Burnout - How did you regain your passion

For the past few years I have been looking after my elderly mother and my chances of doing a shoot are rare normally a 4 hour shoot a month and that has to be close to home , and it does make

that shoot special as it is a total break from reallity, but I do understand if its your job and not a hobby this is not possible. also other interest mine is motorbikes .

JPea said

One cannot know what and how others do things, such as model photography

I can only speak for myself and I maintain enthusiasm because everything I do fails to a greater or lesser extent.

I am left having to keep on shooting in a vain attempt to get a perfect image

The thing that keeps me attempting to get this image is working with models.

I like working WITH people and I always have.

I think it is the body and not the mind that will give out first.

That's an interesting and thought-provoking answer.

I've always taken the view that in almost all human endeavours, and certainly all those with which I have been involved, success and failure are two sides of the same proverbial coin. You can't have one without the other.

With regard to perfection, my background is engineering. Engineers tend to regard perfection as an abstract concept - one that is unobtainable in the real world. Instead, we tend to regard our creative space as a bunch of compromises. When the compromises we've made to achieve a particular end result are at their least bad, we describe that as "well engineered" or more likely: "as good as it's likely to get".

Engineers often say that perfection is the enemy of the good, and many consider perfectionism tantamount to extremism. Indeed, in my own experience, the pursuit of perfection not merely suffers from The Law of Diminishing Returns, in artistic matters, it often has a tendency to make things overall less good. YMMV, of course...

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good

:-)

waist.it said

JPea said

One cannot know what and how others do things, such as model photography

I can only speak for myself and I maintain enthusiasm because everything I do fails to a greater or lesser extent.

I am left having to keep on shooting in a vain attempt to get a perfect image

The thing that keeps me attempting to get this image is working with models.

I like working WITH people and I always have.

I think it is the body and not the mind that will give out first.

That's an interesting and thought-provoking answer.

I've always taken the view that in almost all human endeavours, and certainly all those with which I have been involved, success and failure are two sides of the same proverbial coin. You can't have one without the other.

With regard to perfection, my background is engineering. Engineers tend to regard perfection as an abstract concept - one that is unobtainable in the real world. Instead, we tend to regard our creative space as a bunch of compromises. When the compromises we've made to achieve a particular end result are at their least bad, we describe that as "well engineered" or more likely: "as good as it's likely to get".

Engineers often say that perfection is the enemy of the good, and many consider perfectionism tantamount to extremism. Indeed, in my own experience, the pursuit of perfection not merely suffers from The Law of Diminishing Returns, in artistic matters, it often has a tendency to make things overall less good. YMMV, of course...

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good

:-)

I'm not sure whether this is true or not.
I know this photography lark would be of no value to me if I didn't think I could do an awful lot better.

Interacting with, and photographing, people makes me happy. I enjoy it and that's why I do it. It's not my job. I don't need to do it to pay the mortgage. If it stops making me happy then I'll stop photographing people and do something else, be it photography related or not.

I often think that we (specifically photographers) feel we have to compete with others and improve all of the time. The "why does his image get an FPI when mine doesn't?" is a symptom of that. There is no-one more critical of a photographer's work than the photographer himself. While the desire to improve can be a positive thing, we shouldn't let it become the only reason we take photographs.

tigDJB said

Interacting with, and photographing, people makes me happy. I enjoy it and that's why I do it. It's not my job. I don't need to do it to pay the mortgage. If it stops making me happy then I'll stop photographing people and do something else, be it photography related or not.

I often think that we (specifically photographers) feel we have to compete with others and improve all of the time. The "why does his image get an FPI when mine doesn't?" is a symptom of that. There is no-one more critical of a photographer's work than the photographer himself. While the desire to improve can be a positive thing, we shouldn't let it become the only reason we take photographs.

I'm very much the same in terms of photographing and interacting with people makes me happy which is one of the reasons why I got into photography. For me it's always been about the outfits and styles that particular interests me. 

Thankfully I've never been in the mindset of having to compete with other photographers. For me it's always been a hobby for me, I've never been one for chasing likes and FPIs etc, if something gets acknowledged then I'm really grateful, but it is a never ending journey in learning and developing over time. I do get put off by the overly critical people who are critical just for the sake of it and don't give constructive feedback, just enjoy life, we're all on the same planet, might as well make the most of it and encourage each other rather than try to put each other down.

The formalities is something I can never get to grips with, that's the same with everything in life for me. I've been put off so much as soon as licensing, contracts, release forms etc get involved. I have to be formal enough at work, I don't need formalities in my hobbies as well :D 

It's definitely been an interesting time reading through everyones comments and thoughts, also been a pleasure going through so many new portfolios as well :)

On Torr Photography said

tigDJB said

Interacting with, and photographing, people makes me happy. I enjoy it and that's why I do it. It's not my job. I don't need to do it to pay the mortgage. If it stops making me happy then I'll stop photographing people and do something else, be it photography related or not.

I often think that we (specifically photographers) feel we have to compete with others and improve all of the time. The "why does his image get an FPI when mine doesn't?" is a symptom of that. There is no-one more critical of a photographer's work than the photographer himself. While the desire to improve can be a positive thing, we shouldn't let it become the only reason we take photographs.

I'm very much the same in terms of photographing and interacting with people makes me happy which is one of the reasons why I got into photography. For me it's always been about the outfits and styles that particular interests me. 

Thankfully I've never been in the mindset of having to compete with other photographers. For me it's always been a hobby for me, I've never been one for chasing likes and FPIs etc, if something gets acknowledged then I'm really grateful, but it is a never ending journey in learning and developing over time. I do get put off by the overly critical people who are critical just for the sake of it and don't give constructive feedback, just enjoy life, we're all on the same planet, might as well make the most of it and encourage each other rather than try to put each other down.

The formalities is something I can never get to grips with, that's the same with everything in life for me. I've been put off so much as soon as licensing, contracts, release forms etc get involved. I have to be formal enough at work, I don't need formalities in my hobbies as well :D 

It's definitely been an interesting time reading through everyones comments and thoughts, also been a pleasure going through so many new portfolios as well :)

+1 to both of you. I want my photography to be a relaxing and absorbing hobby, not a competitive sport. lol. If I can help someone on the way, then all-the-better. I'm much more interested in collaboration than I am in competition. :-)

I haven't.

I have pretty generalised burnout; not just photographic, unfortunately. But that too, to some extent.

In the meantime, just find something else creative to keep your mind occupied.

When my mental focus is better, I sometimes tinker with making photographic-related stuff on a 3D printer and learn more about 3D printing and CAD. It certainly helps remind me of what does and doesn't matter in a camera, and connects with my interest in early photographers.

I really don't care, snap something else, fiddle with the camera snap something mundane. Normal service will resume. I think in this day and age people think the opinion of others matters...it doesn't, nor what they do, let them get on with it and certainly don't tolerate uninvited critique or comment. This is a hobby to be enjoyed, if you're not enjoying it do something else or try something else in photography.

Not sure whether it's burn out but I've hit a level of frustration with aspects of booking models that means for now I'm stepping away for a little while. 

I think it is a situation of who you want to please. It was my friends, important people in the industry, other photographers, models. When this wasn't happening I got more and more frustrated. I wanted judges at competitions to give me 10/10. Failed miserably. Then I got my act together and had a reset. Who am I doing photography for? Answer ME. Now, having no audience to please, I have freedom to take photos how I want. Result? More people enjoy my images because I am not forcing them on others. Also, I love the photos I take. I get excited at each new shoot.

When I started photography as a hobby, it took several years to build up the confidence in my ability before I started shooting models.

And even then, because I wasn't very well paid in my day job, I was very sporadic.

2018 saw a life changing event that forced me to rethink my priorities; this meant that photography took a back seat.

It's been a long road, and I'm still miles away from enjoying photography like I used to.

Will I get back to shooting models? No idea ... and I'm not forcing it either.

I'm in full agreement with B17fan .

Try getting to some landmarks, try different techniques with your camera to enhance the scenes before you.

One trick that might help you back; if you know someone who is moving, offer to take their estate agents images of their place for them.

That will present new challenges, and may well lead you back to enjoying what you normally do.

One thing I would say - this is why I generally pay for shoots. It limits how much I can shoot, but takes away the pressure. You don't feel bad telling the model what you want. I have no guilt walking away from a shoot. And no time pressure or quantity pressure on edits. yum!

I think maybe that what I have previously said was not entirely clear.

Where I fail is in the ideas, concepts and inner thoughts in any photograph.

I don't try to please anyone but myself but as with all the hobbies I have ever done, photography works on the principle of "I am not competitive but I don't like losing".

However the person I don't like losing to is me.

If I didn't try my best to improve and move forward I am sure I would lose any enthusiasm to continue.

For me, the real change wasn’t about WHAT I photographed—a better model, a stunning landscape—but HOW I photographed.

After years of creating images to sell products, I had beautiful pictures, great locations, beautiful models, but they felt empty, just more shots in the portfolio.  

When I started focusing on WHY I wanted to photograph, the HOW became so much more important. I realised that to keep my enthusiasm alive, I needed a personal sense of accomplishment, something meaningful and truly mine. Refining HOW I work is what keeps me growing and moving forward.

For me, that meant looking back into photographic history, learning traditional processes, working hands-on, and ditching Photoshop. It’s challenging, for sure, but when it works, it’s the best motivation to keep improving and growing as a photographer.