Losing interest. Please help

[Tony Beach]

It just seems to me, after reading your post, that you may have put the cart in front of the horse.

Speaking for myself, I have always gotten a warm feeling from my photographs. Now, as I look back at them, and this has happened to me more than once, I think "What was I thinking?" It has been that desire to share the enthusiasm I had when I made the photograph with both my future self and others that has driven me to strive to be better; not the other way around.

 

[Mark_A]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

I think this is quite normal. I go through phases when I take pictures every day and other times when I don't pick up my camera for weeks or months.

Creativity comes and goes, it does not have to be a constant.

I agree with the poster who suggested joining a camera club. If nothing else then it gets you the company of other photographers and you don't have to share your images unless you want to.

Go with the flow.

Mark_A

 

[D Cox]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Why only at weekends ?

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

Put the camera away for a while and concentrate on improving your drawing skills. That will feed back into your photography when you go back to it.

There are many ways to create images.

 

[D Cox]

this hobby is not for you

this hobby will give all the accolades and success to the young and or hungry who are dying to make images

What's a good hobby for the old, bored and over-fed ? ;-)

 

[Pitbullo]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

A hobby should be fun! If you don`t have interest in photography any more, put the gear away, and forget about it. Perhaps the interest will come back later on, who knows. For every day use, your phone should do perfectly well. No need to force an interest on your self. Life is too short for that, so find another hobby you can enjoy! If you need some extra good photos some day, you will have both the gear and skills to perform, and perhaps it once again will be fun.

 

[ILCA77M2user]

Thinking back, I would say point 1 quickly followed by point 4.

Point 1 still remains very important, but with a small family the photos get a little repetitive.

Point 4, while fun, goes when the money does.

These forums help massively, I wonder whether my being here has had an effect.

I started off using my Sony A-mount gear without much thought. Those days were full a bad photographs, but were care free. Very shortly after finding DPR, I discovered a lot of unrest in the A-Mount camp.

As a result I started rationing shutter count and spent weeks considering a jump to Nikon, but resisted the urge.

That lingering buyers remorse is still there.

 

[ILCA77M2user]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Why only at weekends ?

I work full time, live alone and have a dog.

I'm so tired when I sit down in the evenings that I can't really fully, so I just research stuff.

I keep weekends free for hobbies.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

Put the camera away for a while and concentrate on improving your drawing skills. That will feed back into your photography when you go back to it.

I had never considered drawing. I came to photography with no other creative/artistic experience.

There are many ways to create images.

 

[Ulkesh]

Take an art appreciation course.

 

[hammarbytp]

This is something which has happened to me and other photographers I know. You get to the point where you do not seem to be improving or your photos seem just disappoint.

there is no one solution. For some it may be a temporary blip, to others it is a reflection of something else in their life that photography is complicating or not helping

My sugestion would be

• Don't treat photography as a competition or something you must master. Work out where you were happiest taking photography and do that, but for fun
• Try something new that will take you out of your comfort zone. e.g Most photographers i know don't like street photography if it means talking to strangers. Try that. Maybe things have just got to easy and you are not being challenged
• Review your old images. work out how you could of done them better.
• Join a club. Treat photography as a social as well as a hobby. It is easier to get yourself out of a rut if there are others to help you.

If none of these work. Give up for a few months. If you have really fell out of love of photography it will not be a problem, but if you feel drawn back then you just in a lull and you will find your way back...

Good luck...

 

[nafik]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

Are you a goal oriented person? Try to shoot thinking of the final user of your pictures. Is it a vacationer in your area? Or is it a parent of a local baseball, soccer or other budding sports star?

Have you ever made a buck with your photos? Great boost to your ego, but not easy. And here is your challenge. And you will most likely will think differently about your photography. There will be a purpose.

Do you have a website that you can show off to friends and strangers? Very important. And creating a good site is a lot of work and all of a sudden you will look differently at your pictures.

 

[D Cox]

Why only at weekends ?

I work full time, live alone and have a dog.

You don't take the camera when you walk the dog ?

Put the camera away for a while and concentrate on improving your drawing skills. That will feed back into your photography when you go back to it.

I had never considered drawing. I came to photography with no other creative/artistic experience.

This probably explains why you have dried up. The soil is too shallow.

The point about both drawing and photography is that they make you look at things, and see what you never before noticed.

A good starter book is "Fun with a Pencil" by Loomis. He takes the approach of starting with funny cartoons before going deeper, just as in using a camera most people begin by pointing it at the obvious subjects.

(Warning -- this book was originally published in the 1940s and some of the cartoons might be seen today as stereotypes.)

There are many ways to create images.

 

[Midwest]

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Maybe it's the midwinter blahs and nothing seems interesting to you.

If you can't think of any subject matter that you'd really like to have photos of, then all the equipment is not going to help. If you amassed a cookware collection and found you didn't really enjoy cooking, what good would it be?

Don't fall into the trap of letting a photography hobby turn into an equipment hobby and make you a slave to bodies and lenses and such. If you're not keen on taking really genuinely interesting photos, don't just go around snapping pictures of flowers and ducks and hoping to feel more interested. That won't do it.

Give it some time and stop pushing yourself. If you've gotten off to a start on a hobby that's not right for you, then give it up. No big deal.

 

[Midwest]

Before I start please let me assure you that this isn't a troll post, rather a request for help.

Almost 2 years ago I picked up a Sony A77ii and slowly amassed some gear (lenses, lighting, tripod, ect).

I would spend hours reading, watching YouTube videos and studying photography & LightRoom during the week.

At Weekends I would try what I had researched during the week. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and scenarios.

Over the months I have printed 4 photographs to hang on the wall.

I would be almost constantly thinking about photography.

Over the last 3 months, I've used the camera once.

I don't seem interested with photography anymore.

I took a course at my local college to try and reignite my interest.

It didn't work.

Picking up the camera now seems a chore and I just have no interest.

Is this a normal phase that will pass?

Has this happened to you?

Should I just back off for a bit?

Or force myself through it?

Are you a goal oriented person? Try to shoot thinking of the final user of your pictures. Is it a vacationer in your area? Or is it a parent of a local baseball, soccer or other budding sports star?

Have you ever made a buck with your photos? Great boost to your ego, but not easy. And here is your challenge. And you will most likely will think differently about your photography. There will be a purpose.

Do you have a website that you can show off to friends and strangers? Very important. And creating a good site is a lot of work and all of a sudden you will look differently at your pictures.

 

[ultimitsu]

Thinking back, I would say point 1 quickly followed by point 4.

Point 1 still remains very important, but with a small family the photos get a little repetitive.

I hear you. In truth 99% of the western population are doing point 1, only a small portion of them do it with something larger than a smartphone. Therefore it is easy to feel you are not getting anywhere (or anywhere further) with your gear and thus lose interest.

If you want to crawl out of this ditch, you just have to push yourself making photos (even just for documentation) that are substantially better than what everyone else is doing with their smartphone. That of course, takes time, effort and may not always be rewarding.

Lastly I would say this type of photos can be repetitive, but they do not have to be and as hobbyists we all face this as a challenge. A friend of mine is a pro photog who owns about 5 studios and 20 staff. You would think he gets sick and tired of all the repetition and has no more creative juice or passion left for his personal photography, yet his own family photos are always quite amazing and very creative.

Point 4, while fun, goes when the money does.

Yeah, the problem with Sony, whether A, E, or FE mount, is that they all have a rather small following, which means gears have less selection and are more expensive. If you switch to Canon or Nikon, and only buy second hand, you can easily play with 5 different lenses a year without losing much if any money.

Part of the problem of coming to forums is that you always want the lastest stuff. Making cost-effective but secondhand gear hard to swallow. I suffer from the same problem. Right now I am very keen on buying the Nikon 200-500, but I know if I buy new I will lose 30% in a year.

 

[Mark_A]

Find local events that will fire your creativity ..

Could be a local motorcross meeting, flower show, county show, steam rally, open country house, etc I am sure there will be something that could be of interest locally.

Mark_A

 

[ILCA77M2user]

That was why I didn't move in the end.

I understand the camera system will not make the photographer.

I could get the same results with either system, but some small illogical part of my brain won't stop thinking Nikon is better. Just good marketing, I suppose.

New gear will not solve this one. I reignite the flame with the A77ii or not at all.

 

[lumigraphics]

It sounds to me like you were trying way too hard.

I've been doing this for almost 33 years and still learn new things all the time. I don't worry too much about the technical side of things, although at this point its kind of second nature.

Think about it this way- most adults in developed countries can drive a car. But if you put all your energy and effort into the technical aspects of driving, dealing with other drivers, maintaining a car, worrying about accidents, paying your insurance, etc etc... you won't want to go anywhere. If your car is a way to accomplish something- getting to Point B faster than walking- then it makes a whole lot more sense.

Quit making things so difficult. The challenge isn't learning how to use a camera, the challenge is learning how to make art and capture the world as you see it.

 

[AngelicBeaver]

I've gone through the excitement phase, then lost interest in shooting for a while, then picked it up again recently. I've always been glad to have my camera for special occasions, and the learning I gained during the excitement phase has served me well.

Unless you're doing it for a living, I think the interest will naturally wax and wane over the course of your life (I've been shooting, on and off, for 12 years). Nothing holds our full attention all the time.

 

[absentaneous]

You certainly got a phone. Use it instead. It's much more fun. That was actually my evolution. From a heavy Nikon DSLR, to a lighter Olymus PEN camera, then a compact camera and finally to a phone. Never had so much fun with photography before.

 

[ecube]

it is for me.

HOBBY: an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure "her hobbies are reading and gardening" synonyms: pastime, leisure activity, leisure pursuit, sideline, side interest, diversion, avocation, recreation, entertainment, amusement

As someone already stated, do NOT force yourself to photography if you no longer enjoy it. Put your camera gears aside and use it sparingly for snapshots of family affairs.

My wife, relatives, and I looks at faded and torn photos of ourselves taken when we were children or those I took of your children as they where growing up. We do not care of the sharpness, composition, color rendition and all those technical mambo jumbo. We all enjoy the photographs, the memories those shots represents.