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Thread: How do you recharge your creativity?

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jan 1999
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    Louisiana
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    How do you recharge your creativity?

    The enthusiasm I've had for photography has waned. Lately, I contemplate chucking all this equipment, chemicals, etc., getting a pocket digital and taking only the occasional snapshot.
    There have been times in my life where I put photography aside for a year or 3, then returned to it. This time I feel if I put it on the shelf, I'll lose all desire to resume image making.
    Frankly, I like the money I can make from it, but I know if I got out of photography I wouldn't have the expenses of equipment and chemicals.
    So, for those who have taken a respite, how did you get your muse back. What inspired you to pick up your camera and start shooting again?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    Westport, Ontario
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    A Canon 5D MkII

  3. #3

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    Nov 2008
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    NW New Mexico
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    I've encountered a few ups and downs....and personally usually simplify to "recharge"....

    Often, the simplification creates a new challenge...a new 'simple' vintage lens, paper negatives (quite humbling IMO), Lith printing, etc.... have all been means of rejuvenating my interest...

    Thanks,
    Dan

  4. #4
    Eric Biggerstaff
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
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    Denver, Colorado
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    My interest comes and goes depending on the stress of my real life (work, family, bills, etc.). I am in a slump now and I think I may have only made one or two decent images this year. But, that sort of keeps me going as I know if I stick with it, the slump will end, I will have the energy to do more and my excitement will again grow.

    We all have our ups and downs! I find staying away from it helps at times, starting a new project can help, I also like to try new things (insted of landscape I might try still life or portraits, etc.), go to shows and read books to help inspire me and give me new ideas, or just stick with doing what I like to do and not worry about it. Photography is a slow jog, not a fast sprint, I have years and years to burn doing it so I am in no hurry and have no worries if I have periods where my interest and productivity go down, I know it will come back.
    Eric Biggerstaff

    www.ericbiggerstaff.com

  5. #5

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    May 2001
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    Switzerland
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    Most of the time with 12 volt;--))))

    Could'nt resist, Armin

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Richmond, VA
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    I find planning a photographic trip or attending a workshop seem to get me going. I have had a lot of fun attending Fine Focus Workshops in VT/NH. Bruce Barlow and Richard Ritter have been my mentors. I know that if I'm going to attend one of their workshops I need to bring NEW work, fully processed and mounted for their print reveiws. The pressure of a deadline seems to get me motivated.

    Bruce would suggest you define a project for yourself, decide in advance what the final result will be, for example 6 NEW framed 8x10 Lodima contact prints of ___________. Then set a deadline for yourself.

    Hope this helps!

  7. #7

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    May 2010
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    London
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    For me getting back into photography started just after listing some of my (unused for over ten years) equipment on theBay. It was running film through some of the bodies that I realised just how much I missed photography. Three years later and I have just started to experiment with 54, the last time I shot large format was back in the 80's.
    Perhaps what I am trying to say is just let it take it's time, do not force things, one day it may come back or you may have found another activity equally rewarding.
    Things and people change over time.
    Regards


    ZX9 - Keith H

  8. #8
    Format Omnivore Brian C. Miller's Avatar
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    Everett, WA
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Schultz View Post
    So, for those who have taken a respite, how did you get your muse back.
    Well ya know, getting my creative moose back wasn't too much of a problem. A photographic moose isn't easy to lose, and nobody else really wants it around. And when my photographic moose gets loose, then I get calls saying, "Hey come get your stupid moose, it's eating my vegetable garden and the flashbulb antlers are blinding my kids!" And then I have to go and bring my photographic moose back home. Of course there was the time that my creative license got revoked because I broke the laws of physics, and they came and took away my photographic moose. But they're used to grabbing someone's muse, not a moose, and so they put my creative moose in their back yard. And then it started eating up the lawn and the shrubbery they had got from those guys in the metal suits, and of course it ate the vegetable garden, and then they got tired of it. They started chasing it around with a big knife, but of course they couldn't cut off its tail and the moose wasn't blind anyways. But it was in the house, and of course you know how a moose can run at 35mph with its flashbulb antlers going off all over the place. So there they were with a mad moose, way worse than a Cat wearing a Hat. Finally my photographic moose tore through a picture window, straight through that canvas and across a persistence of art critics. They were so happy that it left that they never bothered me again and so I forged myself another creative license and got back to photographing, with my photographic moose right behind me.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    81

    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    once bailiffs remove all your gear, buy a few wood working tools and make some cameras, at least the bailiffs will not want to take them next time due to there rough homemade appearance. its amazing how your passion returns when you see all your possessions get removed from your abode.

    just hide a lens under the mattress and your always have a starting point

  10. #10

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    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    Re: How do you recharge your creativity?

    I pick up a Kodak Reflex Brownie and a roll of Efke 127 and go out and try to find the world I grew up in.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

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