# A question for arm-chair Psychiatrists



## MSnowy (Feb 24, 2021)

How come my camera never works in my dreams. Every time I have a dream that I need to take a picture the camera fails. Especially when I need to take a quick shot.


----------



## Trever1t (Feb 24, 2021)

It indicates your deepest fear that you’re going to miss that important prize winning shot. 

Next time you dream this, focus and methodically work on getting it to function.


----------



## MSnowy (Feb 24, 2021)

Trever1t said:


> It indicates your deepest fear that you’re going to miss that important prize winning shot.
> 
> Next time you dream this, focus and methodically work on getting it to function.



I usually end up throwing it on the ground and give it a good kick.


----------



## Trever1t (Feb 24, 2021)

MSnowy said:


> Trever1t said:
> 
> 
> > It indicates your deepest fear that you’re going to miss that important prize winning shot.
> ...


I’d probably do the same!


----------



## limr (Feb 24, 2021)

See, and in the dream that I had just last night, my camera worked perfectly. So perfectly that I had my Best.Shot.EVAH!! on that roll. But for the life of me, I could not find my jug of fresh fixer! I looked everywhere in what appeared to be half mechanics garage and half biology lab. I would see the jug in the corner of my eye, but when I turned, it wasn't there. Or I could have SWORN I had seen it on a certain shelf, but when I went to look, it was again not there.

I blame communism.


----------



## Dean_Gretsch (Feb 24, 2021)

This is weird, because when I dream about photography, I dream my skills are as good as yours


----------



## 480sparky (Feb 24, 2021)

I've never had a camera in my dreams.


----------



## RowdyRay (Feb 24, 2021)

Lol. Just had my first photography related nightmare the other night. I was in the rain forest looking for the rarest bird on the planet. Found it and my battery died. Reached in my pocket for the spare....it was dead too. The bird sat there on a branch, 20 feet away, mocking me.

No idea what it means. But, sure don't want it to happen in real life.


----------



## Destin (Feb 24, 2021)

480sparky said:


> I've never had a camera in my dreams.



Same. Now I feel like an imposter. Guess I’m not a real photographer


----------



## zulu42 (Feb 24, 2021)

This will sound weird, but, if you pee on your camera in the dream-it will work


----------



## Space Face (Feb 25, 2021)

You wouldn't want to photograph my dreams.


----------



## MSnowy (Feb 25, 2021)

zulu42 said:


> This will sound weird, but, if you pee on your camera in the dream-it will work



I’m old I’d wake up soaking wet


----------



## smoke665 (Feb 25, 2021)

Over the years I've had an active dream/sleep pattern, no photography, but a lot vivid full color ones, with total recall the next morning. Every now an then I get on a mini series, that each night is a continuation of the story that lasts for several days. Surprisingly on those nights that I have active dreams I awake feeling more rested. 

Freud theorised "that dreams are the result of two processes, firstly the formation of a desire or wish in the unconscious which manifests as a dream, secondly the censorship of that wish which results in a distortion." Possibly your desire to get a great shot is causing you unconscious anxiety, and the failure of the camera is the displaced censoring of that anxiety? He also believed "that the unconscious (id) expresses itself in dreams as a way of resolving repressed or unwanted emotions, experiences, and aggressive impulses including a lot sexual ineundo.  Finally he is also quoted as saying  “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”  Not all dreams have to be a  manifestation of the unconscious, some like my mini series, could just be  imaginative play free from any unfulfilled desires.


----------



## K9Kirk (Feb 25, 2021)

I've read a little about dreams and what they mean and dreams are rarely about what you dream of but instead about something in your life that is bothering you consciously or subconsciously. For instance, if someone is having a reoccurring dream that someone or something is chasing them it could indicate that they're trying to avoid someone or something in real life. Is there something in your life that you've wanted to achieve but never could for some reason/'s? You dream of camera failure could be trying to tell you something about a short coming or some un attained desire for something in your real life. Then again, it could mean you want the best camera on the market. Who knows?


----------



## jcdeboever (Feb 25, 2021)

Put film in the camera. In your dream, you don't realize its a film camera...make sure its Portra 400


----------



## SquarePeg (Feb 25, 2021)

Dream Interpretation and Meaning: A camera in a dream is frequently an omen of a desire that wants you to remember, an action that it needs to stop or a fact that should always keep in mind.

https://dreammeaning.org 

Seems more likely a dream about failure (which is not a bad thing).  The  more preoccupied and subconsciously worried you are about not succeeding at something, the harder you will work at it in order to avoid failing.  The true meaning of the dream could have very little to do with photography.


----------



## jcdeboever (Feb 25, 2021)

MSnowy said:


> How come my camera never works in my dreams. Every time I have a dream that I need to take a picture the camera fails. Especially when I need to take a quick shot.



Seriously,  I have a similar dream. I have this magical, long lens, and I am trying to shoot wildlife. However, I keep farting, really loud, and the smell is gamey and then the bears come and hunt me down. I spend the majority of the dream hiding, and alluding the drooling bears until one gets to me, I wake up. The funny thing is, he has a straw hat on and talks.


----------



## Rickbb (Feb 25, 2021)

Most dream research indicates that dreams are just your mind putting away the bits and pieces of information that didn't get dealt with when awake. 

No real meaning to them other than the brain trying to heal itself of unresolved memory fragmentation. 

Sort of like a computer hard disk defragmenting and clearing it's write ahead cache when not being used. 

Having the same dream over and over just means your brain found a dream that works better than making up a new one. So it repeats the successful one to clear out the cache.


----------



## CherylL (Feb 25, 2021)

Your dream is one of frustration which is common.   My frustration dreams is that I am trying to clean while everyone around me is making big messes.  I had a photography dream once that I was at a studio getting my portrait taken which seemed so odd to be at the other end of the camera.  The photographer had me sit and told the person next to me to place their hand on my shoulder.  I looked up to see who that was and it was my deceased mother.  Very pleasant dream


----------



## Original katomi (Feb 25, 2021)

How about this for another view
Maybe you are aware that some people believe that a photo steals or captures part of the soul.
Your inability to take the photo could be your mind not wanting to be captured or stuck in the dream
If you have not noticed by now I think outside the box


----------



## marshm-3 (Mar 2, 2021)

I have many times dreamed that I lost my LEICA M-3. After a few terrifying minutes I find it. The fact that I have owned it since 1968 might figure into this.


----------



## danhughes (Mar 2, 2021)

Every profession has its nightmares!  
In radio, DJs constantly dream of the microphone not working or the speakers going dead.  When I was a teacher, my dreams were of students rebelling in the classroom.  I've talked to nurses who dream they can't find the vein when drawing blood.  And when I did wedding photography, I'd dream that my films were all blank.


----------



## Rick Waldroup (Mar 19, 2021)

MSnowy said:


> How come my camera never works in my dreams. Every time I have a dream that I need to take a picture the camera fails. Especially when I need to take a quick shot.



It means that your life is spiraling out of control.  It is the equivalent of dreaming of driving your car off a cliff.  

I actually know how I am going to die.  Since I was a kid, I have repeatedly dreamed of getting hit by a bus while crossing a street.   Where I live now, there is no public bus system, so I am not sure how this is going to work, but I believe it will come true.


----------

