While my interest in photography competitions and the camera clubs is still with me, I have had a hard time shooting for 18 months now... the only pictures I have taken in the last 18 months are what clients have paid me to shoot. Camera bags are thick with dust and there isn't a mA in any of the batteries. I just can't get motivated and go out and do some fun photography.
Have any of you gone through this and what did you do to get back the urge to shoot?
I regularly go through blah cycles. It always passes eventually. My advice: don't force it. Your block will clear on its own.
I would suggest some objective to learn or to figure out. My latest was to figure out how to photograph flowers IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT (and not using the out-of -focus background or black background) and the goal was to still get photos with visual focus. An interesting challenge that got me going. There are also self-assignements (photograph things in nature that reminds you of letters (not by shape, but by their spirit) or more straightforward ones (photograph reflections). The first type is a real challenge. All tend to push your creativity. There are always creativity challenges to push.
I've got one of those going on at the moment. I always go through a slump after the burst of activity, like a trip, but I haven't bounced back from my one in March. I suspect that part of the cause of that is simply that I'm going away again soon, so it hardly seems worth starting anything significant. Over the last two months there have been many days when I simply take a camera for a walk, unable to overcome my photo-ennui for long enough to even take any of my toys out of my bag.
Ironically, the best way I've found* to break out of this ennui is to take a trip somewhere. New York, Chicago; Yosemite, Death Vally â different scenery can work wonders. Not that I've even decided what I want to take on my next trip, or what I want to photograph, but that's just the way it goes some times.
*this is new - my favourite way to break out of a funk was to get enthusiastic about a new lens, camera, or accessory, but this really hasn't worked for me in the past year or so.
What I have done when I am in that situation is to take that time to learn and to do something I like very much...
I have read about meditation, I have tried to concentrate more on what I am doing in my every day life activities, even if it is only to wash the dishes, and be there doing that without thinking anything else. Focus on what I am doing and doing it with all my senses. It might be seen as a crazy idea, but when I arrived to the field last week, I could focus more on what I was doing and I could feel a lot more the place I was. Apart from taking the pictures, it was a great personal experience.
Two or three months ago, I start thinking why I didn't go out to take pictures as before, and I found that my fitness was not so good anymore. As a discipline now I walk 7 km 3 or 4 times a week, this to improve my physical condition. I take long walks with a Lady who loves the forest... we walk in different places, and talk about trees, flowers, she tells me how she sees the forest and I share how I see it and what I see... I spend long time only watching the lake, and the birds passing by and trying to get so much in peace. Sometimes I become too worried about my pictures, thinking "All has been done, I can't do anything new, I see my pictures so boring" and feeling very sad about this thought. I learned then that I had to be relaxed and let pass this worry, because that blocks me and take the fun out photography.
I have also seen some videos of John Daido Loori he was a Zen Buddhist monk and a photographer. He explains how you bring your mind to capture that moment... and he talks about "the moment". I watch the video of Andy Goldsworthy with the idea of learning about him and what was moving him to do his art. I didn't take my camera to take pictures after watching all this material, or tried to imitate their pictures. I just planted their ideas and let them there... sure that one day all what I learned from them it will be useful.
And I did all this with no hurry, sure that it would take the time that it was needed... Last week it was my first experience out there after all these months with no pictures and I enjoyed it immensely. Still I think I need more time, more training on focusing.
At the end, I am happy about these periods of lack of motivation because I learn a lot and every time I feel closer to find the way to take pictures and enjoy myself without any pressure.
I hope my experience helps...
Yes, me too. I find it self-rectifies after a while,as I normally get a flurry on for pics and lose the music muse, and visa versa. Funnily enough, some of the stimuli that kickstart me out of it come from these very forums when I see someone experimenting or doing a really fascinating thing. Irma took some of some poppies the other day, which I saw mere minutes after a friend phoned me to tell of a local poppy field. As a result of people here I was able to check myself and really think through a couple of original approaches.