Moe beat me to it! Jeff, what you need to do is either get yourself a Holga and have fun (without looking in the viewfinder!!! Go with me on this one!) or limit yourself to one lens...I mean don't bring your bag but just your camera and 1 lens. Get out of the car or even stay in your back yard and look down... hands and knees down! Get closer. You need to refresh your eyes and and brain cells before you get a case of dain bramage! LOL
I have used the "one lens" and "simple camera" tonics. It seems that simplifying the technical can energize the creative. I've gotten so intrigued with the zone plate that my "real" cameras have mostly collected dust for the past two years.
http://www.ellingerphoto.com
I have reached the conclusion that two things contribute to great pictures: subject matter and creative technique.
If you have the time and money, you can get back on track using the first of these. Buy a plane ticket to the Egyptian pyramids or to some equally exotic location in Indonesia. Once there, you can make nice snapshots of great subjects which will become great pictures.
Or if, like me, you can’t fly around the world every weekend you will have to rely on creative technique with ordinary subjects.
In art school I was blessed to share space with two students from Japan. These guys had a special Asian gift for composing ordinary objects into great pictures. It was absolutely uncanny. And used to make us crazy!
Once we had a class assignment to do a food shot. All of us Anglo dudes went out and bought the fixings for a big traditional Thanksgiving dinner. On a linen tablecloth with plenty of candles, china and silver pieces, we had a roast turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, squash, two pies, etc., etc., etc. When we finally had everything assembled, we took what amounted to a technically competent snapshot of the table.
One of the Japanese boys shot straight down on a white plate sitting on a rush mat. Carefully arranged on the plate were a lemon wedge, a slice of avocado and a raw fish eye. The other guy did a picture of an empty wrinkled paper supermarket grocery bag, a length of butchers’ twine and a paper cash register receipt.
Both of their “food shots” were so gorgeous they would bring tears to your eyes. What little value our picture had was due entirely to our wives’ culinary talents.
My advice is, therefore, to purchase a book of Japanese photography and study it very carefully. You just may be able to compose a blue Adirondack chair on your lawn, a length of yellow plastic garden hose and a pair of pink flip-flops into an Asian masterwork.
For me, the answer is to take photographs. Even if you don't feel like it. Even if you aren't particularly inspired. Try anyway.
For example, I saw a couple of passion flowers growing on a vine in the back yard. I figured that where they were, and with the light the way it was, it was nearly an "impossible get." And... I just didn't feel like it.
I decided to try anyway just to see. Had to put the tripod at maximum extension and work from a step ladder. The two flowers where in different planes (of course) so it took a fair amount of tilt and a bit of swing, and... I spent 45 minutes sweating my tail off in the blazing sun on a step ladder.
The way you break writer's block is you write something - anything, but you write. Even if you throw it away later. The way you break photographer's block is you photograph.
Bruce Watson
I think there are two forms of blocks. In cognitive psychology, the term blocking typically refers to interference from something else - you are unable to perform a certain cognitive function because some other function keeps intruding and I suspect this has a lot to do with the "well is dry" phenomenon. Worry or anxiety over something, even unconsciously, can be a huge interference. Even worry over getting good pictures can serve this function. So, that might be a first step - sit down in a quiet place for a few hours and acknowledge whatever else is bugging you. At the end of the day, the ability to create art is very deeply rooted in who we are as individuals and if that is being blocked beacuse our self is busy dealing with something else, it can be hard.
Other times, the blocking is more due to an imminent change in direction. For example, you still see pictures but they feel like things you have done before and you don't see the point in doing that again. Can't be helped, that seems to be the way our ability to see progresses. The best thing to do here is to expose yourself to new experiences. Expose yourself to lots of different art, in all forms - painting, sculpture, music etc. Your visual eye will eventually find the next challenge for itself.
Cheers, DJ
A couple suggestions.
Take a 35mm and half a dozen rolls of film and go to the nearest busy playground. Use the film making pictures of children at play, and "play" with them in your own way with the camera. Try things, experiment, and have fun.
Define a project for yourself. What subject matter interests you? Whatever it is, define a project of, say, 10 good, finished, matted prints of that subject that you would show to anyone. Set a deadline ("nothing helps creativity like a deadline," -- Duke Ellington). With a specific project, you'll look a little harder and more selectively, but of which should help. You may see other subjects that you want to photograph when you're out doing your project, and that's fine -- make those pictures, because they may be the start of your next project!
And I agree with those who say "slow down, get to know and see a place, then make pictures." I used to be able to spot them from the car, but no longer. Now I have to go to a place and drink it in for a half hour or so until I begin to see the pictures. That said, the pictures are much better -- deeper, and more keenly felt -- and my hit rate is higher.
Hope these help. Good luck, and have fun.
Bruce Barlow
author of "Finely Focused" and "Exercises in Photographic Composition"
www.brucewbarlow.com
All very good and interesting comments.
I would add, maybe the 'block' is a good thing. I try to embrace these dry periods for what they really are in the end; all part of my experience. For every image I've printed, I have a hundred that were not "good enough". But the days spent looking and getting no negatives, the negatives I made and never printed, the prints I made and threw out, are all included in those few prints I'm proud of.
I just keep working. The images eventually find me. The more time I spend out there, the more images I get.
I'm going through one right now. I haven't taken the LF gear out since the beginning of summer. I've been shooting the Leica more and more, my poor old Mamiya 7ii isn't even getting a look in.
My own personal methods to get past this are as follows:
- revisit favorite shooting places. It will always be different and it's a kind of 'retracing your steps'.
- go out for walks looking for an image, but leave the camera at home. Deprive yourself of your camera for a couple of weeks and the 'hunger' will return.
- I don't like looking at other peoples' work to get inspiration, I think that it's counter-productive. I see great images and get agitated because I can't replicate them. Of course my vision is different from other photographers so the more I look at the work of others the more my own vision seems to suffer.
Maybe it was a bad idea buying that used Leica, I'm having way too much fun with it ...
When I don't feel inspired to make photographs, I still like to do something with them. For example - I will pick one of my favorite images and write the story of it - how I found it, how it felt to discover it, what went through my mind and heart as I composed it and the satisfaction of seeing the successful final capture or print. This usually helps energize me - I want to go through the experience again.
Another alternative - when you don't feel like being in the field, spend time in the darkroom (chemical, digital, whatever) - pick a favorite image and try to make a great print of it.
I find that just spending time with my favorite work helps me deal with doubt and motivates me to think creatively again.
Guy
Scenic Wild Photography
When I'm not feeling particularly creative, and don't feel like photographing, I just wait. Eventually I am inspired to make another photograph, and If at some point I'm not, I think the world will go on without my contributions to the medium. I always find plenty to do during these downtimes, and feel better when I return to photography for accomplishing some long neglected tasks. I don't make my living from photography, so there is nothing at stake for me if I take a vacation from it. I'll save some money that would have been spent on materials, and have more time to spend with my family. I can live with that.
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