Overcoming Photographer's Block

[Tadge Dryja]

Everyone's got their own ways to deal with this. Many times I've been pacing around, thinking, "what to shoot... what to shoot..."

Here are some things you might try:

Shoot at night. Especially with view cameras, it takes forever. Oh well.

Go macro. Rack your bellows all the way out and see what you get.

And, my favorite thing to do -- cut a bunch of RC paper up into 4x5 sheets and load them into your holders (or 8x10 or whatever you use). Rate it at ISO 6 or so and go take lots and lots of shots with that, as fast as you can. Get back, throw em in the dektol, fix em, and turn on the lights. It's really fun because paper is basically free compared to film, paper negatives look cool, the contrast is quite high, you don't have to fuss around with developing them, just throw em in the trays, you can have your safelight on, etc. Every time I do this I see something that looks really cool and go back and shoot on film.

-Tadge

[Andre Noble]

Agreed, time for the 35mm.

PS: click the shutter.

[Robert Musgjerd]

Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing . Dont force it . Think of your block as just part of the process . Works for me

[jonathan smith]

My suggestion would be to revisit a previous subject in a different context. Remember, when you take a picture, you're photographing light, not objects. What I do when I run out of ideas is go out at night and do some "B" or "T" shots right in the neighborhood, and the eerie effects you get from the lighting at night make you think you're in another world, even though you're just shooting your neighbor's house which you've seen thousands of times.

I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but I want to bring a big flashlight and "paint" light onto bushes and such with the shutter open. Be selective about what makes it into the picture by choosing what to put light on. Anyway, I vote for night shots right near home to get unstuck.

[John D Gerndt]

What a large variety of posts! What a large variety of blockages there must be! Thanks to DJ for the post that seems to fit me (I hope).

While I pass the time in incubation I have been doing the testing I have always known was the wise thing to do but never did as I thought my time was best spent making pictures. No pictures being made means there are no excuses. Test out your materials. It could be time to take up the AA’s zone system or Phil Davis’ Beyond the Zone System. Test your shutters; align your enlarger and/or your camera. Perfect you kit; clean your equipment; practice spotting, bleaching or toning. One way or another use this down time to eliminate errors you have made in the past and it will be time well spent

Cheers,

[Jean-Louis Llech]

Jeff,
your photographic sight seems tired. You need to have it "reloaded".
The best thing to do is to make a "photographic pause", to sit down in your favorite armchair, and to read photographer's books.
You'll quickly notice if one or several photos you see cause you some emotions and inspire you.
This seems maybe stupid, but the same affliction happens to me in the middle of a severe disease. I'm doing it that way, and I feel that inspiration is coming back.

[Øyvind Dahle]

Join a club, a good one, most of the times a good club means a large one. In my club, we go out to photograph once a week during the summer, different people come every time.

I enjoy to participate in other peoples photos and to ask them to help me in mine. And we have competition once a week autumn through winter and spring. Look for results yourself: http://www.oslokameraklubb.no/konk_arets_kveldens.html 23.03.04, 09.09.03 and 21.01.01 is pictures of other club-members.

Øyvind

[Lou Nargi]

Julia Cameron has a book that deals with this issue of being blocked, called the Artist's Way. Its mainly for writers, but it can help any artist. In the book she talks about writing morning papers, these are three pages of what ever comes out of you . Don't read them, and don't show them to anyone. Just put them away. We carrey around bagage that seems to block us up, these papers seems to help. Her book is worth the investment. ISBN 0-87477-694-5

[Gary Albertson]

My random "blocks" over the years have simply spontaneously evaporated by just taking the time to "get lost" in the woods for a few days and nights. But now I have reached a totally different beast of a block.......I have finally become rather successful in many ways as a photographer. My name has grown in this region of Oregon as a fine landscape photographer. For the last few years, I have owned and operated my own art gallery/frame shop in Sisters, Oregon. Most customers who walk in truly love to have me tell the story of each image, of my child-like approach to being "captured" by nature. I even give seminars and speeches on the same subjects. NOW, here's the problem.......I have lost the impulse that I had for 20 years, to get lost.....I have lost that connection somehow. My photographs are like my own children, enjoying profoundly the fashioning of mats and frames that best suit each one individually. And perhaps my pride and ego is stroked so often from customers, that I feel I HAVE to be at the gallery every single day. I have shot one single image in over a month. I literally live in the woods away from town. Those past spontaneous oddyseys into the woods are just not happening so intuitively, so automatically.......Though I feel blessed with success, I feel cursed or drunk with it, not sane enough to figure out a new solution. Strangely, before success, I had the time and freedom to "get lost" in the world.....and in return "found" myself through the lens, being "captured" by nature.......but now that I have become "found", I sense I have become lost.......
Thanks, Gary

[John Kasaian]

Gary,

Just put a "gone shootin'" sign in your window and get lost again. Your photo children probably want new brothers and sisters to play with. Head upstream and spawn!;-)