Age changes us, we have to adapt to it.
I'm sure your mojo will return without the need for new toys. Great as they are.
 
I think if you have lost your mojo then to be honest let that part of stuff go, whilst i still enjoy photography i have allowed it to slide into the weeds at the moment as I want to focus on other things mainly working like a coal miner for a few years and retiring next year overseas. once there i hope to open the box and pick up where i left off.

for you maybe the photography has gone, why not massively scale down to a nice compact and take loads of nice holidays
 
You'll miss it if you stop Jeff.

Since I changed to digital ten years ago (used film for forty years prior to that) I've spent a fortune on kit chasing better images and trying to improve my skill. The pictures are OK - never as good as I want them to be, but far better than I imagined a camera would ever do in my hands. I'm in my sixties, but my disabilities make me feel like I'm in my nineties; the pain, lack of wheelchair access most places and other associated difficulties severely limit my ability to get out do the things with a camera that I would like to do.

However, over the last eighteen months I've gone back to film and vintage cameras which in turn, has stopped me 'lusting' after the subjects that are beyond my reach. Developing myself keeps the cost down and I'm having a lot more fun and enjoying the images I get.

Digital is just 'soulless' in comparison - I'd heard it said by many, but am only really finding it that way myself. The added bonus is that film cameras can be had for a song - I've recently purchased a Nikon F, F2, F3, F4 and F5 for less than five hundred quid. All I had to do was clean and service them (to the best of my ability) and fit new light seals.

I've also picked up two complete medium format systems (Bronica and Mamiya) with loads of lenses and accessories for less than the price of a second-hand digital body.

Don't stop - just divert a little. :)
 
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Beyond needing a specific tool for a specific task, at some point photography is not improved by better gear. Don't ask me how I know this :)

For me, as much as anything, it's the process, it's the places it takes me, it's the speed it slows me down too, its the way it makes me look at my surroundings. In a way, it's a part of my identity. I've always been someone who has a camera, even if there have been lean times when I didn't use it much.

Of course it helps if you get the occasional decent shot but there's more to it than that and sometimes we put ourselves under pressure to achieve better, do more, when there's no real need, the joy is just in doing it.
 
Sky said:
Digital is just 'soulless' in comparison - I'd heard it said by many, but am only really finding it that way myself.
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Modern digital cameras and lenses can be less mechanical and less tactile than some film cameras (but remember that some film cameras were plastic and horrible) but I don't find digital soulless and in fact I feel exactly the opposite as I have greater control over the final look of my pictures now. When I used film the look the film gave was out of my control as was how it was processed as I didn't make the film or process it myself so really it was Kodak and Boots/whoever who decided what my pictures looked like. OK, today Sony and Panasonic build colours in but I shoot raw and process the shots to suit me so today with digital is the most involved I've even been and I have the most control I've ever had.

Sorry to take this off topic :D
 
Obsima said:
Beyond needing a specific tool for a specific task, at some point photography is not improved by better gear. Don't ask me how I know this :)

For me, as much as anything, it's the process, it's the places it takes me, it's the speed it slows me down too, its the way it makes me look at my surroundings. In a way, it's a part of my identity. I've always been someone who has a camera, even if there have been lean times when I didn't use it much.

Of course it helps if you get the occasional decent shot but there's more to it than that and sometimes we put ourselves under pressure to achieve better, do more, when there's no real need, the joy is just in doing it.
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Yup to that :D
 
woof woof said:
Modern digital cameras and lenses can be less mechanical and less tactile than some film cameras (but remember that some film cameras were plastic and horrible) but I don't find digital soulless and in fact I feel exactly the opposite as I have greater control over the final look of my pictures now. When I used film the look the film gave was out of my control as was how it was processed as I didn't make the film or process it myself so really it was Kodak and Boots/whoever who decided what my pictures looked like. OK, today Sony and Panasonic build colours in but I shoot raw and process the shots to suit me so today with digital is the most involved I've even been and I have the most control I've ever had.

Sorry to take this off topic :D
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Sorry but much as I enjoy it, digital has never been "real" photography. There's too much you can get wrong and sort out later.
I'll get me coat. :coat:
 
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Cockney said:
Sorry but much as I enjoy it, digital has never been "real" photography. There's too much you can get wrong and sort out later.
I'll get me coat. :coat:
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Deep sigh... We'll have to agree to differ as I see this as just, what can I say? Misinformation :D Sorry. Whatever is possible now was possible at least to a degree with film if you had the skills. Dodge, burn, clone stuff out, even people, add stuff... even people, paint over, out and in, it all happened it was just a different skill set. How do you think they put dinosaurs in One Million Years BC? How did Stalin erase generals from photographs? Trickery all done with film :D

Jeff... How can you lose your mojo with stuff like this to argue about? :D
 
woof woof said:
Deep sigh... We'll have to agree to differ as I see this as just, what can I say? Misinformation :D Sorry. Whatever is possible now was possible at least to a degree with film if you had the skills. Dodge, burn, clone stuff out, even people, add stuff... even people, paint over, out and in, it all happened it was just a different skill set. How do you think they put dinosaurs in One Million Years BC? How did Stalin erase generals from photographs? Trickery all done with film :D

Jeff... How can you lose your mojo with stuff like this to argue about? :D
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A very high skill set. A tad easier and available to everybody with digital.
Very few had the skills and kit to manipulate images in colour with film.
 
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I am knocking on a bit (69), in poor health, state pension only and no car. My bus pass takes me anywhere I choose to go. I take one camera body and one lens plus my pack-up. There is no need for limitations.
 
Cockney said:
Sorry but much as I enjoy it, digital has never been "real" photography. There's too much you can get wrong and sort out later.
I'll get me coat. :coat:
Click to expand...

Complete nonsense. That saying "You can't polish a turd", is so obvious here. At one time I even developed and printed my own colour films, not much different to what I do today in lightroom. It has to be right in camera, to be right on the screen...
 
@the black fox it’s good to take stock of the direction of travel from time to time. What is it about the experience of photography have you enjoyed? How can you create easier circumstances for that to happen again? For example photographing subjects closer to home or at home, was it the traveling? Could you team up with someone else? Was it trying new kit? Maybe trade it in a try another second hand system or film? Try the weekly challenge here if you don’t do that already? Hope you find you mojo soon and start moving again in whatever direction you decide.
 
Jelster said:
"You can't polish a turd"
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You can! I have a coprolite that I bought just to prove the point (it's a small POS but it IS shiny!!!)
 
Jelster said:
Complete nonsense. That saying "You can't polish a turd", is so obvious here. At one time I even developed and printed my own colour films, not much different to what I do today in lightroom. It has to be right in camera, to be right on the screen...
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Rubbish. You can change every component of a digital image if you like.
Don't like the sky? Change it.
Don't like urban background? Change it to rain forest.
To suggest people had the same flexibility with film as they have with digital is the real nonsense.
 
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Jelster said:
Complete nonsense. That saying "You can't polish a turd", is so obvious here. At one time I even developed and printed my own colour films, not much different to what I do today in lightroom. It has to be right in camera, to be right on the screen...
Click to expand...

It is a lot easier these days. You can do a lot of stuff with film but only if you have the skill and knowledge. Anyone can make a digital image straight, enhance exposure, saturation etc... in less than a minute and transform an image. In LR or PS you can do so much more, or at least the average person can.

I shot with both and film is fun but digital is so much easier.
 
It amazes me how an innocent comment about a 'feeling' can turn into an argument about digital vs analogue. :headbang:

Just as well I didn't mention mirrorless eh? :facepalm:
 
Jeff you really do take superb shots. I honestly think getting another camera (the OM1?) would not make a huge difference to your images. If you're stuck at a level, it's a higher one than most of us reach. I also think you would miss it.

I find the 52 challenge on here is really good for motivating me to try and do something different with my camera. Perhaps something like that or a personal project might inject some new life into an old hobby?
 
I guess it depends on what someone shoots..... if its wildlife, sports, etc then yes expensive fast long lenses and 30fps camera bodies with the best af tracking are going to cost a lot of money and make a difference to your images..... if you are shooting general landscapes and sunsets and macro then maybe not so much.

I've not really been out for a few weeks now. Sunrise is getting too early for a Saturday morning after a week of work and gym!

I mainly shoot landscapes/woodland and night skies btw

What I tend to do with the travel, is make more of a trip or day of it! It was nice the other Saturday evening, I'd not eaten as I was pretty busy all day so we went to the local coast, took the dog for a walk too, sat on the beach, the missus done some crotchet (her latest thing) I cooked myself steak onions and mushrooms on the trangia stove for my tea. Chilled out for a few hours. As it turned out, sunset clouded over on that occasion.....

Now, I appreciate I'm about 30 years younger..... but last month I went to Avebury about midnight, shot the Milky Way for a few hours, parked up, slept in the car, shot a nice hazy sunrise in the popular bluebell wood over there, cooked breakfast, got home about midday.

I've got the car set up for sleeping in. Takes about 20 minutes to 'convert' .... Back in March on a Saturday afternoon me and my boy drove to Corfe Castle, shot sunset, drove to Lulworth Cove, shot Orion setting over the cliffs, slept for a few hours, hiked over to Man o War and Durdle Door to shoot Milky Way and then stayed there for sunrise too. Back to the car, nice hot drinks and breakfast, drove back home and got him back to his mum's for midday as they were going out for a family lunch or something. 160 miles or so, a good dozen images.

I have local friends who would drive (Bristol) two hours down to the Dorset coast, shoot sunrise and then drive straight back again. I don't get that. I'd sooner spend the day down there.

Now I appreciate there is an certain age difference and possibly a lifestyle difference but that's things I've started to do to make trips more worthwhile and increase the images/enjoyment vs cost.
 
I know what you mean about the cost of it all its expensive now to travel to places
if I understand it correctly the getting great results with top end gear is what drives you and your pictures are always amazing
My thing is that it’s the other way around I’m really into the wildlife and just try to capture what I see, in my case butterflies and damselflies as well as big cats but don’t have the budget to see them very often
 
I very rarely make special photographic trips out - I just tend to take a camera (often just a decent compact) with me most of the time, if pockets allow! Not so much a budgetary thing as a realisation that there's more to see than a 3x2 outlook. I do still enjoy the process of composing and the technical aspect of choosing shutter speed/aperture to achieve the look I want in the final product.
 
Drama over thanks for all the supportive comments ,, I was just on a downer when writing the original post , just buried my best mate …over it now will back up and running shortly
 
the black fox said:
Drama over thanks for all the supportive comments ,, I was just on a downer when writing the original post , just buried my best mate …over it now will back up and running shortly
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Great to hear you're over it.
Sorry about your pal.
 
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