Photographing without any motive
- Thread starter Hsg
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Hsg
who dares wins
In Zen practice there is the idea of 'beginner's mind', to stay fresh and enthusiastic no matter how much experience one has attained.
How to stay like a beginner and therefore enthusiastic in photography? This is my problem. I have seen too many photos and I have learned a lot about photography, hence I have lost the beginner's mind. Burdened with too much knowledge means becoming jaded and uninspired.
How to stay like a beginner and therefore enthusiastic in photography? This is my problem. I have seen too many photos and I have learned a lot about photography, hence I have lost the beginner's mind. Burdened with too much knowledge means becoming jaded and uninspired.
35mmdelux
Veni, vidi, vici
I take photos of things that interest me. That is my only motive.
FrankS
Registered User
barnwulf
Well-known
My motivation is that I like the feel of a camera the act of shooting some images. I like to get out and look for something that captures my eye and if I see something that gets me interested, I want to shoot a photo to show what I have found to someone else. That's pretty much it. Sometimes I like to pick up a different camera that I haven't used for awhile to get the feel of shooting with it again. - jim
35photo
Well-known
Here is the thing, you have to understand that its all been done before.. Once you grasp that reality go out and follow your eye.. Every time I go out to make photographs I have no idea what I'll be making pictures of.. The place can dictate what I make photographs of.. I find for me that if I were to go out with a project in mind and am looking for something specific to photograph its like boxing myself in and I don't like that and don't feel its creative at all to me..
Look at other art mediums for creative inspiration... listen to music, watch a movies, looking at paintings, sculpture, multimedia arts.. Don't box yourself into just looking at photography..
Marko
FrankS
Registered User
Even if it's all been done before (landscapes, seascapes, nudes, flowers, sunsets, puppies, babies, portraits, fall leaves, etc.) it has not yet been done as only you can do it.
Darshan
Well-known
Do it all the time.
Half of my keepers are shot w/o motive, and I have learned a lot from them.
Sometimes I am amazed at the different perspective a photo provides compared with the real scene.
Keep shooting, you will definitely find your niche.
Half of my keepers are shot w/o motive, and I have learned a lot from them.
Sometimes I am amazed at the different perspective a photo provides compared with the real scene.
Keep shooting, you will definitely find your niche.
Hsg
who dares wins
I shoot digital B&W.
Hsg
who dares wins
I feel really uninspired these days so I'm going to wait and see.
FrankS said:
That is an interesting comment, I'll keep that in mind.
daveleo
what?
So true.
EVERYTHING has been "done" before, but don't let that stop you from taking your shot at it. And maybe going back again and taking yet another shot at it.
FrankS
Registered User
Hsg
who dares wins
I need a new subject, I'm tired of shooting the same places again and again. I mainly shoot chinatown area.
Attachments
35mmdelux
Veni, vidi, vici
I not only shoot w/ little motive, at least half the time I shoot without looking through the viewfinder (24mm).
Hsg
who dares wins
Some more shots:
35photo
Well-known
100% correct...each an every image is unique to you regardless of the subject matter
charlesholland
Member
"How to stay like a beginner and therefore enthusiastic in photography? This is my problem. I have seen too many photos and I have learned a lot about photography, hence I have lost the beginner's mind. Burdened with too much knowledge means becoming jaded and uninspired."
I have the same thoughts and guess we are not the only ones. This does not imply that I know a lot about photography. Being free to do what I want makes it even worse 🙂
Conceptual photography or photography with a motive: it implies a process of consciousness, be it before or after You made your picture. The question I mostly have for myself: what is it that makes this image attract. This is my daily starting point: when looking at images from others or from myself. I think this comes close to your zen statement. The worst point is to let all the other pathway go when You think You found your next step. This is especially difficult when looking back at your own results.
In fact: when I post pictures in the gallery: they are made in the last 2 years (I didn't post in between because I couldn't figure out how to.....). I have 2 intentions by posting: looking back at my own track and looking how rff-users respond. The respons is not for my ego, but to see how others look. Up to now tonality, B/W and pictures that invite to a closer look (mostly by causing a mystery feeling or a strong composition) have more views. Transmitting a mystery feel in the image size of the gallery is difficult for me. One of my best pictures from last year was swanlake (recently posted). The image does not work at all as a small thumbnail. When enlarged and printed it is almost an impressionistic painting.
I have the same thoughts and guess we are not the only ones. This does not imply that I know a lot about photography. Being free to do what I want makes it even worse 🙂
Conceptual photography or photography with a motive: it implies a process of consciousness, be it before or after You made your picture. The question I mostly have for myself: what is it that makes this image attract. This is my daily starting point: when looking at images from others or from myself. I think this comes close to your zen statement. The worst point is to let all the other pathway go when You think You found your next step. This is especially difficult when looking back at your own results.
In fact: when I post pictures in the gallery: they are made in the last 2 years (I didn't post in between because I couldn't figure out how to.....). I have 2 intentions by posting: looking back at my own track and looking how rff-users respond. The respons is not for my ego, but to see how others look. Up to now tonality, B/W and pictures that invite to a closer look (mostly by causing a mystery feeling or a strong composition) have more views. Transmitting a mystery feel in the image size of the gallery is difficult for me. One of my best pictures from last year was swanlake (recently posted). The image does not work at all as a small thumbnail. When enlarged and printed it is almost an impressionistic painting.
Archiver
Veteran
Okay, now I understand what your original question meant.
When we shoot something we ALWAYS have a motive of some description, unless we accidentally press the shutter button. Even if the motive is 'just shoot what is there', that is a motive in itself, and we gravitate towards favoured compositional styles over time.
Your experience is that you feel that you're copying someone else' work, and that is actually fine. It's obviously an incredibly common practice that nearly every creative producer engages in, and can be very supportive of artistic and technical development. A desire to copy something you admire will often lead to the technical skill required to do it, which can only be beneficial.
The good thing is that we don't have to stay there. Copying the work of others and learning the technical skills can quite naturally lead to developing one's own style. After a while your eye closes in on a certain kind of scene or composition, or the way light falls at a particular time trips your mental 'take this photo now' button.
Being frustrated that your work looks like a copy of someone else' is a good sign. It means that you're on the verge of breaking through to your own style, because you are no longer satisfied with what you have been doing. Or you may find yourself naturally taking photos that are more and more personally satisfying as time goes by, and your eye develops even more.
Hsg
who dares wins
I need to find out why I'm taking photos. I don't have a single answer to why I'm taking photos, I'm just aimlessly shooting, so no wonder that I have lost all my inspiration.
