Any ideas out there on how to get re-motivated? For several months I have not even wanted to pick up my camera and when I have, my session has been half-hazard. I know this is normal, but I have never had to deal with it before.
Signed.. one misplaced camera on the sidelines....
I am very famailar with this myself! In fact, I just posted a photo in the NPN galleries for the first time in a VERY long time. Life's distractions and obligations often have to take precedence, and taking an occassional break from photography isn't such a bad thing anyway.
Just "go with the flow" and like any other cycle, you will emerge from it.
Yes I've been there too...I think my discouragement came from working full time and not having the time to get to the places I wanted to go to shoot. And when I had a free day, the weather was less than desireable. Perhaps you should try something new with your photography...I'm interested in portraiture now (when I never was before) and am very excited about it. It has given me a new creative spark. So maybe if you think of new subjects to shoot, or a new style to pursue it will help. If not, don't worry, you may just need to let it run it's course.
Sometimes you just have to wait it out. In the mean time it may be a good idea to pick up some books from your favorite photographers (or just go to the bookstore and see what's there - you may discover new favorites) or to spend the time learning new skills (e.g. get a good Photoshop book and read to cover to cover, maybe apply some new techniques to your older images) etc.
Barbara Dodge Zarrella, I can suggest only one thing: find out a few extremely beautiful locations in nature, and visit them on a week-long camping trip or so, but *without* your camera gear, and *without* any fiction books.
Posted by Carol Hyman on July 10, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Barbara, I think we all empathize. The suggestions that folks have made are good.
See and watch the birds; smell the flowers and watch them grow. Play with photoshop. Clean the house, Listen to music. Read a book. Throw a pot. Make a birdhouse from a gourd.
The desire to shoot will come back and in the interim, you will be expressing your creativity in other ways ...
Not to worry.
And we'll all be watching for your next post--no matter how long it takes.
Barbara, you certainly are not alone. Here's what helps me during a dry time. You may find something here that helps you.
My #1 enemy is preconceived expectations, usually self imposed. These can arise from the percieved expectations of others based on what we percieve as "popular or expected" but for me they are most often the product of going out into the field expecting to do something specific with a specific subject. Now, it's good to have a plan and if everything cooperates - teriffic. But it's better to be flexible and revise your expectations if the weather doesn't cooperate, or you don't have time to get where you want to go, or any number of things that can "throw a wrench in the gears". I try to take what I get to work with and do my best to render that in a way that shows what initialy attracted me to it. I try to view bad weather as a challenge or should I say all weather as good for something. The trick is to adjust your expectations so that you can work with what you get.
I also give myself asignments.(how do you spell "asigments"?) One year I set out to shoot a sugar maple operation and it was soooo fun. At the end of that project I knew a lot more about how maple syrup is made and I got some very interesting pictures. This year's assigment is to cover Frontenac wilderness park as a documentary/artistc project that could end up as a book. This is a very ambitious project that will probably take 2 or 3 years spanning all 4 seasons and it's not something that I would have been ready to bite off before now. So pace yourself and don't set your sights higher than you can reasonably accomplish.
If you live in an area where the commonly accepted icons of "great photography" are not present, don't let anyone tell you that the subject matter that you do have to work with is inferior. You can make great images in your own back yard regardless of what the self proclaimed "experts" say.
I have a favorite photographer/mentor whose work and encouragement are a great inspiration to me.
Bob
Posted by Leann Greene on July 10, 2007 at 3:52 PM
I start feeling the same way when I ignore what seem to be personal strengths. What have you had good response from?-maybe try a different twist on that and see if the sparks fly again. I'd bet that something is about to happen that needed you to be in "pause"
Boy...I sure empathize also. When spring is over and the hazy, humid days of summer set in, I hate going out to do images, even at sunrise or sunset. It's just not my cup of tea, sweating and swatting mosquitos away. However, I've had some inspiration from the Flora forum this summer. It's been a long time since I shot flowers and I'm having a good time relearning the process again. The talent in the forum has really gotten my juices flowing again. I'm having fun and learning new techniques and seeing things in a new way.
Lots of good suggestions in the above comments and don't worry, this too shall pass When you least expect it, you'll be taking out the camera again. Hang in there
Posted by Nathan Buck on July 11, 2007 at 11:43 AM
Hi Barbara.
I hit a major slump at the first of the year. For much of the winter I took high key flora photos indoors, and it just got really old to me right before spring. My slump continued into tulip season, but eventually I was able to shoot my way out of it. I shot some, I looked for different comps and subjects, I looked at A LOT of photos on the web (Flickr, photo blogs, etc.) The inspiring photos from other photographers helped a lot. NPN had a lot to do with that too.
I experienced that as well. The thing with my photography is that when I go out I sometimes do it just for the sake of it, but not because I feel a particular urge to create or capture a moment (of course the opposite is true very often as well). Then I come home with so-so images or with no images at all. But this triggers something. I get inspired. First by the location, I see , observe, absorb. When I get home, I have lots of images on my mind that I have not taken, because the ideas would not come at the location, but there is some unconcious creative process going on. Then I have my so-so images from that first outing. Albeit they do not satisfy me, they provoke and provide ideas and a strive to be better next time. Then I go out, eventually to the same location and try to be better then. The ideas from the first trip, the first impressions I had are then refined and eventually I can create something that pleases me more. And this is the success that inspires and stimulates further. What I am referring to here is what I would call a photographic-feedback-loop or creative-feedback-loop. In a nutshell: Just go out and do something with your camera, keep doing it, and the motvation will be up again.
I am for the time-being in a situation where I lack time and opportunities and my mind is pretty much occupied by work-related issues, experiences and thought processes and there is no room for photography, also in an intellectual sense. Hence the urge to be creative is not as strong as it used to be, simply because I have not been photographing for two month now and this sweet feeling of achievement one has when an image works out is just so remote now.
I also wnat to add that looking at the galleries here, stimulates a lot as well.
Regards,
Dietrich
WOW. I knew I was not alone, but the response has been uplifting in itself. Thank you all for your ideas and as MacArthur stated "I will return!" I am exploring using Painter along with Photoshop. Yes, work has a lot to do with it and those other concerns that can catch us off guard. I made note of your great and varied ideas.
Thank you all
Discussion
11 repliesSigned.. one misplaced camera on the sidelines....
Just "go with the flow" and like any other cycle, you will emerge from it.
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0206/gt0206-1.html
Sometimes you just have to wait it out. In the mean time it may be a good idea to pick up some books from your favorite photographers (or just go to the bookstore and see what's there - you may discover new favorites) or to spend the time learning new skills (e.g. get a good Photoshop book and read to cover to cover, maybe apply some new techniques to your older images) etc.
Guy
See and watch the birds; smell the flowers and watch them grow. Play with photoshop. Clean the house, Listen to music. Read a book. Throw a pot. Make a birdhouse from a gourd.
The desire to shoot will come back and in the interim, you will be expressing your creativity in other ways ...
Not to worry.
And we'll all be watching for your next post--no matter how long it takes.
Carol
My #1 enemy is preconceived expectations, usually self imposed. These can arise from the percieved expectations of others based on what we percieve as "popular or expected" but for me they are most often the product of going out into the field expecting to do something specific with a specific subject. Now, it's good to have a plan and if everything cooperates - teriffic. But it's better to be flexible and revise your expectations if the weather doesn't cooperate, or you don't have time to get where you want to go, or any number of things that can "throw a wrench in the gears". I try to take what I get to work with and do my best to render that in a way that shows what initialy attracted me to it. I try to view bad weather as a challenge or should I say all weather as good for something. The trick is to adjust your expectations so that you can work with what you get.
I also give myself asignments.(how do you spell "asigments"?) One year I set out to shoot a sugar maple operation and it was soooo fun. At the end of that project I knew a lot more about how maple syrup is made and I got some very interesting pictures. This year's assigment is to cover Frontenac wilderness park as a documentary/artistc project that could end up as a book. This is a very ambitious project that will probably take 2 or 3 years spanning all 4 seasons and it's not something that I would have been ready to bite off before now. So pace yourself and don't set your sights higher than you can reasonably accomplish.
If you live in an area where the commonly accepted icons of "great photography" are not present, don't let anyone tell you that the subject matter that you do have to work with is inferior. You can make great images in your own back yard regardless of what the self proclaimed "experts" say.
I have a favorite photographer/mentor whose work and encouragement are a great inspiration to me.
Bob
Lots of good suggestions in the above comments and don't worry, this too shall pass
I hit a major slump at the first of the year. For much of the winter I took high key flora photos indoors, and it just got really old to me right before spring. My slump continued into tulip season, but eventually I was able to shoot my way out of it. I shot some, I looked for different comps and subjects, I looked at A LOT of photos on the web (Flickr, photo blogs, etc.) The inspiring photos from other photographers helped a lot. NPN had a lot to do with that too.
Nathan
I am for the time-being in a situation where I lack time and opportunities and my mind is pretty much occupied by work-related issues, experiences and thought processes and there is no room for photography, also in an intellectual sense. Hence the urge to be creative is not as strong as it used to be, simply because I have not been photographing for two month now and this sweet feeling of achievement one has when an image works out is just so remote now.
I also wnat to add that looking at the galleries here, stimulates a lot as well.
Regards,
Dietrich
Thank you all