problems of not shooting enough

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mansio

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anyone also find this the problem?
where i am i find that often times i don't shoot enough due to:
1. rainy season
2. wrong time to go

what's everyone trouble and solution to shoot more often?

how do you guys plan your travel(local or not)
 
Rain. Humm. Rain. Wazzat? (I live in the desert.) It does get 120 degrees out. Even the coyotes chasing the rabbits are walking this time of year. I go out early. Very early, when the weather is fantastic. I make myself "self-assignments" so I don't have any excuse not to take photos on a regular basis. I buy bulk film and roll my own. I'm building a b&w darkroom. Whatever it takes.
 
Excuse - none, reasons plenty. Work, get outa bed to late, family, sport, etc,etc. I keep telling myself to take a weekend away just for photography. No solutions, still looking.It sucks.
 
Depending on where you live and your favorite subjects a drastic change of the time when you are going to take photos might help. For example, if time permits get up before dawn and capture the beautiful early light of the day or do the opposite and take photos after sun has set. At least for me it gets boring to repeat the same photographic topic over and over without changing some parameters and therefore I photograph less and less.
 
Carry a camera. Carry a different camera the next day. Rainy season? Get a Nikonos and don't wear a raincoat or huddle beneath an umbrella . Get wet and see everything that is more beautiful wet. It's fine to plan special shooting trips if the exotic magnetizes you, but more meaningful photographs for the long run are to be found where and how you live. Photograph your oldest shoes, a ring of wet where the coffee sat on the table, your partners hair on the pillow, your neighbor's pile of bricks with the vines over growing them.

Admittedly I'm later in life, and have time to go out and shoot I didn't make a few years ago. But there's always time and the world is available in the early morning before work, at lunch, in the evening, and all night if you shoot Delta 3200.

I heard a story earlier today about a photographer who bought a complete Linhof large format setup, perhaps because he thought it would motivate him to make greater images. He used it a few times; now I'm going to try to sell it for his widow. She told me that when they moved to Alaska he'd pack a Canon with a bag of lenses, then not be able to keep up on the hikes to locate picturesque subjects because of all the gear.

Carry a camera. A GRD 3 made all the difference for me when I wasn't shooting enough. I swiftly learned that with a packable camera with great IQ, I saw more of the world that had always been there throughout my not noticing it, because I'd had snooty ideas about what sort of things could be photographed in a way that made my vision look good. Screw that. See everything and shoot as much as you can. The patterns and symbols and locations that mean the most to your seeing will emerge in their own time.
 
I was shooting very little and felt as guilty as hell about it ... and being predominantly a film shooter the guilt is worse IMO.

I bought A DP2M in the hope that it would get me moving again even though it was digital ... and it did! I've now bought a much needed 35mm lens for my M2 and I'll be back out there with that in a very short time burning up the film that has been haunting me in the freezer.

The bottom line is ... the little Sigma got me very interested in image making again and basically cleared the blockage that was holding me back.
 
One huge tip is to not force it. I get discouraged because of the less shooting I've done lately, but when you feel it and take your time and let photos come to you instead of trying to hunt to take a picture I guarantee you'll get better results your happy with in the end.
 
Finding something i enjoy shooting tends to stop me.

I like landscape and rural scenes but live and work in the CBD of Sydney. not much in the way of rural here. My solution is always have a camera in the car when im traveling for numorious reasons out of sydney.
Also set myself tasks to practise an area of photography. eg shooting a still life with lighting on film.
Practising portraits. only takes 30 mins to shoot some photos of a friend.

Having mini projects works for me i think.
 
rhl-oregon said:
Carry a camera. Carry a different camera the next day. Rainy season? Get a Nikonos and don't wear a raincoat or huddle beneath an umbrella . Get wet and see everything that is more beautiful wet. It's fine to plan special shooting trips if the exotic magnetizes you, but more meaningful photographs for the long run are to be found where and how you live. Photograph your oldest shoes, a ring of wet where the coffee sat on the table, your partners hair on the pillow, your neighbor's pile of bricks with the vines over growing them.

Admittedly I'm later in life, and have time to go out and shoot I didn't make a few years ago. But there's always time and the world is available in the early morning before work, at lunch, in the evening, and all night if you shoot Delta 3200.

I heard a story earlier today about a photographer who bought a complete Linhof large format setup, perhaps because he thought it would motivate him to make greater images. He used it a few times; now I'm going to try to sell it for his widow. She told me that when they moved to Alaska he'd pack a Canon with a bag of lenses, then not be able to keep up on the hikes to locate picturesque subjects because of all the gear.

Carry a camera. A GRD 3 made all the difference for me when I wasn't shooting enough. I swiftly learned that with a packable camera with great IQ, I saw more of the world that had always been there throughout my not noticing it, because I'd had snooty ideas about what sort of things could be photographed in a way that made my vision look good. Screw that. See everything and shoot as much as you can. The patterns and symbols and locations that mean the most to your seeing will emerge in their own time.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and if you are young shoot everything, even stuff you don't think is worth it. Keep every shot, because when you get older those 'period' shots will be great even if you didn't think so at the time. I shot plenty when I was at college, but I should have shot 5 times as much. Don't let work and your personal life interfere with your photography.
 
I go through periods of not shooting much because life happens. One thing I've done for years, though, is even if I have no camera or time, I'm constantly setting up compositions in my mind with whatever is in front of me. It can be the halls at work, the passing scenery while in the car, walking through a crowd. In my mind I have a camera. I watch a scene unfold in front of me and <mental> click! I watch the light, I watch the geometrics of a scene, and I always, always, envision the final print (key point!!)

Of course, maybe I'm an oddball. I've always been a visual thinker, which is probably what pulled me towards photography in the first place. ..shrug..
 
I try to take at least one photo every day. It doesn't have to be anything special though it might be. Just take the picture. It usually ends up being more than one once I start because I gradually start seeing more "photographically."
 
I used to shoot more when I went to school downtown, now I work in a relatively uninteresting area of town, I don't carry my camera with me everyday anymore, I've become a weekend shooter.

There's plenty of excuses, I find a double espresso is usually enough to get over my inertia :)
 
This is a very interesting question. I have many reasons for not taking images: Work, family, being to lazy to leave the house ... But there's another time killer for me: Developing, scanning and postprocessing film. Thus I often consider to stop shooting film, but could not make this decision so far. (I just started to use film again two years ago.)
 
I think we all go through this at different stages of our lives. Looking back on a time when my children were small and I was trying to get established at work, I did very little shooting other than family functions - perhaps 6-8 rolls of B&W per year. But the little ones grow up and job stresses change so last year I shot over a hundred rolls of B&W. I have a show of my work coming up at the local library which will probably include about 40 prints. Hang in there, shoot when you can, it will all work itself out in the end.
 
VF101 said:
This is a very interesting question. I have many reasons for not taking images: Work, family, being to lazy to leave the house ... But there's another time killer for me: Developing, scanning and postprocessing film. Thus I often consider to stop shooting film, but could not make this decision so far. (I just started to use film again two years ago.)
Click to expand...

Or shoot film and never develop, like Winogrand :D
 
Usually events like street fairs, parades, markets, concerts, all make a good photo opp, just get out there and don't forget your camera. Sometimes just sunlight shining through the window giving a gorgeous illumination of your cup of tea can be a opportunity to grab that camera and take a shot, you just have to recognize it.



Or the veggies for your dinner :



And for these two examples you don't even have to get anywhere outside.
 
Lauffray said:
Or shoot film and never develop, like Winogrand :D
Click to expand...

I agree, taking photos is the biggest part of the fun. But to never develop seems a little bit extreme to me. ;)

But I'm quite near: Yesterday I put a film I shot in August 2012 in my developing tank. I hope I'll find the time to develop this film within a week. And two weeks ago I found a slides film from spring 2012 that is waiting to get scanned.
 
I spend a lot more time developing film, scanning, and editing than shooting, and even then I still have an enormous backlog of film to scan and edit. I don't worry about having to go out shooting all the time. I just do it when the light is good and I have something I want to photograph in mind. Sometimes I'll go weeks without taking a single photo. I spend the time catching up on my scanning and editing.
 
Carry a camera at all times (well maybe there are a few exceptions :D ) - well, it did not help me. What helped was taking it out of the bag/pocket when going from one place to the next; being in the hand/around the neck, it will ask to be used.
 
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