I've hit my photography dip

Raptor Mike

Raptor Mike

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I really haven't had much time, or more to the point energy, to get much photography done in the past year. I do a physical job (self employed mobile car valeter) so by the time I get home I'm shattered. But it's not just that putting me off at the moment, it's PP time. You sit down to do a 'few' images and before you know it the evening has gone and it's time for bed. I will be honest I do have another hobby (tabletop wargaming minitures) that gets in the way but even that takes a back step sometimes. I haven't been on TP much lately, I was always on here a year or two ago, but when I do post have found lack of feedback on images can be uninspiring.:dummy: However, I am VERY guilty of not commenting myself so I can't complain.:exit: I feel like it's just laziness but by the time I thought of all the things I need to get ready to go I end up thinking screw it, I'll go another day. Yeovilton Air day is on the weekend and hopefully that will help but I know I will have another 1200 images that need culling.:banghead: But this isn't to say I no longer enjoy the hobby, because once out I love it.

So has anyone been in this situation before and got any tips for giving myself a kick up the bottom?

Thanks in advance,
Mike (y)
 
FWIW had a very long gap in my photographic activity - maybe 30 years - but I think the incentives to take it up again will be different for everyone. I wonder if your interest is a bit unfocused (excuse the pun), and maybe you need to concentrate your efforts on specific target achievements. So at the Yeovilton show, perhaps limit your photography to one or two particular aircraft or types, eg getting a really good image of a helicopter in an unusual attitude with wake vortices off the blades, etc. That way it might not be 1200 images but just 50-100 to review, with something specific to look for in them.
Just a thought
 
Sometimes life just gets in the way of your hobby. I've been inactive this year due to a house move, decorating, building my new office space, fixing the garden and the list goes on. I've force myself out of bed at Stupid O'Clock a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed it but like you I find myself saying screw it because I'm just tired.

I'm trying not to let it worry me too much, I'm sure i'll get back into the swing of things once life starts to get back to normal.
 
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Raptor Mike said:
But it's not just that putting me off at the moment, it's PP time.
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I get this also. What I found best was when I had a Fuji mirrorless I would use jpeg and since it had live exposure preview the exposure was close enough.

I found the results fine considering the time, effort and faffing about it saved.
 
Raptor Mike said:
I really haven't had much time, or more to the point energy, to get much photography done in the past year. I do a physical job (self employed mobile car valeter) so by the time I get home I'm shattered. But it's not just that putting me off at the moment, it's PP time. You sit down to do a 'few' images and before you know it the evening has gone and it's time for bed. I will be honest I do have another hobby (tabletop wargaming minitures) that gets in the way but even that takes a back step sometimes. I haven't been on TP much lately, I was always on here a year or two ago, but when I do post have found lack of feedback on images can be uninspiring.:dummy: However, I am VERY guilty of not commenting myself so I can't complain.:exit: I feel like it's just laziness but by the time I thought of all the things I need to get ready to go I end up thinking screw it, I'll go another day. Yeovilton Air day is on the weekend and hopefully that will help but I know I will have another 1200 images that need culling.:banghead: But this isn't to say I no longer enjoy the hobby, because once out I love it.

So has anyone been in this situation before and got any tips for giving myself a kick up the bottom?

Thanks in advance,
Mike (y)
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I go through this every few years. Last year was my most recent year where I did next to no photography (save the odd snap on my phone). Having to deal with all those images is what drove me to shooting large format film. Now I'm back to shooting digital, I think my game plan will be to take one small memory card with me when I go out for a shoot and make sure each image is a winner - compose carefully and selectively.

Try getting yourself to a photography exhibition/gallery or find a couple of photographer mates to head out with. I find if you absorb yourself in photography, or anything creative, it gets the juices going!
 
welly said:
I go through this every few years. Last year was my most recent year where I did next to no photography (save the odd snap on my phone). Having to deal with all those images is what drove me to shooting large format film. Now I'm back to shooting digital, I think my game plan will be to take one small memory card with me when I go out for a shoot and make sure each image is a winner - compose carefully and selectively.

Try getting yourself to a photography exhibition/gallery or find a couple of photographer mates to head out with. I find if you absorb yourself in photography, or anything creative, it gets the juices going!
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going out with a mate or 2 is a good idea.helped me.i often feel like getting rid for good and maybe dont touch the camera for weeks but then something inspires,think if i didnt have my cats i would probably give up all together,having a friend who inspires is good
 
Some good advice here. I hit a bit of a wall and joined a local club in the hopes that it would give me some impetus. They have a programme of talks, practical sessions, tutorials and competitions which encourage and inspire, as well as providing some useful critique on my images. They also have a good summer season programme which keeps you on track during the warmer months/lighter nights. It also gives me a social outlet (I'm a married woman with a hermit of a husband, who hates socialising, so it's somewhere I can go alone and meet like minded people). I now take fewer but better images and am enjoying it a lot more as a result. 1200 images from a day out would put off even the most stalwart pp geek. Slow down a bit and enjoy the process a bit more. If clubs aren't your thing, then find a photo buddy maybe.

Failing that, i also took to using my compact for a bit, instead of my DSLR. Firstly an old Canon S100 - which is a great little camera, but lately a new Canon G7X which is fabulous. You can either point and shoot or be a lot more considered with settings etc, and just have a bit of fun with it, without lugging a backpack full of stuff everywhere. Just grab it and go.

So that's a couple of things which got me out of my can't-be-bothered slump. I hope you find something to gt you out of yours .... :)
 
I didn't do much for a while. Then end of 2015 I got the restored Escort back on the road so my Flickr etc became flooded with that & car meets/shows as that's pretty much all I done....

This year we've started doing a lot more nature/walking/hiking stuff. Very enjoyable, lovely early mornings in some cases & a reasonable amount of driving don't get me wrong, but also some awesome experiences/views/skies....... And I did/do enjoy landscape photography so it's helped me an awful lot to get back into that. I couldn't do what you 'suggested' & edit my way through 1200 images though!! :banghead::banghead:

I spend most of my time with the camera in the bag. I'm always looking around me for scenes/shapes/colours/light but I make it really appeal to me before I decide to capture it.

We went out for about 3-4 hours Saturday evening pre-sunset. Sat on the beach, took a picnic, bought some chips, played frisbee/catch with the kids, had a cider, chilled out, took the camera out about 20 minutes before sunset & came away with 2 images that I'm very happy with - I think I took 5 in total. Done the same Monday - cold cider watching the sunset at the beach :cool: 2 images (y)

Yesterday spent 6.5 hours in the Quantocks/Kilve/Lilstock coastline, covered about 7 miles & I came away with 11 images. I've not gone through them properly yet but at first glance I think I'll be keeping the majority of them..... But, we had a great day :)

Maybe what I'm saying is, don't go out to take 100 photos. Go for a walk, sit on the beach, sit on top of a hill, by a lake, enjoy your surroundings & if you manage a handful of photos brilliant. Just make sure they are GOOD ones ;)
 
Withers said:
Some good advice here. I hit a bit of a wall and joined a local club in the hopes that it would give me some impetus. They have a programme of talks, practical sessions, tutorials and competitions which encourage and inspire, as well as providing some useful critique on my images. They also have a good summer season programme which keeps you on track during the warmer months/lighter nights. It also gives me a social outlet (I'm a married woman with a hermit of a husband, who hates socialising, so it's somewhere I can go alone and meet like minded people). I now take fewer but better images and am enjoying it a lot more as a result. 1200 images from a day out would put off even the most stalwart pp geek. Slow down a bit and enjoy the process a bit more. If clubs aren't your thing, then find a photo buddy maybe.

Failing that, i also took to using my compact for a bit, instead of my DSLR. Firstly an old Canon S100 - which is a great little camera, but lately a new Canon G7X which is fabulous. You can either point and shoot or be a lot more considered with settings etc, and just have a bit of fun with it, without lugging a backpack full of stuff everywhere. Just grab it and go.

So that's a couple of things which got me out of my can't-be-bothered slump. I hope you find something to gt you out of yours .... :)
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Thanks. I am in a club but I sometimes find myself going through old images to take rather than purposely going out to take fresh ones.
 
I have suffered this twice now!

Loved photography as a teenager and early twenties then fell out of favour with it for over twenty years. I then got back into it but the interest quickly waned again and I sat back and asked myself why?

After a bit of soul searching the answer was digital photography! It was just so boring and repetitive processing hundreds of digital images; there was no satisfaction anymore to my photography, I was going out and taking lots of digital images then boring myself silly post processing them on a computer.

I have since gone back to film where I have to be more selective what I shoot and probably only bother processing one or two images per roll (usually no more than a crop). I have also gone back to developing my own film which is far more satisfying than sitting at a computer monitor and offers more of a hobby for me.

If you don't enjoy the hobby as it is then look at why and try to change or just sell up and move on to a new hobby; we all have different tastes and I also appreciate if film would not interest you in the slightest but to me there is still something magical and exciting about pulling the film out of the developing tank.
 
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Raptor Mike said:
I sometimes find myself going through old images to take rather than purposely going out to take fresh ones.
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This is what I call the "necessary sleeping or chewing mode".

When so much is learned in a given short time, one needs to
assimilate, integrate all that stuff. Revisiting previously done
work is good… like chewing on it. In a deeper manner, one is
sleeping on it, very good too.

Been there, done that… even after forty years, its no lost time. :cool:
 
Find a cheap film camera and shoot some slide film. Once you've mastered nailing the exposures, you'll need far less time faffing in PP so can spend more time shooting. Maybe even just shoot JPEG and concentrate on getting everything as right as possible in camera rather than doing loads of PP.
 
Raptor Mike said:
Thanks. I am in a club but I sometimes find myself going through old images to take rather than purposely going out to take fresh ones.
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That's a common fault of how clubs run their comps I'm afraid

Back to your opening point though, I've found many people go through dips like this so don't beat yourself up about it. It may be better for you to just say - Nope, no photos for the rest of 2018 but come January...

Motivation is largely about goals, some goals need to be set and with time deadlines others are just ongoing for many people. So if you do want to carry on rather than have a break I'd suggest you set some mini projects, and ideally rope someone else into it with you too

I do this often myself, and especially for others who ask for that arse-kicking

As it happens I'm off to Sheffield this afternoon for a stroll with just a 50mm and I'll be shooting at f1.4 ONLY - its part of a min-project for me that will feature in the main Apple store on their 20+ft screen later this year! I'm doing it just for fun as a challenge to myself and to hopefully encourage others to go walkabout too

But whatever you do, don't feel down about it, its not worth it and won't help anyway

Good luck

Dave
 
I had the same problem with PP and taking too many shots. I had 100s of raw files I hadn't got around to editing and just found the whole thing a laborious nightmare. Sat at the computer for hours on end is not my idea of fun. Since the end of last year I've been shooting film mainly and its changed my picture taking habits for the better. I have my film developed and printed at the lab so there's no post processing done by me whatsoever. I take less shots and try to make sure they will be right knowing I can't alter them. With digital I now shoot jpeg only and limit myself to a 'roll' of 36 shots per outing, doing very minimal processing in Fastone - just cropping to a print size and usually a bit of shadow/highlight adjustment. I don't pixel peep, (usually) don't do any extra sharpening and leave the colour as is. I then back them up, have them printed at 7x5 and that's that. I love sitting back with a cuppa and going through the prints :)
 
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I do sometimes edit a shot and leave it until or the following day to export so i make sure I'm happy with it but I don't seem to spend long editing at all really.....!

I can edit a landscape image in LR in about 10 minutes easily a lot of the time. Maybe clone out a few birds, add a little graduated filter, quick tweak of some bits and pieces and I'm done...! I do tend to use filters though ...
 
droj said:
I don't believe in 'hobbies', I believe in vocations ...
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Dictionary definition of Vocation:
noun [* said:
a specified occupation, profession, or trade
[*]
  1. a special urge, inclination, or predisposition to a particular calling or career, esp a religious one
  2. such a calling or career
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Most of us have no desire to take up Photography professionally but like to relax and enjoy it as a hobby? Have you no hobbies?
 
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I've just been through a dry spell for nearly the last year, I met a girl so she takes up lots of my free time and I just generally lost my mojo for photography.
We went back to NZ for a holiday 2 months ago and took my RX100 Mk4 compact and used that all the time and really enjoyed it and got some cracker photos too, so that got my inspiration back. Then I thought about my gear and realised I had way too much and too much money invested so decided I was happy with my RX100 and Sony A6300 and 4 lenses so decided to sell all my full frame kit. So now I have less gear and a much more compact setup that I'm more inclined to use. I always take the RX100 with me as it is pocket-able and takes amazing photos.
 
Three years ago I sold all my stuff just because I lost interest and could see my kit value dropping.
In the past 18 months I've spent thousands on new gear and am having fun again.

Sadly, I know I'll lose interest again and a shed load of money but it's a loop I've been round many times.

I'm glad I'm not a pro, I can't think of a quicker way of ruining my hobby.
 
GTG said:
I get this also. What I found best was when I had a Fuji mirrorless I would use jpeg and since it had live exposure preview the exposure was close enough.

I found the results fine considering the time, effort and faffing about it saved.
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I agree with this comment. I have used many different systems and about two years ago jumped to Sony FF. I was rarely satisfied with the images. i realized the images were taking to much processing to achieve the look i liked. Sold the lot and moved to Fuji as they require considerably less processing to achieve the look i like.
 
Ironically the Sony FF and RAW shooting rescued my photography dip! I gave up the FF DSLRs due to a nagging feeling I wan't into all that 'tripod and a bag of lenses' lifestyle, I never used to use RAW, most PP was crop and vignette. I just used the incredible FZ1000 for everyday trips and stuff because it always hit 'good enough' for the annual photobooks we print. I had [have] a cheapo D3100/30mm f/1.4 which was only ever used for environmental portraiture of the kids and dogs. Between those and the phone I had enough, but I missed something intangible. Now, the FZ is the family camera. Shooting RAW with the Sony a7, using Luminar as my PP software and it all feels as fast as jpegs and Lightroom did a few years ago as computers and storage space have come on. The original a7 is being blown out at silly prices new these days. I use a tiny Samyang 35/2.8 FE and the whole camera takes up as little space as an X100.

I think a lot of people with any lifestyle hobbies 'dip' when life gets in the way. But sometimes you gotta go away to come back, right?
 
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