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I know it's nothing unique, many people who enjoy photography go through "droughts" where they don't like their work or can't be bothered. The usual advice is to put the camera away and it'll all come flooding back. My camera has mostly been away for so long I can't remember when it last got used in anger. I'm starting to think I need a new hobby.
This isn't meant to come across as one of those self-indulgent, woeist me threads so apologies if it does, I'm just wondering if anyone else feels the same about photography as me.
At the beginning of the year I enroled on a level2 photography course at the local college and had great fun. The best thing about the course was the introduction to the darkroom which meant I could hide away in there away from all the geeks comparing focal lengths of their lenses
It was stressful towards the end, I was my usual disorganised self and had left a lot of the work until the last minute mainly due to the fact that I was finshing a HNC at the same time which had to take priority, plus a family and a full time job which quite regularly sent me out of the country with no camera and no internet to carry on my studies.
Despite all that I signed up for level3 which I thought would be a bit less stressful as I had finished the HNC by then. Problem is it was run over the summer which has clashed with my first holiday since my honeymoon three years ago, more prolonged spells away with work, family stuff and a total motivatinoal drought.
I then found out last week that the course has been chopped short by a week despite the fact we were told the course would be extended to allow for summer vacations and work commitments. I've now got two weeks to finish my architecture project which in itself shouldn't be too difficult but then I also have to come up with, write a proposal for, research, execute and present a second project.
It has to fit into the following constraints:
Be location based (ie not in a studio or controlled environment of any sort)
Fashion, editorial, portraiture
Architectural - industrial interiors and exteriors (already doing it and can't do two projects of the same theme)
Urban and rural landscapes
Social documentary
An alternative assignment (an open brief is even more of a problem for me than a closed brief which might become clearer later on).
Again you'll see that I've left everything to the last minute again but that isn't so much the problem. The biggest problem is being a left-handed Virgo which means I don't have a creative streak in my body, that's why the architecture project suits me because I've just got to turn up, photograph the front of a load of churches and it's job done. The other categories all require some form of imigination and motivation of which I have none.
Imagination has never been my strong point but my motivation has disappeared completely. It started well over a year ago when I started to hate the limitations of my KM5D, so I got myself a Bronica instead, everything started out fine, I was excited by the challenges of a new camera, new techniques and new processes but the more I got comfortable with the camera the more I got frustrated by my own limitations. Film photography is fine when you have no expectations but when you're trying to improve and step up a level it's bloody hard work. The time delay between shooting, finishing a roll off (even if it only has 12 frames) developing and scanning mean that you soon forget what you did to produce such junk in the first place.
Then I discovered the darkroom and the magic of B&W printing. Shortly after that I started turning my garage into a darkroom. Just like the Bronica it started out as innocent fun, it didn't matter if it looked crap, I made it. But as soon as I started to want to make decent prints it has become another technique I don't see any improvement in and seem destined to be mediocre at and there is nothing I hate more about myself than mediocrity.
I spend most of my time reading about photography, here, magazines and even books. I spend most of my disposably income on photography, cameras, lenses, "strobist" (I'm starting to hate that word) stuff, film, scanner, darkroom, chemicals the list goes on. Yet the more stuff I buy the less photography I seem to do and it has gotten to the point where I feel a couple of things.
1)Why did I get into photography, I can't remember.
2)I enjoy understanding the technical aspects of photography more than I actually enjoy photography itself but because of my lack of inspiration/motivation I never employ/practise the things I read about and hence never get any better.
How the **** do I get out of this rut? Should I just sell up and take up knitting? I hear there's some really technical aspects to it
This isn't meant to come across as one of those self-indulgent, woeist me threads so apologies if it does, I'm just wondering if anyone else feels the same about photography as me.
At the beginning of the year I enroled on a level2 photography course at the local college and had great fun. The best thing about the course was the introduction to the darkroom which meant I could hide away in there away from all the geeks comparing focal lengths of their lenses
It was stressful towards the end, I was my usual disorganised self and had left a lot of the work until the last minute mainly due to the fact that I was finshing a HNC at the same time which had to take priority, plus a family and a full time job which quite regularly sent me out of the country with no camera and no internet to carry on my studies. Despite all that I signed up for level3 which I thought would be a bit less stressful as I had finished the HNC by then. Problem is it was run over the summer which has clashed with my first holiday since my honeymoon three years ago, more prolonged spells away with work, family stuff and a total motivatinoal drought.
I then found out last week that the course has been chopped short by a week despite the fact we were told the course would be extended to allow for summer vacations and work commitments. I've now got two weeks to finish my architecture project which in itself shouldn't be too difficult but then I also have to come up with, write a proposal for, research, execute and present a second project.
It has to fit into the following constraints:
Be location based (ie not in a studio or controlled environment of any sort)
Fashion, editorial, portraiture
Architectural - industrial interiors and exteriors (already doing it and can't do two projects of the same theme)
Urban and rural landscapes
Social documentary
An alternative assignment (an open brief is even more of a problem for me than a closed brief which might become clearer later on).
Again you'll see that I've left everything to the last minute again but that isn't so much the problem. The biggest problem is being a left-handed Virgo which means I don't have a creative streak in my body, that's why the architecture project suits me because I've just got to turn up, photograph the front of a load of churches and it's job done. The other categories all require some form of imigination and motivation of which I have none.
Imagination has never been my strong point but my motivation has disappeared completely. It started well over a year ago when I started to hate the limitations of my KM5D, so I got myself a Bronica instead, everything started out fine, I was excited by the challenges of a new camera, new techniques and new processes but the more I got comfortable with the camera the more I got frustrated by my own limitations. Film photography is fine when you have no expectations but when you're trying to improve and step up a level it's bloody hard work. The time delay between shooting, finishing a roll off (even if it only has 12 frames) developing and scanning mean that you soon forget what you did to produce such junk in the first place.
Then I discovered the darkroom and the magic of B&W printing. Shortly after that I started turning my garage into a darkroom. Just like the Bronica it started out as innocent fun, it didn't matter if it looked crap, I made it. But as soon as I started to want to make decent prints it has become another technique I don't see any improvement in and seem destined to be mediocre at and there is nothing I hate more about myself than mediocrity.
I spend most of my time reading about photography, here, magazines and even books. I spend most of my disposably income on photography, cameras, lenses, "strobist" (I'm starting to hate that word) stuff, film, scanner, darkroom, chemicals the list goes on. Yet the more stuff I buy the less photography I seem to do and it has gotten to the point where I feel a couple of things.
1)Why did I get into photography, I can't remember.
2)I enjoy understanding the technical aspects of photography more than I actually enjoy photography itself but because of my lack of inspiration/motivation I never employ/practise the things I read about and hence never get any better.
How the **** do I get out of this rut? Should I just sell up and take up knitting? I hear there's some really technical aspects to it
