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07/06/2004 01:35:12 PM · #1 |
I love photography. I take lots and lots of pictures. I read the forums, drool over lenses and other accessories, look at the world as one big photo opportunity, etc. And yet, in the past few days, I've been experiencing something new (and disturbing to me). I think it might be burnout. It just feels as though everything has already been photographed (which of course is nonsense). Nothing is emerging as interesting or fascinating or different or whatever. It's just same old, same old.
Anyone here get that feeling regarding your photography? Anyone have tips to overcome this? I mean, I just got my Rebel a month ago. I've put 1,000 snaps on the shutter. I love it and can't believe I'm feeling rather blah the past few days. Help! I want to get back to the feelings of wonder and astonishment and challenge and joy regarding photography!
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07/06/2004 01:37:14 PM · #2 |
| happens to me all the time...i take it as time to break a new boundary. at least a boundary for my own experience. |
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07/06/2004 01:41:14 PM · #3 |
You have 2 options really (I've done both):
(1) take a short break
(2) force yourself to shoot more. try something you haven't tried like night photography, or portraits, or choose a mundane subject and make a project out of it (like hands, or signs, or fire hydrants)
I'm in a bit of rut myself. Mine's different though. I can find plenty of things to photograph ... the resulting images just SUCK :(
Message edited by author 2004-07-06 13:41:34. |
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07/06/2004 01:42:00 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by boomer:
I love photography. I take lots and lots of pictures. I read the forums, drool over lenses and other accessories, look at the world as one big photo opportunity, etc. And yet, in the past few days, I've been experiencing something new (and disturbing to me). I think it might be burnout. It just feels as though everything has already been photographed (which of course is nonsense). Nothing is emerging as interesting or fascinating or different or whatever. It's just same old, same old.
Anyone here get that feeling regarding your photography? Anyone have tips to overcome this? I mean, I just got my Rebel a month ago. I've put 1,000 snaps on the shutter. I love it and can't believe I'm feeling rather blah the past few days. Help! I want to get back to the feelings of wonder and astonishment and challenge and joy regarding photography! |
I know the feeling and heard about it from others as well. Quite common.
I just take a break.
Or I buy a photography magazine.
Or I take a long walk in nature (with camera).
Or a holiday.
Or force myself to submit to a challenge.
The feeling always comes back once I get some good new photographs. So even if I take a break, the feeling only comes back once I take some new pictures and get some good results.
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07/06/2004 01:49:56 PM · #5 |
I`m there right now Gary..I think that`s why I never managed to get many pics for the June free study...a general lack of motivation.
I`m thinking of putting the camera in a drawer for a wee while and hopefully in the weeks to follow, inspiration will return. |
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07/06/2004 01:53:18 PM · #6 |
I am there with you Gary. I have tried to take a break, but i just don't stay away long enough. I am annoyed lately because there is dust on my sensor that won't come clean and I don't want to be without my camera for two to three weeks while I send it to Canon, and also because the photos that I love always do so poorly here. I know this is not the end all be all, but I eventually want to sell my work, and there's a great representation of people in DPC from all over the world... so if they don't like my photos, my photos probably won't sell. I haven't sold a single thing on DPCprints yet.
I am just discouraged. I didn't even do the last photo project on //www.sh1ft.org and I always do those. I am going to try to do the scavenger hunt though. I haven't lost the love and fun in the technicalities, it's the creativity of the photo subject and shot that I seem to be lacking.
Anyhow, i don't know what to do. I try to stay away, but i can't, yet i am getting frustrated with myself for doing so poorly with photos I love. what's a girl to do?! |
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07/06/2004 02:02:23 PM · #7 |
It isn't a crime to not shoot for a week or so. (or a month or so... or a year or so...)
But in general when I get stuck, I try this exercise when I get bored of never finding 'interesting' subjects to shoot.
Other days I'll go sit in a garden and just look for a while - often I don't even bother to take my camera and then my fingers start to itch...
Other things I find that help is flicking through a coffee table book of interesting new photography, or returning to a long running photo project ( I try to have two or three on the go at a time)
Setting deadlines also works - make an aim to add 5 good pictures to a project in a month - or whatever numbers work for you - and strive to stick to them. Usually I find I end up doing a whole lot more in the end.
Come up with a photo project that interests you. Make it accessable (it shouldn't really be 'take a picture in every national park - though that is a great long term project) It might be do an attractive portrait of everyone in your immediate family. It might be a photojournalistic essay on a local chess club, or NASCAR team, or a collection of 6 great images of local tourist attractions at sunset - whatever floats your boat.
What are you interested in ? (photography doesn't count)
What would be an interesting set of pictures about that interest ?
How long would it take you to make them ?
What would you use them for ?
What are the 'must get' shots ?
Projects are a great way to kick-start creativity...
I usually try and establish how I want to print/ publish/ share the
final images too - the discipline of going 'all the way' to the finished
product is also useful. The printing, matting and framing is an important part of the reward - seeing the end result.
Message edited by author 2004-07-06 14:07:44.
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07/06/2004 02:02:33 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by boomer:
I love photography. I take lots and lots of pictures. I read the forums, drool over lenses and other accessories, look at the world as one big photo opportunity, etc. And yet, in the past few days, I've been experiencing something new (and disturbing to me). I think it might be burnout. It just feels as though everything has already been photographed (which of course is nonsense). Nothing is emerging as interesting or fascinating or different or whatever. It's just same old, same old.
Anyone here get that feeling regarding your photography? Anyone have tips to overcome this? I mean, I just got my Rebel a month ago. I've put 1,000 snaps on the shutter. I love it and can't believe I'm feeling rather blah the past few days. Help! I want to get back to the feelings of wonder and astonishment and challenge and joy regarding photography! |
Create yourself a couple 'projects' to work on. I currently have 4 projects going that keep me from this problem that you speak of.
Photo-A-Day
This project simply requires one photo every day. It doesn't have to be anything special, but I must add at least one photo a day, shot on that day. On days where I'm not working on something in particular, I just carry my point and shoot camera with me and snap whatever I see.
Crossing Paths
This is a new project I just started. It's designed to help me overcome my 'fear' of asking people if I can photograph them.
Hickory, North Carolina
This is just a simple collection of things, people, places, and events in my community.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
This project will be about a year long also. I'm creating a photo gallery of people, architecture, and art in my church that will be made into a DVD slideshow and hopefully a coffee table book.
Whenever I get into the 'rut' you speak of for creativity, I just work on one of these projects for a while...
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07/06/2004 02:05:53 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by mirdonamy:
what's a girl to do?! |
Please tell me when you find out! Seriously, I feel many of the things posted in this thread and I do find where I live to be very un-inspiring. But I do want to learn enough to be able to produce that which I see and want as my image. I don't have a problem with getting low scores for my lack of technical ability so far, and I don't mind if it is because my tastes are so different. It still all helps in the learning curve for me. The creativity is a problem, though. I guess I am fortunate that I am not working towards being able to sell my work, only to better create what I enjoy for myself. I am sure all of you talented ones here will re-group and continue to inspire the rest of us!!
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07/06/2004 02:08:33 PM · #10 |
heh - the general summary of the suggestions seems to be 'projects' :)
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07/06/2004 02:08:43 PM · #11 |
| Go for a walk, someplace you haven't been before. In a car things go by to fast and you miss everything. |
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07/06/2004 02:09:51 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by louddog:
Go for a walk, someplace you haven't been before. In a car things go by to fast and you miss everything. |
I think this is when I enjoy photography and myself the most. Good suggestion, Louddog!
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07/06/2004 02:11:06 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by louddog:
Go for a walk, someplace you haven't been before. In a car things go by to fast and you miss everything. |
Reminds me of a project I did once (seriously)
Went to a place I'd never been, and created 6 shots of that place. Was part of a 4x6 (www.fourbysix.com) collection.
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07/06/2004 02:11:25 PM · #14 |
I play tennis, try to engage a beautiful woman in conversation or fill a discarded aquarium with sand, put a cobalt-blue brick in it and blow the sand over it. Sometimes I dance alone in my shirt.
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07/06/2004 03:28:49 PM · #15 |
Photography is a form of communication and when that communication doesn't happen you can get bored and/or frustrated. There are a number or reasons the communication may not be happening:
1. You haven't found the right audience, so the feedback you get is completely out of sync with your goals (you think it's a great composition and your spouse says "why did you take that")
2. Your target audience is saturated with images, so you aren't getting the feedback you desire
3. Your images are good, but they don't communicate anything that you feel is important
4. many more
The key thing is to realize that is isn't just create technically good, or pretty, images. Maybe try to express what you want to communicate in words (personal notes) and then try to create the photographs to communicate those thoughts.
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07/06/2004 03:31:54 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Nusbaum:
Photography is a form of communication and when that communication doesn't happen you can get bored and/or frustrated. There are a number or reasons the communication may not be happening:
1. You haven't found the right audience, so the feedback you get is completely out of sync with your goals (you think it's a great composition and your spouse says "why did you take that")
2. Your target audience is saturated with images, so you aren't getting the feedback you desire
3. Your images are good, but they don't communicate anything that you feel is important
4. many more
The key thing is to realize that is isn't just create technically good, or pretty, images. Maybe try to express what you want to communicate in words (personal notes) and then try to create the photographs to communicate those thoughts. |
This should be required readding on the site, I think. Well stated, Nusbaum!
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07/06/2004 03:32:42 PM · #17 |
I'm really glad I started this thread. Lots of fantastic suggestions, and great insight too. I did start the Photo a Day thing over at pbase last week, in fact, that's what inspired this thread. I'm less than a week into it, and I started feeling like there was nothing left to photograph! Obviously, that's not true. But that's when I got to thinking perhaps it was burnout.
I do like the projects idea, and even the "let it go for a while" idea, although that one is harder. I think today I'll try making a picture of boredom for my PaD. Anyway, thanks to all for the great thoughts...
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07/06/2004 04:11:27 PM · #18 |
Drink beer and reeelllaaaaaxxxxxxxx. Next thing you know you'll be all hot and horney to take photos again.
Take a break soldier.
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07/06/2004 04:39:29 PM · #19 |
Well, I took this a little while ago to try to capture my mood. I was going for boredom but I think the image looks like something else entirely! LOL
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07/06/2004 05:05:22 PM · #20 |
I sympathize, Gary. I've been feeling a bit burned out too, more because of a serious lack of time to wander around and find the happy accident shot, which is my biggest photographic joy. I did find some time over the long weekend, though, and entered a shot into the Purple challenge. And hey, it's holding steady at 4.5!
That's OK, though, 'cause I'm feeling happy about getting back into the game.
And thanks, all, for the great suggestions above. |
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07/06/2004 05:26:27 PM · #21 |
Seriously, just a take a break, you deserve it. Nothing will regenerate the creative juices more than a break. At first I thought taking a break was ludicrous, seeing that I was NONSTOP DPC. Then I sat back and relaxed a little, and now, after a month or two break, I'm starting to feel a lot better and I feel like I am ready for a new onslought of pictures that are better than ever before. There is nothing wrong with a break.
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07/06/2004 05:33:50 PM · #22 |
I do experience it and just got over it by going away for about two weeks with limited access to a PC and just shooting in a new place where I've never been. Not being able to see or process pictures for a while has made the task both a bit daunting and exciting now that I'm back and can see what I got.
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07/06/2004 05:34:15 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by boomer:
I love photography. I take lots and lots of pictures. I read the forums, drool over lenses and other accessories, look at the world as one big photo opportunity, etc. And yet, in the past few days, I've been experiencing something new (and disturbing to me). I think it might be burnout. It just feels as though everything has already been photographed (which of course is nonsense). Nothing is emerging as interesting or fascinating or different or whatever. It's just same old, same old.
Anyone here get that feeling regarding your photography? Anyone have tips to overcome this? I mean, I just got my Rebel a month ago. I've put 1,000 snaps on the shutter. I love it and can't believe I'm feeling rather blah the past few days. Help! I want to get back to the feelings of wonder and astonishment and challenge and joy regarding photography! |
Take a look at my profile - regular submission then wham, dired up.
I feel the same as you, and it's probably not what you want to hear but I am still in it.
Just need to find something that really grabs me.
Even thinking of challenge ideas is nigh on impossible.
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07/06/2004 05:34:50 PM · #24 |
Originally posted by Gordon:
It isn't a crime to not shoot for a week or so. (or a month or so... or a year or so...) |
How about 10 years? I didn't shoot anything for almost that long.
Originally posted by Gordon:
But in general when I get stuck, I try this exercise when I get bored of never finding 'interesting' subjects to shoot.
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I like this idea. I have tried something similar, where I challenge myself to take 10 photos within a 30ft radius of my front door. Amazing what you can see when you begin to look.
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07/06/2004 07:51:04 PM · #25 |
I can't believe nobody mentioned this already - go out and buy a ridiculously expensive new lens! Not only will you have new inspiration to take pictures of things in a way that you couldn't do before with your other lenses, but you'll have the pressure of needing to get your money's worth out of your new toy. Okay, I'm actually kidding. Well, kind of.
You might also want to spend a few minutes in an art store to pick up some new props. The mundane items you've photographed before might look completely different in front of brightly colored construction paper, standing on top of a bed of blue marbles, or sitting underneath a sheet of glass sprinkled with drops of water. :-)
Happy shopping!
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