Motivation/Love for photography

Has this ever happened you?

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JayB

JayB

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Hey guys, just a wee question. does anyone else go through a serious lack of motivation to get out there and take photographs or even your love for photography dwindles to the point that its actually a struggle to do anything about it? I'm finding that since I made Photography a job a such about 8/9 years ago that these days (last few months) I just have no love nor motivation to do anything. Even picking up the camera just seems like a struggle. I have decent equipment and get decent results (can always improve however, I enjoy learning new things). But I'm scared that my love will vanish completely. It was my favorite hobbie, Taking snaps of the family and friends and going a little trek for some landscape always put a smile on my face.

Has anyone had something similar and if so how have you gotten around this? I genuinely dont want to lose this love as such.
 
Has happened to me a few times through many many years. Sometimes a break is beneficial. I never felt it was a good idea to force the issue for fear it would completely sicken me.
I usually make a point of carrying a camera, but never use it unless I fortuitously "see a picture". Reading about photography/looking at pictures can be inspirational.

Peaks and troughs are common with many interests.
 
What sort of Photography do you do in your Job.
For your personal Photography do something completely different. Try a different hobby for a while

Pete
 
arclight said:
Has happened to me a few times through many many years. Sometimes a break is beneficial. I never felt it was a good idea to force the issue for fear it would completely sicken me.
I usually make a point of carrying a camera, but never use it unless I fortuitously "see a picture". Reading about photography/looking at pictures can be inspirational.

Peaks and troughs are common with many interests.
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Sounds about right. Thanks for your input mate.

seaodyssey said:
What sort of Photography do you do in your Job.
For your personal Photography do something completely different. Try a different hobby for a while

Pete
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Wedding/portrait mostly however in the last year I haven't pushed much advertising and only have a few wedding this year. When I'm on the job I do put my full commitment into it to make sure the client it happy of course, but I'm not loving the job half as much as I used to.

I really love landscape but unfortunately where I live to get to see anything half decent your talking at least an hour or 2 drive. I dont mind traveling some times but trying to find an area that isn't photographed to death by other photographers is a challenge but everywhere is the same with photography equipment so easily accessed noways. Not sure what other hobbie I could try. I dont really have an interest in much else. I'm into computers and photography and made them both my job honestly just use them now to pay the bills so I guess I dont have a hobbie as such any more.
 
I think its best to have many hobbies but since you say you don't have an interest in much else it is very hard to know what to say.

I have never been any good at photography but I think my interest in the equipment and brands keep me going.

Something new always comes out that I really want to try and I often buy and sell various gear.

I think I would get very tired of using the same equipment day in day out like a professional might do.
 
Yes definitely, over the last few weeks I've given a lot of thought whether to have a year out from landscape photography. I'm in a similar position to you as a few years ago I got a job as a staff photographer/videographer, and while I enjoy it there's no doubt that doing it as a day job too can lead to feeling burnt out. It's mainly the editing side I've come to dislike though, as I can be on Photoshop all day and to come home to more of the same isn't appealing. I have the same fear of losing the love of it, but I'm going to try and select a very limited number shots for each season and see how that works for me. I've realised I still love to be outdoors and I'm not sure what I'd do without a camera in hand, there'd be little motivation to see new places. Hopefully you'll find a solution too.
 
Not so much with photography, although I do sometimes go for weeks without taking a proper photograph. I have in the past found that expanding a hobby into a job can take a lot (if not all) the joy out of the hobby. Taking a step away from the job aspect of it usually brings back the fun, although it's hard to do if it's your only source of income.
 
JayB said:
Sounds about right. Thanks for your input mate.


I really love landscape but unfortunately where I live to get to see anything half decent your talking at least an hour or 2 drive.

I guess I dont have a hobbie as such any more.
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You must live next door to me then.

Try something related to image making as a hobby. I sometimes do a drawing of a photograph, Pencils and Pad don't cost much, can be carried and put down easily. It will also help with seeing images and it doesn't matter if you can't draw, you can only improve.

If you spend a lot of time on social media, get off it, to give you time to try new things.

Best of luck.
 
I'm sort.of in the same boat . Where abouts in NI are you?
 
It's not even essentially about photography - the way that I tend to put it is that life itself goes in phases, and that's all quite natural. So there's no need to start grieving for something that you haven't necessarily lost. It's ok to put something (like photography for fun) aside for a while. Time'll tell whether you come back to it (or that aspect of it), but there's no compulsion. Just get on with life!
 
droj said:
life itself goes in phases
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^^^^ this really, like lots of people I have tried various hobbies over the years and only really came back to photography 5 or 6 years ago after a very long break from it and I got back into it mainly because I wanted to improve my photographs of other activities, now it has taken over and I am doing far less of the other activities and a lot more photography.

I know a few people who have turned their hobby into a job in various fields (e.g. gardening, outdoors instructors) and it has taken the shine off the hobby for them. I suppose it depends how much you need that income but it sounds like it may be worth just doing something else that interests you for a while.
 
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JayB said:
I'm finding that since I made Photography a job a such about 8/9 years ago that these days (last few months) I just have no love nor motivation to do anything. Even picking up the camera just seems like a struggle. I have decent equipment and get decent results (can always improve however, I enjoy learning new things). But I'm scared that my love will vanish completely. It was my favorite hobbie, Taking snaps of the family and friends and going a little trek for some landscape always put a smile on my face..
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Not sure how much this will help, but I was full time professional photographer for 15 years, initially wedding and portraits and then industrial and scientific. My passion was for wildlife and landscape photographs (strongly linked to my passion for wildlife and the countryside). Although, I really enjoyed my professional photography, I still saw it as primarily keeping my skills honed for my personal photography, and it kept me enthusiastic for both.

The story is much longer and complicated than this, and has moved on 30 years or so, but this the foundation.

You may also find this interesting and this Second one less relevant, but I rather like it.
 
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Commercial photography aside, I got really bored with digital photography.
I'm not going to get in to the why's and wherefores because I suspect they may differ from person to person.
After the novelty wore off and I stopped shooting commercially, I went back to film and found motivation was not an issue.
I think for me at least, digital was less than fulfilling personally, even though it paid the bills.
I still have no motivation at all to shoot digitally, I might use my phone occasionally but I invest no effort or energy in that.
For a lot of people, the image is everything, the route they navigate to get there is irrelevant, its a means to an end.
Others may require much broader engagement than that to maintain their interest.
Its not easy to reboot your mojo after its gone walkabout, and that can be troublesome if you shoot for a living, I couldn't advocate shooting film for a living though...:)
 
Something else I discovered during one of my "in the doldrums" phases. Buying some new kit, such as a lens, did nothing to cure the problem. In fact I just felt worse at having wasted money.
 
joxby said:
I couldn't advocate shooting film for a living though...:)
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Not sure you could make a living from film anymore.

Like a retired film pro of decades on here says, you cant beat the digital cheaters.
 
My love for wildlife always came before my passion for photographing wildlife,the two then became hand in hand.
This last year i have fallen out of love for photographing wildlife,just having the quick bursts every now and then,although i still do my wandering looking and searching for subjects , i have found a few subjects that i thought would re light my fire as they say ,but i never followed it through ,i was at a point a month or so ago were i decided to give up the photography side , i then decided i wanted a new challenge that would allow me to keep my equipment if all fails ,the new venture for me is taking me back 30 years or so ago when i used to do a lot of filming of wildlife ,and once i decided to go ahead my buzz as returned , although someone on here did ask me what i was going to do with a load of wildlife video footage and that comment just reminded me that i do it for myself just as i did with photography and if you do it for any other reason (apart from making a living) then why the hell do it ,showing and sharing is just a added bonus ,to me if all the photography forums shut down tommorow i for one would still carry on doing what i do....Its a hobby that tops up my emotional bank account ,its a constant learning curve ,plus when i told my wife i was giving it up ,all she said was you would make a great cook if you took up cookery as ahobby instead with the amount of time and effort you put in to your hobbies ,yes she was serious so its back on the wildlife trail for me.....
 
GTG said:
Not sure you could make a living from film anymore.

Like a retired film pro of decades on here says, you cant beat the digital cheaters.
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They're just using the tool that will maximize business opportunities, whether they enjoy using the tool or not is beside the point.
Film is a niche product, lots of people still earn a crust from it but it obviously has natural limitations compared with digital.
I think when you start to talk about the motivation for even shooting at all, film or digital, you have to separate business from pleasure, there are too many external pressures in commercial photography to be completely dispassionate about what you want to spend your time doing.
If you don't separate them, then its really about earning a living not recovering your mojo, primary objective is to make money, mojo's have to take a backseat, having both is the nirvana but we're not all struck from the same mould..:)
 
JayB said:
does anyone else go through a serious lack of motivation to get out there and take photographs or even your love for photography dwindles to the point that its actually a struggle to do anything about it? I'm finding that since I made Photography a job a such about 8/9 years ago that these days (last few months) I just have no love nor motivation to do anything. Even picking up the camera just seems like a struggle.
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Not once since I went digital has this happened to me (though it defo did in my film days) and I've been Pro about 10 years now, when I'm not shooting for the job side of it I shoot often for fun too

I think others have made great suggestions on how to kick-start yourself so try a few of those ideas and hopefully you'll see the light (intentional pun) :)

Dave
 
I think any hobby you turn into a profession will go through phases like this.

Digital images that I view on the internet are just so damned good these days I've given up on the idea of producing exceptional images! (I can't compete creatively and haven't got the time/inclination for computer editing which is mind numbing IMO) I bought a film camera and decided to develop my own film almost taking me back to the beginning of what I loved about the hobby (No enlarger for printing or space for a darkroom unfortunately). I'm not bothered if my images are great or if others say 'wow' - I just enjoy the process of taking a picture and developing it and I refuse to do anything else to the image other than a crop.

Why not just try film for your own images turning it into a hobby again and leave the digital for the money making assignments?

I've even started enjoying collecting film cameras and manual focus lenses; so when I don't fancy going out I can just sit and look at the engineering from yesteryear.
 
den said:
My love for wildlife always came before my passion for photographing wildlife,the two then became hand in hand.
This last year i have fallen out of love for photographing wildlife,just having the quick bursts every now and then,although i still do my wandering looking and searching for subjects , i have found a few subjects that i thought would re light my fire as they say ,but i never followed it through ,i was at a point a month or so ago were i decided to give up the photography side , i then decided i wanted a new challenge that would allow me to keep my equipment if all fails ,the new venture for me is taking me back 30 years or so ago when i used to do a lot of filming of wildlife ,and once i decided to go ahead my buzz as returned , although someone on here did ask me what i was going to do with a load of wildlife video footage and that comment just reminded me that i do it for myself just as i did with photography and if you do it for any other reason (apart from making a living) then why the hell do it ,showing and sharing is just a added bonus ,to me if all the photography forums shut down tommorow i for one would still carry on doing what i do....Its a hobby that tops up my emotional bank account ,its a constant learning curve ,plus when i told my wife i was giving it up ,all she said was you would make a great cook if you took up cookery as ahobby instead with the amount of time and effort you put in to your hobbies ,yes she was serious so its back on the wildlife trail for me.....
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....That's interesting. As you know, I have a particular love of and great admiration for your wildlife photography and I always aspire to meet your high standard. However, to be totally honest, I do feel that your subjects have become limited to the same species and there's perhaps nowhere further you can go < This is not meant as a harsh criticism but is just my own personal opinion/observation. I think that video would be a natural step for you and very achievable with your existing D-SLR gear. Btw, I would highly recommend the new Gitzo Fluid Gimbal Head for video.

Whatever you decide to do I am sure you will put the same level of dedication and highest standard into it < No pressure then! :D

P.S. : I have just seen your photo of mating Kingfishers.... W O W !!!!
 
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RedRobin said:
....That's interesting. As you know, I have a particular love of and great admiration for your wildlife photography and I always aspire to meet your high standard. However, to be totally honest, I do feel that your subjects have become limited to the same species and there's perhaps nowhere further you can go < This is not meant as a harsh criticism but is just my own personal opinion/observation. I think that video would be a natural step for you and very achievable with your existing D-SLR gear. Btw, I would highly recommend the new Gitzo Fluid Gimbal Head for video.

Whatever you decide to do I am sure you will put the same level of dedication and highest standard into it < No pressure then! :D
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He is actually incredibly lucky to have a few good subjects in the UK. I have not seen an Owl since I last seen one in some sanctuary when I was a child in the 1980`s lol.
Every bird I see is black, common and uninteresting.
I am constantly tormented by the sound of woodpeckers in the distance but never found one.
 
JayB said:
Hey guys, just a wee question. does anyone else go through a serious lack of motivation to get out there and take photographs or even your love for photography dwindles to the point that its actually a struggle to do anything about it?
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....I have the opposite problem! I am (happily) divorced and can come and go literally at the drop of a hat (my daughter is grown up and left the nest). I also love driving high performance cars and so combine the wildlife mission. Nothing quite like a very spirited drive home (road conditions allowing) when you know you have nailed some great shots (when Lady Luck has been by your side). And so I have to stop myself going out nearly every day.

One factor may be that I refuse to sell my pictures and so there is absolutely no commercial pressure. I am a retired-but-hardwired professional Art Director and don't need or want the hassle or pressure.

Like @den I take the photos for me and as an excuse to get out there into the countryside (after 30 years living and working from home in Chelsea). I love sharing them and giving others the enjoyment of seeing my best photos. Each photo is also a good memory for myself.

However, this is only my fourth year shooting digital wildlife images. But I have always loved wildlife and so don't anticipate getting bored. Old age will get me first I reckon.
 
Enjoy pretty much every aspect of photography, all started when my wife bought me an Olympus 35mm in 1987.
First digital camera was a Nikon compact in about 2003 and just carried on from there, can't say I have ever got bored with it.

Where I live is pretty dull, but photography is a great excuse to travel and even the researching for that is good fun.
Just yesterday booked Eurostar tickets to Ghent, travel is so reasonable these days, can't argue at eighty quid return from St Pancras.

Wonder how many people buy loads of gear that hardly ever gets used if at all.
Maybe sell some of it and go places to take photos rather than talk about it.

So no, never need motivating, in fact quite the opposite, but like everyone else some days feel better about things in general, just the way it is
 
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I must admit I find myself in this situation sometimes however I have found that participating in the 52 for this year has really spurred me on to get out for a day or an evening and take some pictures. I think being invested in something like that has helped me each week!
 
I go through this a lot. I got back into Photography as it helped me relax after a stressful week at work. I seem to do less and less photography these days, I always think early in the year that this year I will do more and before you know it the years gone and I’ve done very little. I live on the edge of the Lake District so there’s really no excuse but I find it hard to get motivated on my own. Last year I started the 52 but gave up as for me it was too forced so I wasn’t enjoying it.
 
I go through periods of not touching my camera however once I get back out I always say to myself “I really should be doing this more often”.
 
Never really had a lack of motivation for photography. Photography went from being a hobby to a job but that didn’t cause any issues although I did find a new hobby not related to photography at all. Not sure if that helped or not I would imagine photography being your job as well as your main form of entertainment might be an issue after a while.
 
Because I work in the photographic industry selling all the gear It does get a bit much for me and i get overloaded with 'Photography' sometimes which does make me not want to take images at times. Still the best hobby ever though and can not see me giving up ever!

One problem I have is gear acquisition and having to choose what to take. I am currently selling everything except my Panasonic LX100 which is a great compact and does everything I want it to do. So my advice would be to keep things simple and not to stress about photography. Relax and enjoy! :)
 
Sometimes I wonder why I should bother but it's usually either because I'm frustrated that I can't get any free time to take pictures or when I have free time the light is so bad that I feel like it's a waste of time even trying to take a picture. I have so many pictures of my area when the light is flat and dead and I just don't need a single one more...

But then one day I get free time and the light is lovely and I'm very happy to be able to go out and take pictures again :D
 
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