Photographing without any motive

[Hsg]

I would hope you were shooting because its fun...if its not fun anymore then..I'm not sure how you can make it fun for yourself again..chill for a while

I have been shooting continuously for years now without much thinking and reflection. When I used get a block I'd buy a new camera or just carry on and force myself to shoot. This time around the block is really severe, to such an extent that I have lost any desire for photographing. I think I need a massive overhaul of my photography and all its aspects. At least I'm interested in solving the block, which is a good sign.

 

[sreed2006]

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.

Yes, if you don't know where you're going it is hard to know when you get there.

 

[35photo]

I have been shooting continuously for years now without much thinking and reflection. When I used get a block I'd buy a new camera or just carry on and force myself to shoot. This time around the block is really severe, to such an extent that I have lost any desire for photographing. I think I need a massive overhaul of my photography and all its aspects. At least I'm interested in solving the block, which is a good sign.

You said something interesting, in that if you had a block before you would buy a new camera and force yourself to shoot.. That's totally the wrong approach and reason in my opinion... Photography is not about the gear at all..its just a means to the end, at its core its about seeing things,vision, light, shadow etc... If you want to get back to photographing creatively you need to develop a vision and this does not happen over night..

 

[JChrome]

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.

So much of what we do has a clearer answer to the "why". I like having something I do just for the sake of doing it. I don't need a why. And that makes it all the better.

Regarding your lack of inspiration, maybe you could ask others to give you project ideas for you to try?

Here's a project I never finished, something I found really interesting visually/spiritually.

The concept is this: Get a normal person who practices meditation and is willing to be your subject. Photo them meditating on the streets of NYC using shutter speeds of 1/30 or 1/60th. This would render the subject in focus and sharp, while the rest of the crowd (moving around) has motion blur.

Not sure if you like eastern religions, but to me this is a really cool concept. Anyway, of course you don't have to take it or like it. It's just one idea that I am passionate about.

Of course it can be tough to get excited about someone else's project, but maybe start a thread asking for others to give you a very well defined concept and try it out?

 

[ottluuk]

I shoot digital B&W.

Here's a little exercise. Don't look at your photos right away. Film makes it easy but with a little discipline, you can do it with digital just as well. Don't chimp, just shoot and copy to disk, shoot, copy to disk, let them sit. Look at them when you've forgotten what you intended them to be. It may take a week, or it may take a year. There will be surprises.

This, too, is related to Winogrand's "the thing photographed". The point is to disconnect the thing, your preconception of how it should look photographed, how it actually turns out and avoid some of the inherent disappointment. I can think of few sights more disheartening than a grid of bland, unprocessed RAW files half an hour after a shoot...

 

[FrankS]

Digital has taken the craft and process out of photography. All you have after a few button pushing and slider sliding is the final image. If you are a pure artist, that may be all you are after. Many people say that it's only the final image that counts. But for those of us who enjoy the hobby, digital may leave us wanting.

A film shooter whose final images are not great art, still has the enjoyment of the process, the ritual of the darkroom. A digital shooter whose final images are not great art, has only some time spent with a computer to show for it and may feel empty and unfulfilled. Few people are great artists who can gain satisfaction producing great art.

This may be why some digital shooters become disolusioned.

 

[shadowfox]

I have been shooting continuously for years now without much thinking and reflection. When I used get a block I'd buy a new camera or just carry on and force myself to shoot. This time around the block is really severe, to such an extent that I have lost any desire for photographing. I think I need a massive overhaul of my photography and all its aspects. At least I'm interested in solving the block, which is a good sign.

Have you ever stop in order to look back?
One thing you can do is to put on your photo-editor hat, select 80 of your photos from years ago that you liked.

Put together a photobook (use blurb.com or similar services) out of the 80 photos. This project will allow you to take a break from your routine, and when you look through the photos that you liked, you may come up with a fresh perspective on what it is that makes photography interesting for you.

And you have a nice photobook (your own) at the end.

 

[Hsg]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll definitely follow some of them, such as waiting on the shots and putting together a blurb book.

As far as film is concerned, I'm happy with my digital b&w workflow. I have shot film in the past but I could not put up with all the chores associated with it, I think I'm beyond that stage of trying different mediums.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I need a new subject, I'm tired of shooting the same places again and again. I mainly shoot chinatown area.

Gorgeous!

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Nice photo of the fruit, but do you really have any interest in that particular group of people trudging through the sleet?

That is really the question. Photos of people trudging through the sleet might be interesting, but would you put it on your wall to look at each morning? You have to find the meaning. Everyone has to answer for themselves.

Does it have to go on the wall? Wouldn't one-time publication suffice?

Cheers,

R.

 

[daveleo]

Digital has taken the craft and process out of photography. All you have after a few button pushing and slider sliding is the final image. If you are a pure artist, that may be all you are after. Many people say that it's only the final image that counts. But for those of us who enjoy the hobby, digital may leave us wanting.

A film shooter whose final images are not great art, still has the enjoyment of the process, the ritual of the darkroom. A digital shooter whose final images are not great art, has only some time spent with a computer to show for it and may feel empty and unfulfilled. Few people are great artists who can gain satisfaction producing great art.

This may be why some digital shooters become disolusioned.

Frank, you are sincere in your feelings, but your perception of the joys and failures of the digital process is simply wrong.
The digital process is not any more or less of a craft than processing film. I understand that you don't see it that way, but I believe you are confusing what you personally like and dislike as a photographic process with what is craft and not-craft.

It's an ageless and endless disagreement, as to what is and what is not a craft (or "Art") and what is not a craft (not "Art").

I like the digital process and I say that it is a craft (that Frank does not like 😀 ).

 

[Hsg]

Gorgeous!

Cheers,

R.

Thank you.

 

[Hsg]

Nice photo of the fruit, but do you really have any interest in that particular group of people trudging through the sleet?

That is really the question. Photos of people trudging through the sleet might be interesting, but would you put it on your wall to look at each morning? You have to find the meaning. Everyone has to answer for themselves.

You make a valid point, but I really have never had an idea as to what to do with my photographs. This is something that I'll work on.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

One one level, yes. I often go out with my camera but with no clue what I want to shoot. At the higher level, probably not, as picking up the camera on the way out of the house implies a motive to shoot - although I sometimes wonder if my cameras are little more than adult comforters...!!

 

[kuuan]

carrying a camera makes me look at the world differently, changes it, makes everything interesting and potentially beautiful. This is my main motive

............
sometimes I think about what I would want to shoot, can't think of anything and in the end may stay home.
more usually I simply go out and soon find an infinite number of 'motives', views, sights, angles of which I never could have thought of.

I like images that surprise me, they may have an element of luck or chance. Taking one of these is very satisfying.

You make a valid point, but I really have never had an idea as to what to do with my photographs. This is something that I'll work on.

share them on the internet and feel good if someone likes them 😉 well, that's what I do

 

[Yoh]

everyday ,...

 

[Cameron]

I think if you go out with a camera, then you have a motive. Your motive is making photos.

 

[Hsg]

Motivation comes into being when a plan is formed. For example if I go out to take photos, just to see what comes my way, that is a curiosity. Once out there, there might be something or nothing at all, but in either case I'm not worried for an outcome because I have no idea of an outcome.

On the other hand, if I go out with a camera and a plan to capture photos that later on I could sell, I'm going out with a plan that has already predefined demands and strategies as well as a goal.

Leaving aside the selling, even if you go to take photos in order to impress your peers, you're going out with a plan, because you have an idea of what your friends might like based on previous experience. Once again by that plan you have blinded yourself to all other possibilities.



I know its not easy to go out to the same place for years and still be curious, but then again if we accept that everything changes constantly, if not outwardly at least inwardly, then its logical to conclude that there is always something new out there, but to see that new, one has to be without any motivation any plan, because all plans are formed through the past experience.

 

[lukitas]

It's not just a feeling, it is true : photography is banal. Everything has been shot, and probably better than I could do it.
We all see the same way (more or less), we grew up with the same images, the same movies, and underneath our cultural preferences, we have aesthetic preferences baked into our genes. No wonder the whole world makes the same photographs all the time all over the place.

So I don't bother about being unique, or new. Not important. What is interesting, is what tickles my eyes, and wether I can push and pull that image till it tickles your eyes just as much. It doesn't have to be new, but it has to be good.

Talking about creativity in the context of candid photography feels deeply wrong to me. All I do is choose a frame, what happens in the frame is what happens. Sometimes, all the shapes combine into a magical moment, but it is still mostly luck, not creativity. Creativity is the right word when I chose what goes in the frame and where, and how the light falls on it. Studio work. When I walk around and hope for something interesting to happen in front of me, my control over what happens in the frame is at best tenuous.

So I don't bother about needing to be creative. Candid photography is a lot like playing poker, which is fun in another way. I have the things I see on my way to work, at work, and just strolling around, it's all rather repetitive and humdrum, but I am also building a repertoire of useful and interesting backgrounds, and I hope that sometime, something will happen to make that frame sing, just as I have my camera ready. Like building up a stock of interesting hands until you get the one that wins you a thousand dollars.

Cheers