How do you get back into the swing of things?

[Mark_3632]

Due to work, family and school taking up my time I have only been able to go shooting once since the holiday season, and even then the weather only cleared up for about an hour so I was in the yard shooting snow. I want to take pictures this weekend as a stress releiver but I have a huge mental block. I am finding it a serious pain to "see".

When you are forced (lets face it no one stops shooting because they want to) to not take pictures for a long period. How do you get back into the swing of things?

[Ralph Barker]

What I have found helpful, Mark, is to go out and do a few macro-ish shots to break away from the wider, non-specific view of things we have when going about our normal functions. Focusing in on small things that might otherwise be overlooked seems to do it for me.

The other option is to hire a good figure model. But that might not work in the snow. ;-)

[David Karp]

This is nothing earth shaking, but I take a walk with my camera. I try to go someplace I have visited before. Since I have been there, I don't have to think too hard about where to walk. Then I just look. Usually I find something one thing want to photograph, and sometimes that is enough to get me going again. Of course, then I start making the usual mistakes, forgetting to pull the darkslide, forgetting to cock the shutter, and all of the other things we do when we have not been photographing for a while. That is good for a laugh, which also helps loosen me up.

Of course, in winter climes that are very cold, the walk in the country trick is a bit tougher. Perhaps an interesting architectural subject might be a good substitute for a walk in the park.

[Chuck_1686]

I like to take a picture of the first thing that catches my eye. With no real thought about it. Sometimes this helps break through the inertia and I start seeing other possible images. I suppose many people are able to just walk in and find good images. Professionals have to do it every day. I'd starve.

[John Kasaian]

If thumbing through an inspiring book or seeing a really good exhibit doesn't do the trick, I find a self assignment usually gets the gray matter churning.

Try to make a travel poster for your town, or document old stuff, or a disused park. Maybe a still life or a product shot featuring something produced locally. A while back I collected a bunch of interesting moonstones at the beach. If I get a mental block, I get them out and try shooting them with different backgrounds & lighting. Its not my usual stuff, but I find it usually gets me thinking and gears me up to pursue other subjects.

There is a lot of food processing going on in my town, and I heard of a guy who was just fooling around with an item and got a good enough shot that he showed the company and---he got a commission!

If that dosen't work, just going for day hikes or drives in the country to scout out locations might help.

If that dosen't do it, hire the swedish bikini team to pose!;-)

[Alan Davenport]

To sharpen the eye, and force myself to compose, I like to take a camera out with just one lens and a roll of film. Then I shoot the entire roll using that lens (no zooms allowed!) just to keep the brain working, or maybe to make it start working. The key here, of course, is leaving all the rest of your kit at home.

[Francis Abad]

I shoot 8x10, so my pack is quite heavy. I think of it as exercise. My holders are always loaded and when I feel like putting on the sweat I take it along and have my tripod on hand. If I see nothing then at least I got a good hike out of it. The idea of exercise relieves the stress of needing to take a shot because I have the 8x10 beast with me. Whether I take a shot or not is irrelevant. Something good came out of the hike. It is this relaxed mind that makes me "see" better.

[Bill_1856]

F**k getting out into the ice and snow. Get thyself into the darkroom, and print some of those masterpieces you made last Summer.

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I have no idea of where you live Mark, but if you were to check out the surrounding area of your location to see if there are any historical villages, interesting churches or other such structures, you might discover some subject matter that would merit investigation. I happen to live not far from Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village and have many times gone there to just "practice" seeing and to test lenses, new films, etc. There are numerous other villages and historic parks I visit from time to time as well. In winter, it's particularly nice if you can find something indoors and warm (or at least out of the weather). The other thing that might help is to go hunting for scenes with just a viewing card. There are times when I think we all get creatve dry heaves and can't seem to find anything that merits setting up a view camera. I wouldn't get discouraged. There might be some interesting objects in your own home, maybe stuff you look at everyday, but don't notice anymore. Everywhere you go, there is something. You just have to keep looking. Don't give up! If you have a darkroom, I might suggest reading my recent article on making vitrographs in the January/February issue of Photo Techniques. You will be surprised at what you can use as a "negative" and you will be amazed at what kind of a print you can produce. Please give us a progress report.

[Christopher Condit]

I keep a list of potential subjects, since I often have inspirations without the time or camera handy. This serves two purposes. Besides the obvious one of helping me remember good ideas, secondarily, when I feel uninspired, I can look at the list and find something new to do.

[John Hoenstine]

Read "Art and Fear" paying attention to the part about the pottery class and quantity versus quality. Go out tomorrow with six holders and vow not to return until you have used all twelve sheets. Then do it the next day, the next day, the next day, etc. I remember hearing a writer interviewed and talking about writer's block. He said it was only the fear of writing badly. When pressured he said he just wrote and had even sold some of the stuff he had written.

thestudiogallery.net (http://www.thestudiogallery.net)


John Hoenstine

[Conrad Hoffman]

I have the exact same problem, and just going out for a random shoot usually yields little of value other than depression over what a lousy photographer I am. OTOH, if I go out with a mission, meaning I have a destination and specific photo idea(s) in mind, my success rate is vastly better. My advice is to leave the camera at home until you scout out a location and can visualize the image you want. Then, go out with exactly the equipment you need and do your thing. After getting the image you planned for, you'll likely shoot lots more and come back with something interesting. Might not be the answer for you, but it works for me.

[tim atherton]

Okay - here's an exercise that was developed by my friend John Brownlow, who is an excellent photographer (as well as very good screenwriter... - I think he has talked about using a similar approach to get around blocks in writing - I guess when you have amovie waiting on you, you's better get over it quick).

It did grow out of a group of "street photogorpahers" - but that is defined in the broadest sense, and it is really more geared towards using a smaller camera than LF - though there is no real reason why you should use one (apart from maybe cost of film...) - so bear that in mind.

That said, it is a very good way to get out of a visual rut and develop (or re-devlop) a way of seeing. I've tried it in the past and it really does refresh your vision (and you can do it with a 4x5). But be warned - it's not about pretty sunsets or sun kissed aspens or quant old buildings - though it could end up there. Most important point is don't cheat at it - let it just roll and take the first couple of stages slowly:

"This is a recipe for overcoming a photographic block, which I invented to help myself through one. Be warned that it can be rather frightening in terms of jettisoning things that make you comfortable.

The underlying assumption is that you have somehow run out of steam photographically and find yourself shooting things that don't make you happy, or copying other people, or whatever.

1) Put down your camera

2) Walk the streets *in your own neighborhood*, no matter how boring it appears to you. Do this a lot, with no purpose other than idly looking. You are *not* to scope out potential photographs at this stage. Just ask yourself, "what does this place really look like"? That is the crucial question, and you are not allowed to pick up a camera until you have a clear idea. It doesn't have to be a *clever* or *interesting* answer. In fact it is better if is not. A plain and simple answer is best. Note this is not a verbal answer but a visual answer. What is it that, to you, is characteristic about this place? What moves you? What make the hair stand up on the back of your neck?

It is important to do this exercise in your own neighborhood, or a place which is so familiar to you as to be totally boring. If you try to do this in someplace interesting you will simply become a tourist and might as well give up.

3) Now you are allowed to pick up your camera. Your mission, now, is to shoot the most straightforward, uninflected photographs of the answer you discovered in question (2). You are not interested in taking good photographs, or interesting photographs, but straightforward uninflected photographs which answer the question "what does this place really look like" as simply as possible.

"There is nothing so mysterious as a fact plainly stated". Remember that.

4) Now you print or upload the photographs from (3) and look at them.

A lot of them will be very very boring. This is a good sign. Be ruthless and remove any photographs which rely on compositional tricks or homages to other photographers or indeed any undue sign of influence. The photographs you are looking for are the ones which successfully answer the question "what does this place look like to me". Be very wary of any conventionally 'good' photographs. That is not what we are looking for here, so remove them. Select only the photographs which give you the same feeling as whatever it is you are trying to photograph, which answer the question "what does this place really look like?"

The aim of this edit is to isolate your particular vision.

You should keep cycling through (3) and (4) until you have a consistent set of photographs, maybe 10-20, which you can put your hand on your heart and say are a plain and simple answer to the question you derived in (2).

Now, if your experience is anything like mine, you will have a set of photographs which have you scratching your head. They probably look nothing like any photos you have taken before, except maybe when you were a child. However, if you have been strict with yourself, they will also be a moving set of photographs, if only to you. They will be largely free of invasive influence. If they look like the work of photographers you are familiar with, you have not been plain enough in the way you have shot them, so go back and do it again.

Now these may or may not be good photographs, in broad terms, although I wager people will find them much more interesting than you anticipate, but the important thing about them is not whether they are good or not, but what they are saying to you. What they are saying to you is: here is what is unique about the way you see the world. Here is your vein. Mine it.

[Wayne]

IMO 4 weeks of not shooting only qualifies as a rest, not a slump.

[Mark_3632]

All

lots of Ideas. Thanks.

Considering the fact that I live just 30 miles form Canyon De Chelly you would think I could find something to shoot. Maybe it is the fear of blowing the shot. I think it is time to dust off the roll film holders, the Kiev and go blow a few rolls of velvia just to get it out of my system. I have been giving it some thought and it is truly lack of opportunities that are getting me down. If I do get the opportunity to do something that is not "required" there is so much I want to do that it is overwhelming. I feel the need for a Mental health day coming on, with no other purpose but up before the sun and back at sun down with many pictures taken. Now to figure out which day to do it. It would not be a Mental Health day if I was not playing hooky from work ::))

Bill: If I had a darkroom to work in I would definately be there. But cold does not bother me anyway.

[James Venis]

Take a young person with you and mentor him or her. If you have somebody inexperienced with you, and you concentrate part of your energy on helping him/her to understand not just the nuts and bolts, but also your creative process, you'll quickly find yourself back in the swing! You'll also benefit from exposure to his/her enthusiasm and fresh perspectives.

[Øyvind Dahle]

www.mkp.org

Øyvind:D