can you fall out of love?

back alley

back alley

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i love street shooting!
good at it or not doesn't matter i love doing it, looking at it, reading about it...but lately i think that i might be falling out of love with it!
i don't have the same enthusiasm for it...i'd just as soon stay home and watch the blue jays game!
i enjoy taking pics of abstract objects more, playing with shadow and light...still not good at it but enjoying it more...though feeling guilty about ignoring the streets...
 
Maybe you just need to spice up the marriage a bit. ;)
Try playing with light and shadow on the street, or looking for abstractions and patterns in the way people and places align from various perspectives. Although Lee Friedlander (for example) is often thought of as a street photographer, much of his work is more about the projection of 3-dimensional space onto a 2-dimensional image than it is about the people on the sidewalk.
 
One thing that works for me is to spend a day or so walking about without the camera. I see so many things to shoot that it gets me going.
 
back alley said:
...
i enjoy taking pics of abstract objects more, playing with shadow and light...still not good at it but enjoying it more...though feeling guilty about ignoring the streets...
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Photography lives from people doing what they like.
Perhaps its no time for streets now?
I love street shooting too. But it must be the time for it.
 
Darthfeeble said:
One thing that works for me is to spend a day or so walking about without the camera. I see so many things to shoot that it gets me going.
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Absolutely.

This used to be an exercise I forced upon myself : shoot pictures without a camera. Find frames, figure out required camera settings, dry. I 'missed' a lot of photos that way, but when I had a camera with me, I was ready more often.

It is more about seeing than shooting, the camera half forgotten, only there to record what I've seen. Sometimes, I still have that fleeting moment of 'Oh I wish I had my camera' before realising it is hanging of my shoulder, ready to shoot.
 
JMO but the worst thing you can do when you start to lose your enthusiasm for something you love is to force yourself to do it. Nothing wrong with getting tired and taking a brake from something. GO ahead concentrate on shooting abstracts for a while, bet before you know it your love for street photography will return. Also nothing says you can shoot both :)
 
helenhill said:
A Dangerous Question...

I too feel like You
Even though I Adore viewing Photos and had my fill of shooting it the last
7 years, I am bored with 'looking for the Moment'

More interested in Objects, Tighter Perspective , some Portraits
but less Capturing the Street in Motion

Still Happy though in just shooting an M Body and a 50mm ;)
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wow, even the greats get bored...i don't feel so bad now...
 
I shot street last week for the first time in ages. It was refreshing for me to take a break. I had a better handle on the technique too, treating the archetecture as a landscape that just happened to have people in it and waiting to pounce when the composition was right. For example, one person on a flight of steps, perfect !
 
Joe: could it be that you are pressuring yourself believing that you and photography have some obligation to each other and you must constantly photograph? It ain't so! When your mind and your soul continue to tell you that it is time to take a break and refresh yourself, you should listen.

When you use phrases like "fall out of love", one wonders if you need to step back and begin to gather a better perspective.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Joe: could it be that you are pressuring yourself believing that you and photography have some obligation to each other and you must constantly photograph? It ain't so! When your mind and your soul continue to tell you that it is time to take a break and refresh yourself, you should listen.

When you use phrases like "fall out of love", one wonders if you need to step back and begin to gather a better perspective.
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well, i do like the dramatic...
but i do feel a certain obligation to create...like a missed opportunity.
 
You may just be bored with your usual street photography niche; you might try shooting different aspects of street photography -

Street photography of dogs and their owners
Street photography of dogs and their owners, but with only the owner's legs & feet
Street photography at night
Street photography at night, but from your car as you drive by your subjects
Street photography with no people
Hand held street photography with one second or longer exposure times
Abstract street photography scenes
Night street photography with off camera flash (best at events, where people expect to be photographed)
 
Do whatever feels right when it comes to photography. Do the abstract stuff... it may help you in the streets once you do that exercise. Photography is photography... don't get caught up in genres (especially when you aren't feeling good about it).
 
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