Do I really have anything to say?

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Fred Burton

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Was intensely looking over the specs of a coming new camera, another variation of my own, seriously weighing the possibility that it could take better photos than the one I have and realized how stupid that is!

Have I run out of anything to say with a camera? Am I just getting better and better at taking the same photos? Why am I seriously looking at new cameras when I'll just shoot the same stuff everybody else is shooting in the same way I always shoot it. Is there really anything new to shoot or a different way to shoot it? Have I turned to GAS because there's just nothing new to say with a camera?

Yeah, guess it's an angst attack! Anyone else at this point?
 
As an English Literature major I know that many times, it's not so much WHAT you say as HOW you say it! Same with photography—we've all seen some photographers who can photograph the same thing/scene/place we did and do it in a way we've never envisioned. Perhaps if you took your same "old" equipment and went back somewhere you really liked and tried to see and photograph it in a different way, you'd come to appreciate it more and your GAS would diminish, if not disappear.
I'd LOVE to go buy the new Leica M8.2 and can get a significant discount, but I keep seeing new ways to use the very decent equipment I already have and so I don't! Just my 2 cents!
 
Fred, you just hit a snag, and you're self-conscious enough to see your limitations. If you can buy the camera and really believe it'll help you get over the repetition of photographs, go ahead and buy it. If you can admit to yourself and others that, indeed, you're going to buy gear to keep taking the same photographs... heck, it's still up to you.

Whatever you choose to do, I'll support you. Who hasn't been there some time in their lives?
 
The relationship with a particular camera can be very important. Accordingly, changing cameras can change how you see and feel what you are doing.
Perhaps not in a big way if the new camera is very similar to what you're using. If the new camera is a great deal more capable, or a great deal more limiting, it can really shake you up.
I've just hung up a roll of 120 film from a home made pinhole camera. Believe me, lugging a heavy camera/tripod up a steep hill and holding the shutter open for 2 minutes as it starts to rain can really change how you approach a subject...just as my first digital "inspired me" to shoot hundreds of shots of every thing I came across, my far less "capable" cameras help me slow down and consider what I'm doing. Not that one method is better than the other, but the experience is quite different.

Shake yourself up with new/old gear. Shake yourself up with a seminar or photo vacation. Take up something completely different than what you shoot now.

Change is inevitable, you might as well try to be a bit in charge of it.
 
The only reason I would upgrade is high ISO performance because that would open a new opportunity of night shots, other than that would be full frame sensor.

those are all of course related to digital. with film I have no reason to upgrade anything.
 
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I've realized recently that the cameras that I keep for the long haul are ones that happened to be in my hands when I made a shot that I really like. Now, the question is whether I get attached to the camera because of the successful shot, or if I captured the shot because of the camera? I would lean towards the former!
 
Fred, could we assume that you are pretty much going to similar places looking for "something interesting" to photograph?

If so, you could be overwhelmed with so many choices that you can fail to see anything. Try limiting things in some self assignments. Make yourself shoot at least one roll.

1) pin up a map on your local community. throw a dart and make yourself go photograph for a day within 1/2 mile of where ever it hits.

2) carry a timer set to go off every 3 or 5 minutes. Walk and force yourself to make a photograph every time it goes off.

3) if you shoot landscapes, force yourself to only make photos of people. If you photograph people, force yourself to make photos without them.

The variations are endless with a bit of thought. Just give yourself some assignments that will cause you to break out of your personal comfort zone.

But if you just have a new piece of equipment or travel to someplace different, with no further constraints, you will end up trying to make the same photos as you have been struggling with.

By imposing some constraints for a while or having a goal, you will begin to develop your ability to force yourself to see. Then the whole world begins to open up for you.
 
I've been to this crossroads more times than I'd care to admit: once I'd gotten more-or-less attuned to a certain piece of gear, it would seem the "excitement quotient" would drop precipitously. All that's left is the subject before the lens...which is as it ought to be, but it takes time to sort that out.

I like to say that, at a certain point of my development as a photographer, I could make some interesting images in spite of the gearhead obfuscations that dogged me. Thinking too much/too hard about how things would be different if I had this camera or this big fast lens or this motor drive. Hanging out with a few famous Magnum shooter helped cure me of this disease a little. Then again, most of thjose guys would show me their Leicas...

I think Bob's ideas hold a good deal of merit. You sound like you're more-or-less at home with the gear you have, and that there's little to no "mystery" left in terms of operation. This is exactly where you want to be with your gear, the point where it gets out of your way and lets you just deal with what you want to put on film (or memory card, as applicable). Now it's down to the image itself. I like Bob's idea of exercising your photographic limits, and occasionally going beyond them. Creating a self-assignment is a great idea. Moving from the how of photography to the why has confronted lots of people, so you're in good company. You've already got good equipment that you know pretty well, based on what you've said here: now, grab a fistful of your favorite film (if that's your medium), grab a map, imagine a subject, and let 'er rip.


- Barrett
 
I too feel that different tools bring about different photos but for me they have to be very different in the way they are operated to make a visual difference - My DSLR photos are always very different to my RF photos but then my film SLR photos are not too different to my DSLR photos and I take as much as makes no difference similar photos with my D40 and my D200 I ALMOST can’t justify the cost of the D200, and as for my FED and Zorki and Bessa, I have to write on the neg pockets to remind myself what camera I used!
 
The camera is not an especially important component in good photography.

Light is a far more important component; but as Leica, Canon and Nikon cannot sell light they sell cameras and try to keep people buying.

At RFF people call it GAS, at my local supermarket I call it hard-sell to kids when the sweets are right there at the checkout.

You can choose not to be a consumer of stuff, but a producer of images.
 
Well at least the OP is getting better and better at photographing the same stuff, which is a sort of progress. Perhaps it's not so much the subject matter, but what you do with it. Any camera is more than enough to do the job. Using a literary reference: Proust had plenty to say about his friking Madelaines, didn't he?
 
So what do you do with it? Once we've looked at our photos and said, "Damn, I'm good," then what? What difference does it really make? Yes, photography is a fine hobby, and self-satisfaction has value. But, then what? Is photography more than just an expensive hobby? Or even a business, churning out boring wedding after boring wedding, or portrait after portrait? Where's the real value?
 
Fred Burton said:
So what do you do with it? Once we've looked at our photos and said, "Damn, I'm good," then what? What difference does it really make? Yes, photography is a fine hobby, and self-satisfaction has value. But, then what? Is photography more than just an expensive hobby? Or even a business, churning out boring wedding after boring wedding, or portrait after portrait? Where's the real value?
Click to expand...

I used to love woodworking, I had the complete workshop and spent 15 years making a living as furniture-maker, carver, turner, and joiner. It was my profession and my passion. I eventually came to the point where I had done it all. Not literally, but close enough that there was little challenge left in the craft. I put down my chisels and walked away. I have not done any woodwork worth mentioning in 10 years. Many people thought I was nuts, crazy, lazy, uninspired, whatever, but I do not regret my decision. Interestingly enough, I have had this gnawing feeling the past few months to start doing a few woodwork projects, enough time has past that I am looking fondly at the craft again.

While I find hard to recommend that someone abandon photography, if you are no longer inspired by your photographs, life is too short to waste doing something you do not enjoy. Most of us have to do that every for a job. But it may be time to put down the camera...
 
I've wrestled with this too, and the conclusion I came to is that finding a greater function for your work adds additional purpose to it. Find a need in the community and fill it - it doesn't have to be boring - be creative and work in your spare time for nonprofits or charities who could use a photographer. All too often they'll want to take over and start directing you like you work for them, but you don't have to let that happen. Come up with a functional/original story or portfolio and then just see who's interested. Just an idea.
 
I went through a dry spell that lasted some years. I took very few pictures. One day I went out and bought two Nikons and some lenses, went to Colorado five summers in a row, and took some great stuff. All that time, my one Leica, an M2, lay on the shelf. After a few years, I went out and bought an M6 classic to go with the M2. Now my Nikons lay on the shelf; I have 7 Leica Ms and use them all (not at the same time). During this time I took three photo courses at the junior college. These courses were stimulating anf gave me new directions.

I think if we look for answers only from within, we are being a closed system. I think it helps to be stimulated by other photographers and by new places and things to photograph. And a new camera can make a difference. And I think we should photograph things that excite us, and not waste film on things that don't. A new lens, such as a wide angle lens, that sees in a different perspective, has helped me to see in new ways. Looking through the same viewfinder forever could be pretty limiting. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." (moms Mabley, I think).
 
The moment you start thinking that you should 'say' something with your photos, photography becomes extremely difficult.

You hit a brick wall and nothing seems interesting anymore. You start buying gear to compensate but it only makes you more unhappy because its a short-term fix and a waste of money.

This is the crucial moment, because you either find your way, or you become a gear-head, or you sell your gear and move on.

No one can help you but you.
 
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