Guilt and Photography

Guilt and Photography

  • Feel a sense of guilt

    Votes: 139 50.7%

  • not worry about it

    Votes: 135 49.3%
  • Total voters
    274
Sometimes I'm frustrated at either a lack of photo-taking, and a lack of quality in what I do. I never feel guilty about it though, although sometimes I've wondered why I bother to own cameras, considering how few photos I take sometimes. It frustrates me that I like landscape and nature photography, but live in London. That will change soon though I hope.
 
Absolutely do get the guilt, and not just about a lack of productivity, about opportunities I didn't take, people who I didn't ask if I could take their photo etc.

Hopefully it's going to continue to encourage me to do more
 
Not guilt, but do feel a mild sense of regret when looking through older personal photos, seeing how important and valued images become as historical artifact to our life, and considering and realising the opportunities I have passed up to take photographs, opportunities for which there will now be no visual record.
 
I endured a 22 year fallow period ('89-'11). After studying photography I had the mother of all photographers block! Now, though, after getting back into it what I feel is an amount of frustration with shyness that inhibits my taking more portraits of people in the street etc. I'm determined to overcome it though. Never seem to quite make that determination count. I understand Walker Evans hiding his camera under his coat! I carry my camera every day, but some days don't take any pictures. I think a lot about what makes photography good/bad. But thinking and seeing/photographing seem to come from very different places.
 
No Guilt at all..
I would fell more guilt if I tried to force the situation and just end up wasting film...
I've had plenty of times where I don't shoot for several weeks and then something comes up and I'm back at it again...I don't worry about the dry times, they don't last forever...
 
No guilt . . . . .

. . . . . photography is pleasure and fun.

I miss it when I am not able to be out and about with the camera due to other commitments.
 
I don't worry about it. As any other art there's always a creative brakes. I learned to enjoy that time by looking at the world with my own eyes and not thru the viewfinder.

Regards,

Boris
 
dave lackey said:
No, that is simply life. Music would be nothing without the pauses between active notes and the same is with life. You make your own music as you go along with pauses now and then, until the end.

It is what you do overall that determines your outcome, so enjoy the breaks and come back each time re-invigorated with passion!:)
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So nicely put. Ever think of taking up the pen?
 
For me guilt isn't the correct term. I feel a bit more empty inside. Like I haven't walked outside or smelled fresh air. Making photographs makes me feel somehow whole.
 
i feel like i am missing something. I saved up a lot of money to get in to the leica system I wanted and I've probably shot twice with it so far , with the lens imperfectations and the cla and busy with life and all
 
Tijmendal said:
I do to an extent. Having all this expensive gear and not using it gives me slight guilt. Nothing too bad though!
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When it comes to fitness, dropping a big wad of cash on new cycling / (pick your fav) sport gear is one way to guilt yourself into burning some calories. When it comes to photography, often not using the gear is due to working too much (in my case in a field other than photography), so the same dynamic doesn't work for me - not that I mind.
 
It feels like missing something big! Sometimes I feel like the need to be creative but missing doing so. I think I get depressed!
 
denizg7 said:
i feel like i am missing something. I saved up a lot of money to get in to the leica system I wanted and I've probably shot twice with it so far , with the lens imperfectations and the cla and busy with life and all
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?

How long ago did you buy into the Leica system? Why? And why have you spent more time on RFF than shooting with the Leica?

I've not shot with a Leica for 6 days (and then, just 2 pics). Last time I carried it was last night, when I shot nothing Do I feel guilty? No. I carry one, and when I see something I want to shoot, I do. Otherwise, why should I force myself?

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
?

How long ago did you buy into the Leica system? Why? And why have you spent more time on RFF than shooting with the Leica?

I've not shot with a Leica for 6 days (and then, just 2 pics). Last time I carried it was last night, when I shot nothing Do I feel guilty? No. I carry one, and when I see something I want to shoot, I do. Otherwise, why should I force myself?

Cheers,

R.
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Well Roge,

I have this tradition where when I just wake up and before I go to sleep I lay on my bed and on my macbook, I check my emails , news , and recently RFF and other forums..

My job has been very boring lately and I've been waisting a lot of time on the internet at my work at the moment.
 
I have an intense desire to be out and taking photographs. I particularly enjoyed the process with film and having to get the exposure right and make decisions and consider the 36 shots only on a roll of Velvia which cost 36 dollars. This so absorbed me that I almost did not care as much for the results as the act of taking the pictures. I now have a digital M and the process is a little different, and perhaps similarly absorbing, but in a slightly different way. So it is not guilt but frustration that I have when I am not out with a camera. I think I feel less guilty than ever at all the unfiled negatives, unscanned negatives, uncatalogued digital images and the almost complete lack of printing. It is the last thing listed here that I ought to attend to first.

And please don't call me Rich.
 
Richard G said:
I have an intense desire to be out and taking photographs. I particularly enjoyed the process with film and having to get the exposure right and make decisions and consider the 36 shots only on a roll of Velvia which cost 36 dollars. This so absorbed me that I almost did not care as much for the results as the act of taking the pictures. I now have a digital M and the process is a little different, and perhaps similarly absorbing, but in a slightly different way. So it is not guilt but frustration that I have when I am not out with a camera. I think I feel less guilty than ever at all the unfiled negatives, unscanned negatives, uncatalogued digital images and the almost complete lack of printing. It is the last thing listed here that I ought to attend to first.

And please don't call me Rich.
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Richy does have a point. When you have 36 exposures you don't just waste shots and think more about them. Plus it's more of a thrill to see your final product after the processing than immediately in a digital.
 
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