it's all crap!

Don't carry a camera with you for a week or two or three. Go out. Do things. See things. No camera.
At some point you'll find your groove again. Don't force it.
 
Everybody from time to time goes thru this, you'll get it back, have you used your
Minolta film cameras yet. Getting back to the basic always helps me.

Range
 
Joe, it may not feel good but I think this is a good thing. Here's a simple solution: buy photo books by photographers you admire. It will help with the urge to spend $ but it is (usually) cheaper than buying gear, it will help you truly improve your photography (in ways that new gear never will), and may get you inspired to get back out there and take photos.

back alley said:
i think part of it is the growing realization that gear is really such a small part of the big picture. i always 'knew' this at some intellectual level and ignored it but now it seems to be hitting closer to home for some reason.
Click to expand...
 
Which gives me another idea. Are there any exhibitions on near you? Frustratingly, in London at the moment there are exhibitions of Lartigue and Paul Klee - this latter at Tate Modern, which is about five minutes' walk from my desk, but neither of which I have time to go see.
 
Sorry if I have this wrong, but looking at your flickr stream it looks to me like you wander around with a camera hoping to bump into things. Try a different tack, set yourself some commissions out of your comfort zone. Hate flash, try and do something with it you like. Do some dark portraits and force yourself to use reflectors etc. Photograph at night with available light, anything to get you out of your habits.
 
Once past the equipment entertainment, photography becomes the same work as all other creative arts: the hard part is always in the ideas, the expressions, etc. This is the point where many an avid amateur photographer has come to the end of their involvement.

To go further, and not just return to shopping therapy, takes deliberation, motivation, and persistence. Study your photographs and articulate to yourself what about them you like, what you don't. Study other people's photographs and do the same thing. Read books and think about ideas, directions—where and what do you want your photography to go, to be about?

And then start working the cameras towards that. This is the hard part. Most of what I have been shooting this past year I haven't shown as it is not yet satisfying, is not yet done. Ideas in forming, becoming... The photography i want to do NOW is slowly beginning to emerge. Again.

It's either that or sell off all the junk and enjoy having the money in the bank again.

Good luck, Joe!

onwards,
G
 
v_roma said:
buy photo books by photographers you admire. It will help with the urge to spend $ but it is (usually) cheaper than buying gear, it will help you truly improve your photography (in ways that new gear never will), and may get you inspired to get back out there and take photos.
Click to expand...

This is truly excellent advice (and much more useful than my whining)

Scott
 
back alley said:
i think part of it is the growing realization that gear is really such a small part of the big picture. i always 'knew' this at some intellectual level and ignored it but now it seems to be hitting closer to home for some reason.
Click to expand...

And you're depressed about this? I'd say you've made a breakthrough. Enjoy the gear, it's truly beautiful stuff, but now you can keep it in perspective and direct your energy towards making great images. :)

Congratulations,
s-a
 
back alley said:
in a funk!

shooting but hating everything i come up with!

just got a pretty good deal on a fuji x100 that i will pick up tomorrow...not sure why though...

need to take a break and clear my mind and hope that i can 'see' again soon!

till then i think i'll just hang out here and whine for a bit!!
Click to expand...

Compared to now

were you have more or less fun with photography

when you were shooting the RD1's ?

Stephen
 
so much to think about...i do miss using a rangefinder camera and if i had the money i might think about a used m9 with a couple of lenses...the rd1 might be too old for proper servicing and therefore a more risky proposition.
or maybe it's just a general funk...i did just turn 63 and i'm still waiting to be discovered!
 
back alley said:
so much to think about...i do miss using a rangefinder camera and if i had the money i might think about a used m9 with a couple of lenses...the rd1 might be too old for proper servicing and therefore a more risky proposition.
or maybe it's just a general funk...i did just turn 63 and i'm still waiting to be discovered!
Click to expand...

Do you think Vivian Maier worried about that ?

it happens when it happens.

Stephen
 
Watch Soviet era cinema, the films where everyone dies horribly. Then go out in the sunshine and I imagine you'll find all sorts of stuff worth photographing.

Well, it works for me ;)
 
Joe, a mentor once said to me, "Think of depression as digestion of your highs."

It always works for me. Ya just need to work through the low times. It's not about the gear.
 
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