So... how long do you leave it before packing in?

JohnN

JohnN

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I used to take pictures every day, then I started to find the kit to heavy and would get arm ache, so I stepped down the m43, great for a while but now I just don't bother to take the camera out. Nothing wrong with the kit or the shots, its just that I can't be bothered.

In fact I even closed down the forum, completely forgot about it for a week or so and only opened it by accident when the browser offered up here instead of another site starting with T.

What do you think, just a bad patch or if you were in the same position would you just call it a day and get a decent camera phone?
 
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JohnN said:
I used to take pictures every day, then I started to find the kit to heavy and would get arm ache, so I stepped down the m43, great for a while but now I just don't bother to take the camera out. Nothing wrong with the kit or the shots, its just that I can't be bothered.

What do you think, just a bad patch or if you were in the same position would you just call it a day and get a decent camera phone?
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This is what happens when you just head out to take photographs with no idea of what you want to take. It just becomes boring, and the images become the same, and you don't seem to make any progress, and you end up wondering why you bother.

You need a project you can throw yourself into, and not a random "52" either... otherwise you may as well just carry on doing what you're doing. Find a subject, story, place, or people you can work on to create a series of images ABOUT something. Learn to love photography, not taking pictures. What do you do for a living? Are there any interesting things going on in your area? Got any strong views on a particular subject?

Use photography to say something instead of just doing it because you enjoy taking pictures. You'll still be taking pictures, so you'll still enjoy that aspect, but then you'll have a REASON to take pictures, and the results will be of far more interest to a wider range of people.
 
Thats great advice David, and I think you're right - may favourite images of mine tend to be of my kids, but I suspect thats only because they mean something to me, not because they're great.

Job wise its a cross between IT and a print site supervisor, but I really wouldn't want to take my hobby to work - its just a bit to "blokey" if you follow me.

View wise, I have a general failing (or in some cases an advantage) in that I very rarely hold strong views about anything... at all.. which can be great in that I'm not the awkward sod who wont change his mind just because I didn't think of it but it does have the downside of my opinions being mobile whiuch in turn means I don;t care all that much about anything (bar for friends and my wife and kids)

Again, thank you David and I will think hard about this.
 
Even when I 'just head out to take photographs' (which I do quite a lot) I have a range of themes that I keep in mind and like to return to. I'm something of a documentarist of my city and (partly because I have a background in architecture) I'm interested in the ways that the built environment of London is constantly changing; so, demolition and construction projects get my attention, as do districts that are on the cusp of change, both physical and social.

I also have a particular penchant for the odd, often messy little urban spaces that you find in the older parts of London - courtyards, staircases, alleys, mews, small streets and so on. Sometimes they are relics of medieval street patterns. Not unusually, the the buildings that define them are of minimal architectural merit, but it is the space they create between them that interests me and it's a constant challenge to find ways to represent it: I like to think of it's the reverse of photographing objects.

The point is not that you should take those same things up, but, as David says, your particular interests should inform where and how you photograph.
 
JohnN said:
Job wise its a cross between IT and a print site supervisor
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As it happens, I run the IT for a print procurement company. If you're from Mansfield have an idea which firm it may be you're at :)
 
I actually work out at Dinnington, I'll have to ponder on yours :)
 
It's the same for all hobbies,for want of a better adjective. The buzz will return
 
Due to not working I have been getting into bird photography over the last 8 months or so, with me taking photos everyday in the garden. We back onto woodland and countryside so get a fair share of wildlife. Prior to this I just took general photos.

After photographing the same birds everyday and similar on weekends when Clare takes me out, it has started to get boring a little. So for this summer, I have made a conscious decision to try and take more landscape/seascape photos as we live close to Gower and as it's on our doorstep we never go down there. There some wonderful scenery there and it will keep me occupied for a fair while. Doing this will keep my interest in photography up.

As been mentioned above have a think of a type/story of photography to get the juices flowing again. As an example, photograph all the churches in a 10 mile radius of where you live and investigate the history of them and create a scrapbook or similar to document what you have done.
 
Other than holiday and family snaps, I've not done any 'proper' photography (ie making a dedicated trip out somewhere with the sole intention of making photographs) for 3-4 months. Have I thought about quitting? Hell no. I've been too busy planning projects, researching, organising an exhibition, revisiting old photos in Lightroom and Photoshop, doing a photobook, updating my blog and websites, looking at photos in books, printing, etc. There's more to photography than the act of clicking the shutter! :)
 
pretty much didnt pick camera up for about a year ( i think twice ) . due to illness rather than anything, but also i had gone "off the boil" prior to that anyway ( i love autumn/ winter but fnd i just dont get out to take photos then maybe its seasonal disorder or something as i just want to stay in and hibernate ) anyway back on track fell ill in the march 2014 and apart from a brief outing in july the camera staying bag gathering dust with no incentive to even take it out. but over a year later and the feeling is back and i want to be out there all the time getting new shots and setting new goals ( bagging a kingfisher is one of them ). i got my first bird of prey in wild shots the other day ( buzzards and a sparrow hawk ) and the buzz of excitement was great.
its just finding that spark and igniting it again. doesnt have to be some project ( that would actually put me off as it would feel more like work ) , but the hunt for that elusive bird, or getting a good dragonfly shot,, or shooting some jet planes 9 ive done props now i want to get the jets ).
i dont set impossible ( or near on impossible challenges ) just ones that wont be everyday run of the mill ( i can take pics of my kids every day for instance but theres no real challenge in doing so .
i also live in surrey which isnt exactly famed for its lakes and mountain scenes.. so thats another goal for me, thats doable.. travel somewhere where i can get such a shot.
those are what have got me back my mojo and given the incentive to go out and shoot again
 
Thanks all, I'm liking the different approaches and again more to think over, I suppose part of it is that no matter what I shot (with one exception of deer at dawn) I've never gone out alone as frankly that would bore me to death, so have always had the family with me and despite the kids scaring things away its the way I like it. While I can see the project approach being great for some I think I'm with Dean on that, not that I'm ruling it out.

Another problem I have is that work is such a time hungry beast, now I'm lucky in that amazingly it's offically only 36 hours, but that's far from the reality, if I'm not in I'm being called, if not that having to reply to emails. In fact while writing this four emails have come in, but they tend to as the "office workers" do tend to fire a load of work off as they head off for their days off.. Anyway my point was that work tends to get in the way and sadly I'm in no position to "put time aside" as I work in an on call it roll, which means if something goes wrong it needs fixing in minutes or the costs soon rack into the thousands.
 
Robins are good

failing that Black-headed Gulls
 
i found the buzzards just 5 mins walk from my door.. obviously depends where you live but just being able to get somewhere for half an hour can help unwind and ease the tensions and get you back into the swing of things. going by your profile im guessing your not to far from the river maun and carr bank park. also fisher lane park and titchfield park , or Yeoman hill or the big area west of woodhouse station and to the east clipstone forest.
plenty of locations within 10-15 mins i guess even if its only for an hours getaway.. maybe a sunday morning early rise before the kids get up and try for sunrise landscape or early morning wildlife.
 
I did have a break of several years when I got fed up with lugging the (film) SLR's around and then one Christmas my wife bought me a small digital compact, 4 mp if I remember which was cutting edge then. The ability to just carry it everywhere and see and play with the results when I returned home started the whole thing going again. Now I take probably at least 20 photos on a bad week and on a good one hundreds. I very rarely go out to take photographs but go out and take photographs of anything that takes my interest such as people, cars, animals, doors, in fact just about anything. I realise that some people need a fixed aim in view and if you're one of those a project of some sort may well be a good way of getting the juices flowing. Then again it might be as it was with me that after 50 years or so (in my case) I just needed a break.
 
I think that you sometimes need a change.

I have just cancelled my membership of the local camera club as it was all becoming boringly repetitive. I have put away my Nikon SLR kit & have purchased a Sony superzoom that I can carry anywhere with me.

I found that using the DSLR was becoming a chore & heavy to carry around. I am now learning the craft of using a far smaller fiddly camera & thoroughly enjoying it .

Leaving the camera club has also changed my attitude- I now shoot what I like not what would be expected for competitions etc
 
David said "This is what happens when you just head out to take photographs with no idea of what you want to take. It just becomes boring, and the images become the same, and you don't seem to make any progress, and you end up wondering why you bother." etc......

I think that is correct.

I fall into the category (if there is one) where :-
1. I don't always take a camera with me (esp.if I am going somewhere I have been many times without getting pictures I like - flogging a dead horse).
2. I may take a camera with specific subjects, scenes in mind.
3. I sometimes take a camera in case I encounter something that inspires me.

What I don't do is to take a camera and must take pictures. Tried that and found it to be an enthusiasm killer because it usually resulted in pictures that were all in the "why did I take that rubbish" group.
 
johnb said:
I think that you sometimes need a change.

I have just cancelled my membership of the local camera club as it was all becoming boringly repetitive. I have put away my Nikon SLR kit & have purchased a Sony superzoom that I can carry anywhere with me.

I found that using the DSLR was becoming a chore & heavy to carry around. I am now learning the craft of using a far smaller fiddly camera & thoroughly enjoying it .

Leaving the camera club has also changed my attitude- I now shoot what I like not what would be expected for competitions etc
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i did that around 3 years ago. sold all my canon gear, and got a Uk pre order on the fuji Xe-1 ( damn near £1400 for the privilege ).
got a little canvas camera bag from amazon for £20 and was good to go. one small camera, one lens and a tiny pocket sized tripod all in a bag i could carry around all day without a thought.
throw in the fact that the fuji deisgnw as great and the process of using it was like going back to my old film/ rangefinder days. everything was a slower pace of life, shots were more considering and thought out. rather than go out and fire off 200, 300 or more images i was shooting maybe 20 or 30 instead.
did that for about a year before going back to canon and now i have a camera bag stuffed with lenses, a bloody great tripod and a potential hernia!
think the whole lot weights easily 10kg . problem is i like to shoot wildlife. and up until recently smaller cameras didnt give me that option. now though i wonder should i sell it all and get an olympus OMD-E-M! combined with the 100-300 Pano lens for a field of view equiv of 200-600 9 plus a nice portrait prime to go with it ) and save my back from destruction
 
Lol, the last two threads are almost exactly what I did, I tend to pack an E-M1, 100-300 pany, 75mm and sometimes the 60mm macro or 12-40... All in a canvas bag :-)

BTW, I took them out for a walk today and while none were spectacular I did get a couple of shots of my lad who's just lost the stabalisers and a couple of shots in a style I don't usually do, also okay.
 
Years ago I took a camera everywhere and shot a lot.
Then I discovered motorcycles and girls. The motorcyles were much more fun to ride than to just take pictures of. I didn't sell my gear. For the next 30+ years it was just family stuff and vacation pics.
Also discovered sailing.
Upon retirement and the children moving out I was too old for sailing and motorcyles and rediscoverd photography with the purchase of a DSLR. It was like comming back home again, except now i had a 'darkroom".
Still carry a camera almost every where (sokmeday I may not use it at all, howver it doesn't worry me) and still shoot a bit of family stuff along with 'scapes, nature, motor racing and classical music concerts (my wife is in a couple of choirs).
 
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Ah motorcycles the reason I bought my first, in those days film compact. When you're off to Italy or somewhere on a bike space is really at a premium and after an Olympus 35RD (great camera) a similar make X1 did duty on many hugely enjoyable trips accompanied by a bulk buy of Agfachrome. What a choice of cameras anyone doing the same today would have. There's definitely something so much better travelling slowly to a destination and seeing, smelling and experiencing the countries on the way than just getting on and off a plane as I do now.
When the curse of the SLR finally did for me one day at the Goodwood festival of Speed I went out the next day and bought a MUJI superzoon (film) which was the only camera I used for around 10 years putting around 1 roll per year through it. I still have it, somewhere along with the X1 and a number of film SLR's and a full colour darkroom setup banished forever to the roof. Long live digital it's the reason I still take photographs.
 
JohnN said:
Thats great advice David, and I think you're right - may favourite images of mine tend to be of my kids.
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I think a lot of photographers get stuck when they (a) don't know what to photograph and (b) don't know what to do to get better.

I've taken a look at your flickr and your photos of your kids are charming. If that's what you enjoy then why not put the work in to get as good as you possibly can at photographing them? Look at other child photographers work and work out what you like and dislike about it, get some 1-1 training, learn about lighting and directing a subject (in an informal way). Study composition. Perhaps spend a bit more time practising photoshop to process them, if that kind of thing appeals. Get someone you respect to review your work; possibly a camera club though that may be not be the best way to get feedback on the creative element.

Or if you only really enjoy candid photography then get out and practise candid stuff; go and do some street & documentary photography. And then apply what you've learned to your kids.

Once you start down either of those paths then all sorts of other ideas are likely to emerge, and it's entirely possible that other people will start asking you for photographs. That may not appeal at the moment but the excitement and working with and for other people provides a large part of the buzz for me.

@Pookeyhead is right; personal projects are absolutely key to ongoing development and maintaining interest.
 
Its not unusual to tire of a hobby, but if you really were bitten by the photography bug, never fear it will return.

One thing I would suggest is to look at an aspect of photography that currently challenges you or you find difficult and see if you can conquer it, a bit like David says, you need a specific project. Not necessarily something you are good at, have the kit for or were previously interested in. Make that the challenge.
 
Go on, give yourself a proper challenge and shoot some film.
Cord-White-BG3 by Andy, on Flickr
You know it makes sense.:D
 
Even setting a challenge for me sounds like you are "forcing" yourself to do a hobby you have lost interest in.....

I like creating images. For me it's an excuse to get off my ass at weekends and go to places, events, see things going on......

I'd find another hobby....rather than worrying about why this particular past-time no longer holds an interest for you - you'll come on your own accord if it's something you miss.....
 
I'm in my 70s and got the photography bug when I was around 12. I've had periods of great enthusiam which usually last a few years, periods of occasional serious interest which can last for several years, periods of complete disinterest which can last for several months to several years. It's natural for periods of over-enthusiasm to be followed by periods of rest, and if you push yourself when needing a rest from it you'll end up stale, bored, and irritated with lugging gear around that you can't be bothered using.

My recipe for rekindling a photographic interest is to take advantage of a slot of completely free time at least a few hours long, in pleasant weather to be out of doors, and simply head out somewhere nice and interesting to be strolling around on foot. Just in case, but with no specific plans to use it, I'll take my usual just-in-case camera. It usually happens that sooner or later I'll find something I'd like to photograph. Since I've got nothing better to do I'll take my time, consider viewpoint, composition, walk around sizing it up. I'll take the best shots I can with whatever I've got. Then I'll stroll on.

I'll repeat these strolls in interesting places, sometimes taking a few photographs, sometimes not, until I find I've taken a sufficiently interesting photograph that I want to go back there and improve it, or go in search elsewhere for a better example of the same kind of thing, perhaps next time using a better lens, perhaps a tripod, perhaps by waiting for a certain kind of light at a certain time of day, and so on.

Sometimes it turns out to be a photographic topic I've never paid much attention to before. For example a few years ago while walking with friends in a botanic garden I accidentally took an interesting portrait of flower. That started off the flower portrait phase of my photography.

The key is to stop making plans. Just keep wandering around following your nose with plenty of time to stand and stare, plenty of time to see something interesting in the distance and head over to take a look at it.
 
Fillum....... ;)
Bessamatic by Andy, on Flickr
Look at the beauty.....
 
juggler said:
I think a lot of photographers get stuck when they (a) don't know what to photograph and (b) don't know what to do to get better.

I've taken a look at your flickr and your photos of your kids are charming. If that's what you enjoy then why not put the work in to get as good as you possibly can at photographing them? Look at other child photographers work and work out what you like and dislike about it, get some 1-1 training, learn about lighting and directing a subject (in an informal way). Study composition. Perhaps spend a bit more time practising photoshop to process them, if that kind of thing appeals. Get someone you respect to review your work; possibly a camera club though that may be not be the best way to get feedback on the creative element.

Or if you only really enjoy candid photography then get out and practise candid stuff; go and do some street & documentary photography. And then apply what you've learned to your kids.

Once you start down either of those paths then all sorts of other ideas are likely to emerge, and it's entirely possible that other people will start asking you for photographs. That may not appeal at the moment but the excitement and working with and for other people provides a large part of the buzz for me.

@Pookeyhead is right; personal projects are absolutely key to ongoing development and maintaining interest.
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I really like what you've said here and like the idea a lot - I dabbled in street photography and was happy with a couple but as with many others found it daunting so felt more like a stalker!
I'd never considered the idea of transferring skills from one genre to another oddly despite it being obvious, so thank you.

In fact thanks to everyone, just reading through the responses however varied is rekindling my interest, so it looks like I'l be back and all those potential bargains will have now gone ;)

One thing which helped of course was my wife in her own way echoing what a couple of you have said and that its probably a temporary thing and in fact often comes round during winter, my worry was that it was dragging into summer this time, still the interest is coming back and with luck and practice so hopefully will the shots.
 
I wouldn't set yourself a challenge, that would (probably) turn it into a chore.
I tend to be quite a bit of "Street" and urban type stuff, usually around the streets of Derby where I live. If I loose my muse / mojo (?) I'll go to a new town, maybe jump on a bus to Nottingham
then everything is fresh and alive again.
 
I think everyone gets like this at some point, I know I did earlier in the year. I had planned Water Voles again in March and April after last years success (getting eye level within 2m OOF them!) and spending hours with them. This year nothing, I was lucky even to spot one! This got me down a little but it has taught me there is no such thing as a sure thing in wildlife photography. I'm starting to get the spark back after going on a 2 night stay on skomer, I'm now planning what to do in autumn and the rest of summer. I need a couple of projects to guide my photography and help improve it. One is a project of my local river which could be interesting, there seems to be quite a lot of wildlife there but something I've not thought of capturing before.
 
I found a way to spark it - I got a D750 ;)

I bet Skomer is very cool.
 
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Personal projects are good I reckon or challenge yourself outside your comfort zone :-)
 
JohnN said:
I found a way to spark it - I got a D750 ;)

I bet Skomer is very cool.
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And when the novelty of the new camera wears off? What then, upgrade again? IF buying a new camera made you take photos, then you don't love photography, you love cameras.
 
It was a spark to light a fire - what I hadn't realised until very recently was that something was taking the fun from it, that something was that I'd missed the full frame pop when I moved to MFT, getting that back has really helped.

Anyway why would it matter if I was just one of those that loves kit? Other than it being very expensive for me it doesn't harm anyone else and keeps money coming into the industry so that others (such as yourself) can reap the benefits of improving technology, new lenses etcetera that would not have happened if there was no money in it.

Don't get me wrong - I very much appreciate the advice given but sometimes I feel that people (not just yourself) feel there is only one way to enjoy a hobby - I believe there are as many ways as there are people. As we can see from the replies here there are many different approaches to the same basic end result - having fun.
 
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JohnN said:
Anyway why would it matter if I was just one of those that loves kit?
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Doesn't matter to me, no. So long as you realise you'll have to be constantly buying kit to sustain your interest. All I'm saying is, its CLEARLY then, not photography that you're interested in, but the kit. Also.... it's bad advice to give someone who wants to rekindle their interest in PHOTOGRAPHY. That's what the OP wanted (You I believe)... not ideas on how to rekindle their interest in cameras. That's easy, you just buy a new camera... voila!

I hear such advice all to often: Person bored of photography, seeks inspiration, gets advised to buy new gear. That person obviously gets out there shooting again to play with the new toys and thinks all is well, but when the novelty of that new gear wears off, the images are the same, and boredom sets in again.

If you learned to love photography, you wouldn't care what you're shooting with. It will be a damned sight cheaper!!!
 
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Again very good advice :)
I admit I am a bit of a (cheap) gear head, now with any luck I'll get into photography too. I think the problem may be I bore of my own company so have the family along, but there's only so long I can ask them to wait.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Doesn't matter to me, no. So long as you realise you'll have to be constantly buying kit to sustain your interest. All I'm saying is, its CLEARLY then, not photography that you're interested in, but the kit. Also.... it's bad advice to give someone who wants to rekindle their interest in PHOTOGRAPHY. That's what the OP wanted (You I believe)... not ideas on how to rekindle their interest in cameras. That's easy, you just buy a new camera... voila!

I hear such advice all to often: Person bored of photography, seeks inspiration, gets advised to buy new gear. That person obviously gets out there shooting again to play with the new toys and thinks all is well, but when the novelty of that new gear wears off, the images are the same, and boredom sets in again.

If you learned to love photography, you wouldn't care what you're shooting with. It will be a damned sight cheaper!!!
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Damn.

I've been feeling quite subdued lately with regards to my photography. I don't really have a main interest so i find it hard to get my gear correct. As people know i swap and change like no tomorrow and whilst every now and then i produce an image I'm pretty happy with, there is usually a load of s*** that goes with it. You have just summed me up perfectly. The problem is, how do i get away from it? I read your original reply and thought 'that's it' but then I'm back to my main problem, i don't have a main interest... Documenting my work isn't really an option. I do like shooting street stuff, but like John, i usually have a family in tow. I love photographing my kids, but how many pics of them can you take? I like the idea of the '1 camera 1 lens' type of stuff, but i know i'd instantly regret it as i feel i lack the creativity to make it work properly.

Meh.
 
minnnt said:
Damn.

I've been feeling quite subdued lately with regards to my photography. I don't really have a main interest so i find it hard to get my gear correct. As people know i swap and change like no tomorrow and whilst every now and then i produce an image I'm pretty happy with, there is usually a load of s*** that goes with it. You have just summed me up perfectly. The problem is, how do i get away from it? I read your original reply and thought 'that's it' but then I'm back to my main problem, i don't have a main interest... Documenting my work isn't really an option. I do like shooting street stuff, but like John, i usually have a family in tow. I love photographing my kids, but how many pics of them can you take? I like the idea of the '1 camera 1 lens' type of stuff, but i know i'd instantly regret it as i feel i lack the creativity to make it work properly.

Meh.
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One camera one lens is still searching for a technical, gear oriented way of rekindling your interest. Buying gear is not the answer.


You must be interested in something other than cameras :) Other hobbies? Know any interesting people? Have an affinity with a certain place? Document it/them. Think about what you'd like to say about a certain subject. What makes it interesting for you. What would make it interesting for others? Stop trying to make shiny things, and concentrate on making images that have a purpose. I can't believe you have no interests in anything except cameras. Is there a local bunch of people doing anything interesting? Have you read anything in your local paper about a story with human interest? Is there anything steeped in local history about to be demolished, or redeveloped? Are there any local events that instead of just going along to shoot as a spectator you can get involved with and document the organisation and people?

You need to get out of the mindset that just wants to walk around looking for pretty pictures. That's clearly why you are bored. Even if you do manage to take a "wow" image every once in a while, is that enough to sustain you? Sounds to me like it's not, so you need a project that you can work on.

Why are your kids/family always in tow? Can you not ask them if you can go out alone? :) Not being flippant, but seriously... can you not go anywhere without them once in a while? Sounds to me like you only go out with your camera when you've got some place to go with other people, and therefore have no PHOTOGRAPHIC reason to be out... your just dragging your gear long to events and places that have nothing to do with it, and end up annoying everyone because you want to take photos... or taking photos of them. We all take snaps of family and friends, but it's not really photography... it's just doing what everyone does. You can do that on your phone.

Bite the bullet.... find a project.
 
minnnt said:
I like the idea of the '1 camera 1 lens' type of stuff, but i know i'd instantly regret it as i feel i lack the creativity to make it work properly.
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Aside from the idea that such a project makes you become so familiar with a camera/lens combo that you no longer have to think about using the camera or seeing shots that work with that lens, the limitations also make you think differently. Assuming the lens is a fixed focal length you will have to move to alter the framing, which removes the crutch of zooming for one thing.

Of course you still need something to photograph. This is where I feel the whole emphasis of 'amateur photography', - magazines, camera clubs, on-line and in-person tutorials - concentrates on the wrong thing for encouraging people to become engaged with the medium. How many times has a magazine or website claimed to offer 'ten steps to more creative photographs' or similar? And how often does that 'creativity' rely on equipment or technique?

What they should be encouraging is self-motivation and providing strategies for generating ideas. If creativity is anything, it's taking one thing and, without worrying about making a mess of it, playing around with it until it's something else. You shouldn't be afraid to fail.

I know David decries walking around looking for pictures, but that's how I find ideas. What I do, though, is add keywords to all my pics in Lightroom. Over a surprisingly short period of time certain tags crop up with more frequency than others. Then I shove selected pictures from these keywords into collections. This helps me see how my mind has been working, and to concentrate my thoughts to deliberately take pictures to fit into those collections. From there sometimes a project develops. Other times noting gels. But ideas from a failed or abandoned project can come in useful in other projects.

This is why I don't automatically delete all my 'crap photos'. There was a reason I took them, but maybe I didn't know what it was at the time or I just happened to make a balls of it. After a period of consideration I might see what it was I was trying to get at and be able to go back and make a better job of it. Taking photographs in this way doesn't lead to instant gratification, it takes time.You might never finish some projects, you might find some are dead ends, but one or two will work out eventually and in amongst them will be some photographs you will be proud of.

Try looking through your photos to see if there are any subjects or themes which recur, then go out to make more in a similar vein.It doesn't matter if 99% of them are crap, just so long as that other 1% of them push you in a different direction. When it all clicks you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with and the problem will no longer what to photograph, but what not to!
 
Ed Sutton said:
I know David decries walking around looking for pictures, but that's how I find ideas.
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I don't disagree with this.... but you don't need a camera to do this, and you don't have to shoot there and then.
 
Pookeyhead said:
I don't disagree with this.... but you don't need a camera to do this, and you don't have to shoot there and then.
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True enough. Up to a point. You might be able to look for, and remember, ideas without a camera, but I can't. I think of taking snaps as akin to a painter making sketches. They're visual reminders . Essential for a forgetful sod like me!

I'm coming to the view that there are two sorts of photographers - reactive ones, and planners. This very much determines how they approach their photography. I'm not a planner, but others clearly are. That's why people have to find the strategies that work for them.
 
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