Rikard
Established
I used to photograph a lot. I did freelance a bit for mountain biking magazines. And did quite a bit on climbing and skiing with friends. I also loved making social/fun photographs of my friends. Life was easy, everybody had lots of time to spend on such activities. Then life changed for many of us. Kids and family took up most of our time. I stopped photographing, no darkroom anymore and less time. Painting became my refuge. Now the kids are a bit older and I suddenly felt the urge to take photos again. The problem is that all the stuff I loved to photograph; it's just not there anymore. Friends have no time or interest for just hanging out and shooting pictures. My social life has shrunken.
I suppose I'm not the only one here who has gone through this phase? What did you guys do?
I could maybe work on series of more conceptual images, and try to tell a story with those. Being a straight up landscape or street photographer does not interest me right now.
I suppose I'm not the only one here who has gone through this phase? What did you guys do?
I could maybe work on series of more conceptual images, and try to tell a story with those. Being a straight up landscape or street photographer does not interest me right now.
sojournerphoto
Veteran
There are a few of us here whose photography centred around our children growing up and our wider families’ children - the thread ‘Daughters’ has lots from me, Raid and others over the years. Dourbalister is continuing this tradition in the Kentmere 400 thread.
As our children have grown up we seem to continue with our lives and add in things around, things that interest us or catch our eye. I enjoy the experimentation and working to make printed pictures that appeal as objects or have something in them that has meaning for me and hopefully other people.
One ongoing series I have is around our allotments, been doing this for a few years now, and I’m also working on some pictures of the village churches I pass on my regular bike rides. They’re simple things but have meaning and context to our life. I also tend to take a camera when I travel for work - it’s not grand but I make a few pictures and, sometimes, there’s something I like.
My wife keeps photo albums and contributing to that memory book remains important
As our children have grown up we seem to continue with our lives and add in things around, things that interest us or catch our eye. I enjoy the experimentation and working to make printed pictures that appeal as objects or have something in them that has meaning for me and hopefully other people.
One ongoing series I have is around our allotments, been doing this for a few years now, and I’m also working on some pictures of the village churches I pass on my regular bike rides. They’re simple things but have meaning and context to our life. I also tend to take a camera when I travel for work - it’s not grand but I make a few pictures and, sometimes, there’s something I like.
My wife keeps photo albums and contributing to that memory book remains important
Richard G
Veteran
In a big city there might be a photography group, or a hopefully poorly named ‘camera club’. I got into my group by accident, noticed by the sharpest of members when I was photographing old doors out the back of work.
Taking a camera to work every day - for what you see on the way, or on the way back, or on a lunchtime walk, can lead to some interesting discoveries.
Download David Hurn and Bill Jay’s On Being a Photographer. (Linked this week on Mike Johnston’s Online Photographer site). They have a fantastic chapter on photo essays. Research, shooting notes, review, shoot more. As Hurn quipped: ensures your source of shots is not all just the stripper.
Taking a camera to work every day - for what you see on the way, or on the way back, or on a lunchtime walk, can lead to some interesting discoveries.
Download David Hurn and Bill Jay’s On Being a Photographer. (Linked this week on Mike Johnston’s Online Photographer site). They have a fantastic chapter on photo essays. Research, shooting notes, review, shoot more. As Hurn quipped: ensures your source of shots is not all just the stripper.
Last edited:
sojournerphoto
Veteran
I wholeheartedly agree on David Hurn and Bill Jay’s book. I have it on paper and it’s excellent.
p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
Sound like your life has evolved and your photography has not caught up with it yet.
I get a sense that it is the social aspect of photography you are missing. As others suggested maybe inquire about a photography club around your area. Or maybe set up a project to reflect change: dig out old pictures you love and revisit the places they were taken. Photograph them and display them together (?).
Just an idea.
I get a sense that it is the social aspect of photography you are missing. As others suggested maybe inquire about a photography club around your area. Or maybe set up a project to reflect change: dig out old pictures you love and revisit the places they were taken. Photograph them and display them together (?).
Just an idea.
Rikard
Established
Thanks all for your thoughtful responses. I just came up with sort of a plan. I will set up a minimal portrait studio in my house. One which I can easily set up and tear down. One light source, maybe a reflector and a backdrop. I will use my Leica M6 and Mint RF70 Instax. I will pester my family for sittings until they force me out of the house. There I shall commence to make images based around a few concepts. Change and the circle of life could be one, thanks @p.giannakis
Leon C
Well-known
I stopped completely after our twin girls were born 23 yrs ago and life moved on, now as I find myself with some more time on my hands, I'll not return to what put food on the table, Live Music so I'll be doing what I used to as a break from 'work' back then and that's some Landscape/Architecture and I'm going to dabble in some Macro pics for a change of direction and a challenge.
I've also been looking at setting up a darkroom but that's another story, when I was much younger I always want to do more Portraits but my journey never got me where I was truely happy but maybe now I can concentrate on getting there, I've also set myself some 'projects' in the meantime to get the brain working again, doesn't matter if they don't get finished as it's a way to wipe the cobwebs off.
I've also been looking at setting up a darkroom but that's another story, when I was much younger I always want to do more Portraits but my journey never got me where I was truely happy but maybe now I can concentrate on getting there, I've also set myself some 'projects' in the meantime to get the brain working again, doesn't matter if they don't get finished as it's a way to wipe the cobwebs off.
Archiver
Veteran
I agree with @p.giannakis , in that an aspect of your photography was the social factor of being with friends. I'm wondering if you can begin to bring candid photography into your family life? One account I follow is Lars Wastfelt. He shoots primarily with a Zeiss Ikon ZM and the Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8, and the range and depth of his intimate family documentation is lovely. If you go back to the beginning of his flickr stream, you can watch his family grow up over the course of about 20 years. His daughters begin as babies at about page 77, and are full fledged adults as of now (August 2024).
No need to force family to sit for you, just have the M6 with you and shoot whenever you see something that catches your eye.
No need to force family to sit for you, just have the M6 with you and shoot whenever you see something that catches your eye.
Last edited:
mdarnton
Well-known
Rickard, I completely understand your problem, exactly the same--I could have written that word for word. Conceptual didn't work and street or landscape hold zero interest for me, also.
These days I'm taking a whole lot of photos of my wife and wondering how we can expand our circle of friends. I've also been thinking about working on some self-assugned documentary project to fill that need. This would work for me.
These days I'm taking a whole lot of photos of my wife and wondering how we can expand our circle of friends. I've also been thinking about working on some self-assugned documentary project to fill that need. This would work for me.
Archiver
Veteran
Oh, I love this. An excellent idea.
A long term project of mine has been to revisit places from the past and document them with whatever I'm shooting. I've returned to my old school a few times, my old uni, and places I went as a child, teenager and young adult. It's been a way to capture what I wish I had done, retrospectively. These visits often bring back memories, which I assiduously record in my journals, helping flesh out my records of the past. It's also interesting to compare the revived memories with anything I wrote around the time of the original experiences, which shows me the vagaries or specificities of memory.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
In the course of a long life, everything changes.
Increasingly now that I'm old, I look into my photo archives, at the many folders I've created (mostly during the Covid lockdown when I had too much time on my hands and nearly not enough to do at times) and think, gee! was I there? did I do this/that? How... amazing.
I 've not had any children (that I know) of my own, but I took on two stepsons when I married their mother. They were then in their teens and had been neglected, the usual sad story of a family with too much money, obsessed with making more, the parents (before their divorce) always away at work and the kids at home being looked after by maids. A driver took them everywhere. Sadly, they were alienated from their mom and her family and were resentful of what they saw was lacking in their lives.
I took stock of the situation and decided to not be a textbook stepdad. It took a year but we became good friends. I had an interesting decade with them until they finished uni and went into their respective careers. Both now live overseas. I felt I had accomplished all I could do, and my (now ex) wife and I then divorced (amicably) and went our separate ways.
I did thousands of photos of those two boys. They have them, also all the negatives and slides. Both are interested in cameras but are in no way as committed (okay, obsessed) with photography as I am. They are very much in their own ways, their own persons.
All that to say I had plenty to do and in some ways my own photography languished for that period. At the end of it I also made a major career decision to move out of one specialty (media marketing) into another (interior design architecture), which kept me busy for the five years it took to build a practice and secure a good client base.
During that time, rather than use my cameras creatively I fell into the too-familiar trap of GAS. I bought and sold and bought again and sold again about two dozen cameras, notably Hasselblad, which I had long wanted to get into but when I did, I realized that the 'blade and I did not get on, for ergonomic reasons. How I wish I had the $$$ I spent on all that gear... sigh.
In the early 2000s I changed many of my (career, creative, financial and personal) directions. I sold out a lot of that gear and fired myself to return to the basics. Fortunately I had kept all my "early period" cameras (Nikkormats, Rollei TLRs, German folders, Contax Gs) and I forced myself to use them to redo and relearn much of what I had set aside for far too long.
From 2009 I went in a new direction when I decided that digital had advanced far enough that I was happy with what I could do with it. So I got into Nikon DSLRs. Another story entirely, for another time (and a thread I've started in RFF).
All my life I've been much too attracted to static images, mostly of architectural subjects. As an architect, even now retired, I tend to think in grids. My photography style is 'documentarist' and I tend to illustrate what I see as it is, with few or even no embellishments.
A few areas I've neglected and am now working on are street candids and more people images. Now in my retirement period, I can spend longer periods of time away from Australia and exploring places in Southeast Asia I first saw in my younger, happy wanderer years (1970s-1980s), and revisit places I went to before my creative 'eye' had matured. I find a lot has changed there too, notably in places like Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Prambanan et al, which were once quiet, out of the way locations but are now tourist-infested and money-grabby and far too developed for my liking. But I still go, to see what has changed and to try to photograph them with a new 'eye'.
I will be returning to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat for the last time, early next year, with my partner - the first time I've traveled with someone since the 1970s. From there we will go to a new location chosen by consensus and mutual agreement. So far we've agreed on Japan but this could change, Asia is such a big place.
We did consider Europe but for me travel to there is too long and too much has changed. It's also too expensive for me now. But I do miss my times in France and Italy in the 1960s, when I could wander round back roads and country lanes and following rivers - and being me, hanging out at all the wineries I drove past - in an old Citroen 2CV ( I left this car stored with friends in La Rochelle for eight years) at will, and just enjoy being in new places and soaking up a different culture in a new country. I speak French, so the experience was that much easier for me.
So yes, time passes, everything changes, and if we are to grow, our photography has to do the same. Plus ca change...
Increasingly now that I'm old, I look into my photo archives, at the many folders I've created (mostly during the Covid lockdown when I had too much time on my hands and nearly not enough to do at times) and think, gee! was I there? did I do this/that? How... amazing.
I 've not had any children (that I know) of my own, but I took on two stepsons when I married their mother. They were then in their teens and had been neglected, the usual sad story of a family with too much money, obsessed with making more, the parents (before their divorce) always away at work and the kids at home being looked after by maids. A driver took them everywhere. Sadly, they were alienated from their mom and her family and were resentful of what they saw was lacking in their lives.
I took stock of the situation and decided to not be a textbook stepdad. It took a year but we became good friends. I had an interesting decade with them until they finished uni and went into their respective careers. Both now live overseas. I felt I had accomplished all I could do, and my (now ex) wife and I then divorced (amicably) and went our separate ways.
I did thousands of photos of those two boys. They have them, also all the negatives and slides. Both are interested in cameras but are in no way as committed (okay, obsessed) with photography as I am. They are very much in their own ways, their own persons.
All that to say I had plenty to do and in some ways my own photography languished for that period. At the end of it I also made a major career decision to move out of one specialty (media marketing) into another (interior design architecture), which kept me busy for the five years it took to build a practice and secure a good client base.
During that time, rather than use my cameras creatively I fell into the too-familiar trap of GAS. I bought and sold and bought again and sold again about two dozen cameras, notably Hasselblad, which I had long wanted to get into but when I did, I realized that the 'blade and I did not get on, for ergonomic reasons. How I wish I had the $$$ I spent on all that gear... sigh.
In the early 2000s I changed many of my (career, creative, financial and personal) directions. I sold out a lot of that gear and fired myself to return to the basics. Fortunately I had kept all my "early period" cameras (Nikkormats, Rollei TLRs, German folders, Contax Gs) and I forced myself to use them to redo and relearn much of what I had set aside for far too long.
From 2009 I went in a new direction when I decided that digital had advanced far enough that I was happy with what I could do with it. So I got into Nikon DSLRs. Another story entirely, for another time (and a thread I've started in RFF).
All my life I've been much too attracted to static images, mostly of architectural subjects. As an architect, even now retired, I tend to think in grids. My photography style is 'documentarist' and I tend to illustrate what I see as it is, with few or even no embellishments.
A few areas I've neglected and am now working on are street candids and more people images. Now in my retirement period, I can spend longer periods of time away from Australia and exploring places in Southeast Asia I first saw in my younger, happy wanderer years (1970s-1980s), and revisit places I went to before my creative 'eye' had matured. I find a lot has changed there too, notably in places like Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Prambanan et al, which were once quiet, out of the way locations but are now tourist-infested and money-grabby and far too developed for my liking. But I still go, to see what has changed and to try to photograph them with a new 'eye'.
I will be returning to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat for the last time, early next year, with my partner - the first time I've traveled with someone since the 1970s. From there we will go to a new location chosen by consensus and mutual agreement. So far we've agreed on Japan but this could change, Asia is such a big place.
We did consider Europe but for me travel to there is too long and too much has changed. It's also too expensive for me now. But I do miss my times in France and Italy in the 1960s, when I could wander round back roads and country lanes and following rivers - and being me, hanging out at all the wineries I drove past - in an old Citroen 2CV ( I left this car stored with friends in La Rochelle for eight years) at will, and just enjoy being in new places and soaking up a different culture in a new country. I speak French, so the experience was that much easier for me.
So yes, time passes, everything changes, and if we are to grow, our photography has to do the same. Plus ca change...
Last edited:
JohnWolf
Well-known
I find this a particularly moving post. Thanks for being so open with your experiences and aspirations. Wishing you the best of the days and wanderings ahead.
John
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Many a fine tune can be played on an old fiddle. Or to put this in photo terms, many a fine image can be made on an old camera.
As I see it, I reckon I have ample time left to do the things I want to. In fact, if I succeed in getting through my To Do List, I will be well over the century mark when I go my eternal dirt nap - or if a stated wish in my will is followed, to the Weber...
Last edited:
Prest_400
Multiformat
Treasure the documented moments! I document friends and family that sometimes it becomes a bit of a (nice) chore to both. For me, photography of the day to day was much more exciting and important than creating project based work. I do however regret being too shy during my early years to photograph a lot of this social life during.
Then, I had a lot of drive documenting the different places and specially my hometowns in Spain prior I moved and when I am back it somehow clicks well and I take some photography that I appreciate... and photo club members too. About that, I was lucky to move into a town that has a good photo community with a fully equipped darkroom, and attended an event the 4th day after I moved town.
It is mostly for myself, and don't post to social media or such. An emphasis in (Medium format) film as a very focused medium, where I am planning, scouting and shooting to print.
I am curious because I am in the age where people are marrying, kids are coming and such. I have not thought how I will approach that moment but have thought that kids are a fantastic excuse for some GAS to buy into high performing equipment like a FF and/or Fuji GFX. Darkroom time and B&W probably would suffer due to the circumstances.
Travel photography is a mixed stimulus for me. Even the day to day with phone and P&S always has photography. But the more intentional photography I personally prefer to have scouted.
Then, I had a lot of drive documenting the different places and specially my hometowns in Spain prior I moved and when I am back it somehow clicks well and I take some photography that I appreciate... and photo club members too. About that, I was lucky to move into a town that has a good photo community with a fully equipped darkroom, and attended an event the 4th day after I moved town.
It is mostly for myself, and don't post to social media or such. An emphasis in (Medium format) film as a very focused medium, where I am planning, scouting and shooting to print.
I am curious because I am in the age where people are marrying, kids are coming and such. I have not thought how I will approach that moment but have thought that kids are a fantastic excuse for some GAS to buy into high performing equipment like a FF and/or Fuji GFX. Darkroom time and B&W probably would suffer due to the circumstances.
Travel photography is a mixed stimulus for me. Even the day to day with phone and P&S always has photography. But the more intentional photography I personally prefer to have scouted.
I do try to see the "grass is always greener", as I am in Europe and many are traveling here to see what is relatively local lo me. I have yet to see a lot, and being close makes it a bit less prioritised. Then, a positive and negative of our contemporary times is that one sees already a lot of other places virtually.
Glenn2
Well-known
Downunder, it seems that a lot of our experiences are very similar. The place that kept drawing me back was India, many of my best images were shot there. But like you mention things change and usually not for the better.
A few years back I attempted to retrace some of sites of earlier adventures. I was able to see a few friends who I’d met in the seventies and had an amazing time, unfortunately not all of them were still alive.
I started a thread some time back called “Time Travel” and was posting Leica images from the seventies with ones shot in 2012 using the same camera an M4 bought in 1969 that was used in 1970. After that I used minimalist Barnack stuff, that I didn’t mind treating rough or handing over under duress.
I really must revisit that thread, haven’t gotten to the good stuff yet.
Where are you located Downunder? I lived in Waverly an eastern suburb of Sydney around 1966 while working at Sydney Uni. And again in 1977 for 3 months in Coogee while at NSW Uni. Will have to find some old photos from those days.
I’m been on southern Vancouver Island for the past 46 years, found the prairies too damn cold. That’s probably why I liked traveling to India during the winter. The place I ended up is Sidney near Victoria, but there is a city called Sydney on the other coast. This has created some problems when people traveled to the wrong one for a conference.
Glenn
A few years back I attempted to retrace some of sites of earlier adventures. I was able to see a few friends who I’d met in the seventies and had an amazing time, unfortunately not all of them were still alive.
I started a thread some time back called “Time Travel” and was posting Leica images from the seventies with ones shot in 2012 using the same camera an M4 bought in 1969 that was used in 1970. After that I used minimalist Barnack stuff, that I didn’t mind treating rough or handing over under duress.
I really must revisit that thread, haven’t gotten to the good stuff yet.
Where are you located Downunder? I lived in Waverly an eastern suburb of Sydney around 1966 while working at Sydney Uni. And again in 1977 for 3 months in Coogee while at NSW Uni. Will have to find some old photos from those days.
I’m been on southern Vancouver Island for the past 46 years, found the prairies too damn cold. That’s probably why I liked traveling to India during the winter. The place I ended up is Sidney near Victoria, but there is a city called Sydney on the other coast. This has created some problems when people traveled to the wrong one for a conference.
Glenn
Last edited:
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Just take your camera and go walking. Anywhere and everywhere. The entire world will reveal itself to you and your lens.
Yes, it's that simple.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
We live in a "regional center" in western Victoria. Melbourne is an easy commute - 'tho it's now an entire day's journey to and from, and I'm getting to an age where it's rather an effort. Local places (many state and even national parks to visit) and several excellent wineries keep me happily on the go, when I'm not overseas.
I was in Sydney for ten years (1976-1985) and I did some of my best photography there, but after a decade I fell pretty to "been there, done that" and relocated to Melbourne, which for me is like Canada, more laid back and relaxed if rather formal on the surface. Sydneysiders find it boring and criticize it for being too 'suburban' which it can be in places but as a place for me to live, it's fantastic.
Now retired and travel when I can, for several months at a time. To Indonesia, Malaysia, Sarawak and Brunei, the places I most enjoy exploring. My hangout town is Surabaya but I avoid Bali as it's too everything I personally dislike. Tourist destinations were never my thing. I'm happiest when exploring small villages to look at traditional houses (as a retired architect) or observing (and photographing) locals doing their usual everyday things.
India I saw in 1973 and again (briefly) in 1982. It was too much for me. As a personal experience, it has much to teach us, but the overkill did me in. Maybe I will go back some day, New Delhi and Kashmir and other places in the north hold a lot of appeal for me.
Interesting that you are in Canada. I grew up in New Brunswick and lived in Montreal and Toronto until 1973, then two years in New Mexico, Asia for 18 months, eventually Sydney, now Melbourne.
In 1979 I took Aussie friends on a long "Sydney (Australia) to Sydney (Nova Scotia, Canada)" trip which went on for nine months and 6,000 miles of car travel. Also in 1982, on my own, that time employed as a contract news journalist for a "press" syndicate. I stayed 20+ cities, and I saw a lot of continental North America which I'd not really fully explored or was even aware of. An ongoing education, on the road.
Not for nothing to I call myself a Nikon Nomad. I'm now looking for a Leica CL, so I can call myself a Leitz Layabout...
Please post us a link to your "Time Travel" site, if it's still online. I am sure many here would be keen to look at it, and even participate if you are open to this.
Archiver
Veteran
That sounds amazing! I've just found the thread and it looks too cool!
Time Travel
No TARDIS needed, just a camera and a few years to collect the images. I've been looking for a place to post this street series and this looks like a good spot. Looking forward to seeing some interesting work in this new forum and input from Frank. After retirement I finally got a start...
rangefinderforum.com
It's a bit like the project I thought up but never quite followed through, where I would retrospectively make up for when I didn't use a camera in the 80s and early 90s, and take photos of those places with the camera that I could have used back then. Mostly, I would use Dad's Pentax ME and an Olympux XA2 which would have been my camera of choice, had I known about it back then. But your project is super, using the same camera but taking photos of the same places decades apart.