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i may quit photography.....
Dooooon't cry for me Argentina  Jan 28 06 07:50 pm Link Jessica L wrote: precisely. Jan 28 06 08:13 pm Link Justin N Lane wrote: smart boy. Jan 28 06 08:14 pm Link area291 wrote: very smart boy. Jan 28 06 08:16 pm Link Eric Muss-Barnes wrote: I beat this syndrome by maintaining dual 40/hr week identities....half the time I work in my right brain world (photography), the other half I work in the left brain world (engineering). When the right half is worn out....I abuse the left half....and then back I go....weekly. Jan 28 06 08:22 pm Link Glamour Boulevard wrote: excellent advice. Jan 28 06 08:23 pm Link Sascha wrote: my favorite post. Jan 28 06 08:31 pm Link Bye Jan 28 06 08:32 pm Link I sounds like you just refuse to challange youself to be better so now you are getting bored Shooting has no limits or rules Jan 28 06 08:34 pm Link try skydiving. then try it again, with a camera try shooting something ELSE. nature photography is ALOT harder than the model scene. then become a scuba diver. then try THAT with a camera. or stay on the couch and watch tv. Jan 28 06 10:17 pm Link I hope you don't retire. You have beautiful work that is hard to match. Jan 28 06 11:22 pm Link I think that is a great idea... (take others with you.) Do you need an address to ship your old equipment to? Jan 28 06 11:26 pm Link What? Do I have to fly out there and get naked to revive your interest in 'photography'? I have some tips and tricks for dealing with euphoria and apathy... Jan 28 06 11:33 pm Link With all this good feedback, Eric, I have this vision of you bouncing back like Hulk Hogan did when he was losing a match and barely able to get up. Sounds like you are suffering from Michael Jordanitis where he got so good and done everything that he was nolonger having fun with it. Create your own challenges. Jan 28 06 11:39 pm Link Dude, you look like you're about 38 and you've "done everything (you) ever wanted to do."? That's heavy. I suggest making that list a fuck of a lot longer. Start with dirt bikes. Jan 29 06 02:16 am Link Try this for a new challenge: 1. Buy a new digital camera. A real complicated DSLR. 2. Throw away the manual. Spend the next few years learning how to use the damn new thing. If you still are bored, repeat steps one and two. Jan 29 06 02:37 am Link It sounds to me like depression. I'm no doctor, but I've been there for years. (still am, but working on it) It's hard to find anything that interests you when you're depressed. Life seems pointless when you're depressed. There are a lot of options to dealing with depression. There are of course medications, as well as spiritual practices. I've personally turned to Buddhism to help. A book I'd suggest is The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. It's the most amazing book I've ever read, full of things that everyone should know but no one remembers. It's good to check in every now and then to remind yourself what's important. I also find I get really apathetic because of lack of self-esteem. I don't know how you feel about your photography, maybe you're judging it harshly? I tend to turn to books for help, so another few I'd suggest are Change Your Brain, Change Your Life to learn more about the brain functions behind it, The Zen Path Through Depression to learn a philisophical side of treatment, or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for a bit of insight about general questions. Accupuncture also helps with a many types of emotional distress. I'm not trying to diagnose anything, but I have quite a bit of experience with the illness. If you were just apathetic about photography, that would be a question of careers, but complete life apathy hints that there's something more. I know you don't know me so this may not be helpful, but I'd like to help if I can. If you have any questions or would like to talk, I'd be happy to listen. Good luck with everything. I hope everything turns out well for you. Jan 29 06 02:52 am Link DigitalCMH wrote: Bwhahaha .. I love it .. Been there done that too .. no worries strawberries .. something will light that flame again .. Jan 29 06 02:54 am Link EMB wrote: Jan 29 06 03:14 am Link EMB wrote: I have a friend by the name of Colt he can take care of all your problems and if not my other friend Smith & Wesson LOL Jan 29 06 03:15 am Link DanPhoto wrote: That's the kind of thing you should try yourself before recommending to others. Jan 30 06 01:55 am Link Is this a suicide note? Put on a happy face  Jan 30 06 01:56 am Link EMB wrote: It's cause i moved isn't it? sigh.... Jan 30 06 09:48 am Link The same thing happened to me a while ago, and I was afraid that i lost my touch. But then I went home to Russia for a few months and everything changed back to normal. Don't focus on shootnig models. Go travel. Seeing the world is amazingly refreshing. Jan 30 06 11:10 am Link I have walked your footsteps brother. However, I find (and have found) that I always come back to photography. Yes, I'm ready to gag on fashion and glamour, so instead of retreating and thinking it was time to toss in the camera, I went to a book store and grabbed a pile of the most out there art books I have ever seen. After scanning through gobs and gobs of other people's work, I started to get new ideas, different than theirs, but inspired by them nonetheless. A breather is good, but your work is excellent so it is the artist as a candle flame screaming for oxygen. Take a deep breath, move back, spin around a few times, but change that energy rhythm and you will be amazed. I suffer from Adult ADHD so to keep me entertained with an attention span of a 5 year old, is difficult. I have learned to do everything as different as I can each and every day. Do not give up. Take a vacation from it, go fishing.. Go to a high cliff and scream out your lungs, but realize that giving up is the easy way out. The entire industry gets stale. Plus, with the Internet we have seen every image done a thousand ways, both good and bad. It is hard to be different but it's easy to stay in that mindset that you can't be. A saying I have is.. You can't be better than everybody else until you get out of your own way and let it happen. Jan 30 06 04:53 pm Link I could say a couple things, but I think you need to find your own answer to your own life's contentment. On the lighter side, just chill for a while, don't look for anything. Just chill... Jan 30 06 05:12 pm Link Oscar Wilde said, "There are two great tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire, the other is to gain it." We are such unforgivable creatures of WANT that it is disgusting to us to actually have, since everything we get leaves us wondering why we're no more sated for it. Don't look to your hobbies or ambitions or relationships for a sense of contentment. It's something you have to learn to find in yourself. If you're not a happy person, you won't become happy by distraction. And anyway... have you tried Heroin? Threesomes? Killing a hobo with a hammer? No? Well then it's time you got started! Come on, now... this Bud's for you! Jan 30 06 05:29 pm Link Like a previous poster, I shouldn't be alive, either (4 days on a ruptured appendix in my case...long story...). While I appreciate life more, I find that I have deeper depression around this time of year since then. I think it's just that the weather in this part of the country prevents me from doing many of the outdoor activities I like...and the color deprivation. Everything is gray, brown and beige this time of year. I thought finding colorful items to shoot would work but it didn't. Photographically, shooting moody black and white shots worked for me. For life in general, don't focus on yourself. Focus on doing for others. Mentoring is a great idea. Or just doing some volunteer work. I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity projects when I can. The combination of helping someone else and just pure and simple manual labor is therapeutic for me. Maybe it's the farm boy in me. I don't know. If that doesn't work, I think Woody Allen once said, "Nothing some Prozac and a polo mallet can't fix".... Jan 30 06 06:38 pm Link It happens. Photography isn't something you can half ass. Take the time to regroup and refocus. If you can figure what it is that you loved about shooting in the first place then come back. If you can't then it's time to hang it up. We all get moody. Drugs just prolong the denial. Good luck. Jan 30 06 06:58 pm Link EMB wrote: De ja vu. This sounds like me at times. I am 42 now, and I have often commented that if I got struck by lightening today and died, I would feel like I had a pretty good life. Jan 30 06 07:43 pm Link Don´t quit. Better take a break for some weeks or months till you burst of inspiration and enthusiasm and start to shoot again. We all need a creative break once in a while to get back the energy we need after a time of lots and hard work! Jan 31 06 07:23 am Link EMB wrote: Um, yes, I actually would. My brother will be moving to LA later this summer and I plan to visit. Jan 31 06 07:27 am Link I sorta feel your pain - but I can't quit as it is how I earn a living LOL - I did, however, sorta find another hobby since photography is "work" now.... metal detecting! Although I do tend to want to carry a camera just in case I find something that's been hidden for years. I will feel freaky if I find an OLD camera buried somewhere. Hang in there... Spring is coming, maybe that will help some.... PTP Jan 31 06 08:09 am Link DawnElizabeth Moderator wrote: Any plans for the Bay area,too? Jan 31 06 10:14 am Link Lapis wrote: I confess, seeing you naked would revive my interest in photography too, but that would be on the topic and I hate to stay on topic so my question is: why would I WANT to "deal with" euphoria? That is where I am always trying to get to. The flow. Do you know something I don't know? Jan 31 06 10:23 am Link studio L wrote: Is bill jay's book THAT famous that people on MM will get the reference? Jan 31 06 10:24 am Link Chance wrote: AH bye yourself have some compassion dear. I say just what everyone else says start shooting for yourself but take a long break first, renew yourself. I do now and then. When I danced I took a vacation 3 times a year to just unwind go to the beach, hike find yourself . Jan 31 06 10:32 am Link Reading through the final version of the thread seems to raise that age-old question, why do you shoot in the first place? What motivates you, what feeds your images..are you looking for external accolades, or is it an inner process that you participate in whether someone is looking at your work or not? And is burnout as much about the adrenaline buzz of being a photographer wearing off, or that the images you are producing are just rote, or that what you are feeling on the inside isn't making it's way out, or that it's trying to come out, you just don't have the visual language yet to express it. And of course this may or may not be related to a larger lethargy of one's life, vision and spirit. Feb 01 06 08:26 pm Link Step away from the "Cure" album.... Feb 04 06 05:11 pm Link I'm feeling the same way about music right now--been doing bass and keyboards for my church for 10 years and I've lost all heart for it. I'm taking a break right now and probably won't get back into it. I considered music more than just a hobby, it was a service to my church and an expression of my faith. This, however, has not stopped me from reaching a point of complete boredom and frustration over it. At the same time, I'm really just getting *into* photography seriously. But I realize that regardless of the genre of photography, I'll also eventually run out of things that interest me and all my shots will feel like they look the same. I reached it very quickly on landscapes and flowers. Can't stand the sight of them now. But for now I still love shooting people--glamour, fashion, weddings, portraits, candids, etc. Every new subject is a brand new challenge. My two bits of advice: 1. Find a cause that is *bigger* than you and attach your life to it. Maybe in doing so you can find a way to use your photography skills--photojournalism in Darfur (extreme example), teaching a high school photography course, etc. Or maybe not. Doesn't matter. 2. Read Ecclesiastes. I think you might find a kindred spirit. Feb 04 06 07:15 pm Link |
