Beginner A bit of stop / start

[inquisitive_chap]

I may be unusual but I have had a bit of a stop/start relationship with photography. I get so far in my photographic journey and then I sometimes drift onto other hobbies (my daughter thinks I'm neuro diverse as I get fixated on different things in cycles. No idea if I am or not) and put the camera down for a few months, then pick it up again and relearn a few things I forgot (I re-read Bryan Peterson's 'understanding exposure' which was recommenfed by someone on here and is a great book) and then go further in my photographic learning journey and move a bit further forward again.

It means my progress is relatively slow but I'm in no rush. And my method means I avoid ever getting frustrated. And it does have the advantage that I consolidate a bunch of technical stuff and general hints and tips.

I'm guessing on here this experience is a bit unusual but it's just me I guess. Does anyone else go through phases in photography out of interest?

 

[Oldbones]

I don't think its unusual, hobbies take time and patience, I haven't touched my fishing gear in a good while.
I have done other things as well.
But I do feel that photography is a very pleasing pass time, just like fishing, the fish or the camera does not care.
There will be highs and lows as well as lulls in any thing you do, life takes all sorts of turns.

 

[lindsay]

Not remotely unusual. Most of us take gaps in our hobbies when life intervenes.
Neither do I think neurodiverse is an appropriate label for someone with an inquiring and active mind. In my life, I started off with photography and amateur radio as hobbies courtesy of my dad's interest in these, then when I found myself starting a career as a computer programmer, computers and progranmming became an interest and hobby. I developed an interest in family hstory for some reason, and did a lot with that for many years. Sometimes hobbies combine, such as the programming and family history, such that I developed my own programs for managing family history data (before they became commercially available). Then having always liked aerioplanes, I was given a trial flying lesson as a gift, and shortly after starting learning to fly, getting licences, and doing flying to the point of owning an aeroplane and then starting to build my own from a kit. Over the years, the interest in each of these things waxed and waned. I took a 30 year gap in amateur radio, before resuming it about 13 years ago but it is something I dip in and out of. Photography had a lengthy gap too. Computers just became my progfession rather than a hobby, but they still interest me.

My wife, and friends, don't call me neurodiverse, they say I've had an interesting life and am an interesting person to be around. I get bright ideas but rather than ignore them, I often follow them up and do them the best I can. Achieving things slowly but surely is way better than burning out too quickly after a frenetic burst of activity.