What is the biggest obstruction stopping you from taking photographs?

I find I have relatively few obstacles to taking photos.

Obstacles to taking good photos? ... too many to mention. :(
 
Dave Wilkinson said:
Dead easy!...in my case health!, back to hospital on Thursday - for my angioplasty!, I've got lots of ideas and plans, but if you ain't got the health.......:bang:
Dave.
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O.K. - forget the health issue!, as Arnie said in the movie "I'll be back!"...so the answer is nothing!, retirement is great - monthly pay for doing as you like!, and plenty of photogenic locations for me to visit. When I do feel a little off colour, I stay home, bug people on RFF, read about the M9, and learn what to take on holiday!....life could'nt be better:D.
 
When I learned I was assigned to work the night shift (11:00 PM - 7:30 AM)
I thought "Great! I will be free for photography during all the good light."

I was wrong. :(

Chris
 
Nothing obstructs me from taking pictures.

I just didn't do it as often, as focused, as patient as I could be.

That's all... :p
 
I oscillate between guitars and cameras. The guitars have the upperhand currently but soon I will once again accept that I am never going to be Jimmy Page . Then I shall return to my Henri Cartier- Bresson fantasy until that too hits the buffers. Let the circle remain unbroken.
 
Suburbia.

I'm in a very suburban area. E.g, three coffee shops are in easy walking distance. They all face shopping center parking lots. No street-side cafes here.

Now, I know that a good eye and a good imagination can find good pictures almost anywhere. I submit, however, that people who live in big urban areas have a much better chance of grabbing good shots when they're out for a walk than I do. When I stroll around my neighborhood, I see cars, overly large suburban castles, and big wide empty sidewalks. If I carried and used a camera, someone would call the cops.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
Most of us do better with boxes around our goals. I know it's better for me, for personal work, to shoot within the confines of a project. I tend to shoot aimlessly without one. Maybe deciding on a project and shooting specifically for it will help.
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Amen, brother! I really believe in working on projects. Sometimes they end up morphing into some other project. Sometimes it is no more than wandering aimlessly trying to find a project that takes root. They are typically six months to a year long, but have been as short as a month, as long as 3 years.

The corollary: you have to have more interest in your subject or theme than you do in photography. Loving taking photos will not get you far. Robert Frank set out to experience America not photograph it. The photos were just an adjunct to his primary mission. Ansel Adams loved the great outdoors not just capturing it on film. Cartier-Bresson loved the artistic capture of everyday life. Remember he later became happy doing it with a paint brush instead of a camera.

So you have to find a subject that really turns you on. Something that you would continue to explore at length even if you forgot to put your camera bag in car.

Without your own subject or theme, you will always find excuses not to journey out. You will find you succumb to all sorts of excuses to do something else. But find something that really interests you and the whole balance shifts.
 
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