# Finding Photography Silly



## martin7 (Apr 5, 2018)

I am finding photography silly as I get older. I was really into it in college. Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging. Although certainly some remote areas you might get a unique photo. I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time. I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.


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## Gary A. (Apr 5, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older. I was really into it in college. Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging. Although certainly some remote areas you might get a unique photo. I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time. I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.


Why do you, or anybody for that matter, sign up on a website where most participants are passionate about their hobby or vocation that you find silly?


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## tirediron (Apr 5, 2018)

You rather appear to have changed your tune in a short time...


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## SCraig (Apr 5, 2018)

Everyone burns out from time to time.  Put the camera in the closet, go out and do something else for a while.


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## john.margetts (Apr 6, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older.


According to your profile you haven't started getting older yet.

There is no point in trying to get unique photos as someone has already done better. It is a bit like talking - you express your self regardless of whether someone else had said similar or better. While I have something to express I shall continue with photography.


Sent from my 8070 using Tapatalk


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## mrca (Apr 6, 2018)

At Tunnel View in Yosemite, that has been photoed hundreds of millions of times, I brought a light on a stick with shoot through umbrella, posed a lady on the wall between the dozens of tripods where they were capturing the cliched shot, and got a shot that has rarely, if ever been taken there, a beautifully lit portrait that took 50 lbs off the lady.  My favorite complement on my shots over the years came from her ex husband who saw the shot and said I made her look too good.  Oh, and ended up dating her.   Change the word guitar for camera in John Denver's song this old guitar.  It has "taught me to sing a love song, how to laugh and how to cry, introduced me to some friends of mine and lightened up some days, helped me make it through some lonely nights.   Through it, I have made life long friends, learned to see emotion and body language, is a never ending learning experience.  I would suggest start learning the craft and you will see the meaning of  the  words I don't want to photo new things, I want to photo old things in a new way.


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## limr (Apr 6, 2018)

Any activity can be deemed silly if one has no meaningful purpose for doing it.


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## smoke665 (Apr 6, 2018)

tirediron said:


> You rather appear to have changed your tune in a short time...



Me thinks this is a spoof, designed to draw the ire of those who take their hobby/profession serious.


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## jcdeboever (Apr 6, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older. I was really into it in college. Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging. Although certainly some remote areas you might get a unique photo. I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time. I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.


Maybe try a project? Something as simple as going to a flower shop and buying single flowers. Most florists will let you enter their cooler so you can select specic ones. Then make a setup and think of ways to capture them. 

I am always working on a project to improve skills and step out creatively. Lately, I have been working on focusing skills, zone and manual. I incorporate the project idea, let's say "hands by manual focus" and when I go out, that's all I work on. You would be surprised how interesting and beneficial it can be.

There is always the weekly or monthly challenge thread on here as well.


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## AlanKlein (Apr 6, 2018)

Blow up your best shots, frame them and give them as gifts to friends and family.  Their smiles will make it all worth it again.


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## jcdeboever (Apr 6, 2018)

AlanKlein said:


> Blow up your best shots, frame them and give them as gifts to friends and family.  Their smiles will make it all worth it again.


Great idea.


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## texxter (Apr 6, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older [...] I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time[...] I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.



I can appreciate your sharing your shifting preferences - I have gone through my own evolution and I think it's normal to change.  The most important question we photographers need to ask ourselves is "why do we photograph" - and that reason doesn't need to be static.  For me, the joy of photography is not so much the final product, but the process of getting there - the excitement of doing creative problem solving, or trying to find the decisive moment.  Everyone has his or her own reasons for picking up a camera or not doing so.   Be true to yourself and do what brings you fullfilment.


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## dennybeall (Apr 6, 2018)

The OP is describing a high percentage of photographers when he describes them as taking snapshots of life events and then hardly ever going back to look at them. If we look at folks snapping, snapping, snapping away with their cellphones the percentage is much much higher. Many look at their snapshots in the first few days and then don't.......


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## snowbear (Apr 6, 2018)

Put the camera away and get a sketchbook and some pencils.  Try that for a while.


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## Fujidave (Apr 7, 2018)

When we lived in Melbourne Australia where I was born, my father taught me photography and I loved it.  Then we moved to the UK I totally gave up on it but we kept all the old Kodak Kodachrome slides from when we both took photos.  Years later I picked it back up and have loved it ever since, at the moment I have some of the old slides here as my mum has asked if I can get them to digital.  So in time I will be taking a photo of each slide then get them on a USB stick so mum can look through them.


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## jcdeboever (Apr 7, 2018)

Fujidave said:


> When we lived in Melbourne Australia where I was born, my father taught me photography and I loved it.  Then we moved to the UK I totally gave up on it but we kept all the old Kodak Kodachrome slides from when we both took photos.  Years later I picked it back up and have loved it ever since, at the moment I have some of the old slides here as my mum has asked if I can get them to digital.  So in time I will be taking a photo of each slide then get them on a USB stick so mum can look through them.


Our local camera store just got a huge order for slides to be converted. There were 4 or 5 stacks, 4ft high of slides in those boxes that hold the projector real. I seem to recall him mentioning 6000+ slides @14¢ a piece. He has a automatic slide projector setup with a mounted D800 and 85mm macro attached to it. It does it all automatically. Pretty impressive setup.


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## smoke665 (Apr 7, 2018)

jcdeboever said:


> He has a automatic slide projector setup with a mounted D800 and 85mm macro attached to it. It does it all automatically. Pretty impressive setup.



I've seen a few DYI setups like this Quickly digitize the Dark Age with this DIY Automatic Film Slide Scanner - DIY Photography I think I still have a projector somewhere in storage.


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## jcdeboever (Apr 7, 2018)

smoke665 said:


> jcdeboever said:
> 
> 
> > He has a automatic slide projector setup with a mounted D800 and 85mm macro attached to it. It does it all automatically. Pretty impressive setup.
> ...


Similar but this one is probably commercial. It looks like an enclosed slide projector real but looks like it works similarly.


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## smoke665 (Apr 7, 2018)

jcdeboever said:


> Similar but this one is probably commercial. It looks like an enclosed slide projector real but looks like it works similarly.



I still have a K30 that the auto focus crapped out on, but everything else works great and old Promaster 28-70 Macro, that I'm working on a cheap manual setup


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## AlanKlein (Apr 7, 2018)

I just completed scanning another set of old Ektachrome slides.  I created a slide show on digital video (DVD) with music, titles, credits, etc. and gave it to my daughter for keepsaking.  She can play it on her HDTV or computer, save it there, etc.  There would be no way anyone could see it in the future if I  just kept the slides.  Even my projector broke and the kids aren't going to go out an buy an old one.  Here's a video I put together of slides from a scuba trip I did 30 years ago.  The color correction made the digitals photos look better than the original slides.


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## AlanKlein (Apr 7, 2018)

PS: there's music on it so you have to turn up the volume.


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## zulu42 (Apr 7, 2018)

I thoroughly enjoyed that, Alan.


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## Derrel (Apr 7, 2018)

Nice video-formatted slide show, Alan. It looks like the scuba trip was awesome.


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## Derrel (Apr 7, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older. I was really into it in college. Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging. Although certainly some remote areas you might get a unique photo. I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time. I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.



Times change. People change. Preferences and hobbies change. The idea that it takes "unique photos" to make the photographic process worthwhile was invalidated probably by 1950...most peoples' photos are like the photos of millions and millions of other photographers, at least in a generic sense. Makes sense to only shoot the kinds of photos you yourself want to make.


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## AlanKlein (Apr 7, 2018)

Thanks Zulu and Derrel.  I've really gotten into making video slide shows, using 4K digital video and still cameras.  I now include short video clips in between the stills to keep the show flowing and more interesting.  My new camera shoots 4K digital video, so all the still shots and videos are published to create a 4K video to show on my 4K UHDTV.  It really looks great that way.  Adding narration and music, titles and credits, all add to the creativity and interest.  

Personal shots cannot be duplicated by others.  It's about you and your family.  Putting them in some sort of a show also allows my own creativity to be added.  No one can really copy it.  It's not like my Yosemite shots from the parking lot than has been taken by a billion other photographers.  I still shoot landscapes with a 6x7 film camera when I'm in a mood to be alone, contemplative and slow.  But when I'm on a vacation trip with my wife, I stick to P&S digital using a 4K video and 20mb photos.  Light, quick, unobtrusive, yet of high quality and everything you need to create great video slide shows for 4K TV's.


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## webestang64 (Apr 7, 2018)

jcdeboever said:


> Fujidave said:
> 
> 
> > When we lived in Melbourne Australia where I was born, my father taught me photography and I loved it.  Then we moved to the UK I totally gave up on it but we kept all the old Kodak Kodachrome slides from when we both took photos.  Years later I picked it back up and have loved it ever since, at the moment I have some of the old slides here as my mum has asked if I can get them to digital.  So in time I will be taking a photo of each slide then get them on a USB stick so mum can look through them.
> ...




This is the one we use at work. SlideSnapPro.com | Automatically scan batches of slides using a DSLR


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## Fujidave (Apr 7, 2018)

webestang64 said:


> jcdeboever said:
> 
> 
> > Fujidave said:
> ...




I have given myself a challenge to set up my camera to take a photo of the slides, yes it will take a while as some slides need a bit of a clean but I am looking forward to it.


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## espresso2x (Apr 7, 2018)

Derrel said:


> Times change. People change. Preferences and hobbies change. The idea that it takes "unique photos" to make the photographic process worthwhile was invalidated probably by 1950...most peoples' photos are like the photos of millions and millions of other photographers, at least in a generic sense. Makes sense to only shoot the kinds of photos you yourself want to make.



Well put!


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## otherprof (Apr 7, 2018)

martin7 said:


> I am finding photography silly as I get older. I was really into it in college. Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging. Although certainly some remote areas you might get a unique photo. I just don't find the effort worth it most of the time. I guess the only thing I enjoy now is to take pictures with friends and family on vacations to remember it years later, but I rarely look at old photos.


Tastes  change, and tastes don't need to be justified.  It would be silly to continue doing it if you got no pleasure or benefit from it and didn't have to do it. Like sports or sex . . .


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## zombiesniper (Apr 7, 2018)

martin7 said:


> Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging



This is the thought that will stop anything from being done.

Why do you even get out of bed in the morning with this kind of thinking. You're never going to be the best at anything right away.

What you can do, is learn to do it well enough to please yourself. If that means you have shoot worlds best image.....then I agree put it down and walk away. It's subjective just like any art form. There really can be no BEST picture. One what an individual thinks is best.

So find what you like and do it to your satisfaction. Become one of the best photographers ever, if that's your goal. There's no reason you can't. Anyone here can if they really want to.

The real takeaway here is the defeatist statements like why bother will always destroy any hope of satisfaction in anything. Push those thoughts out as quick as they arise. Know that you can in fact shoot a better image. All you have to do is learn and try.


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## martin7 (Apr 7, 2018)

Thanks for the responses! I am inspired to go take some more photos. This seasonal weather is dreary and has got me down for photography lately. Maybe I'll go to the botanical gardens.


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## Jeff15 (Apr 8, 2018)

This thread reminds me of a judge at photographic competitions who say's,  well I have seen this image before, which is very unlikely because every image is a split second of time somewhere in the world so therefore is different...............


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## limr (Apr 8, 2018)

Jeff15 said:


> This thread reminds me of a judge at photographic competitions who say's,  well I have seen this image before, which is very unlikely because every image is a split second of time somewhere in the world so therefore is different...............



No one stands in the same river twice, sort of a thing?


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## Jeff15 (Apr 8, 2018)

Exactly...............


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## texxter (Apr 8, 2018)

zombiesniper said:


> martin7 said:
> 
> 
> > Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging
> ...



Another way of eliminating the feeling of "never measuring up"  is to change the subject of your photographs.  If you shoot things that are traditional subjects, like sunsets, landscapes, flowers,.... unless you care deeply about these subjects, images may not be at the level you'd like.  What I have found motivating is to to pick a subject you are really passionate about, and go explore it with your enthusiasm! Other times it is not so much the subject, but a specific way of making photographs, like 8x10 cameras or some style that you find visually appealing.   Speaking for myself, the reason I don't do commercial work anymore and photograph mostly as a hobby is that I only want to shoot what I want when I want it how I want it - already have another occupation where I have tons of constraints - for photography I want to be excited about it, and that means I choose everything about it,  including what I don't want to shoot.


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## JPI (Apr 9, 2018)

AlanKlein said:


> I just completed scanning another set of old Ektachrome slides.  I created a slide show on digital video (DVD) with music



Very Cool, did the same thing a few plus years ago; I bought a sailboat for my adult kids and we made a summer project out of it, funny thing was, this summer project went on for  over a year.

Don't know if this will work but here's the slide video w/ music


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## AlanKlein (Apr 10, 2018)

Great video slide show JPI.  Creative and personal.   And unique.   No one can copy it and your family will treasure it forever.   What I realized is nothing I do with my landscape shots will ever be better  than the many photographers who already got the shot.    So family slide shows solve my need for creativity,  memories and uniqueness.


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## deeky (Apr 10, 2018)

I too get bored quickly with the 'same old shots'.  That doesn't mean I don't shoot them.  I just find ways to shoot them differently.  Kind of the whole standing on the desk thing in Dead Poets Society.  

Take, for example, this shot.  The Arch in St. Louis has been shot countless times.  I chose to take the arch out of the Arch and rather like the shot.




IMG_1136a1 by breckmiller, on Flickr


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## nerwin (Apr 14, 2018)

I understand how you're feeling. 

Like @SCraig said, we all feel burned out time to time. It's the part of being an artist. 

I did something crazy and switched camera systems in hopes it would somehow get my mojo back but it didn't unfortunately, at least not yet anyways.  Struggling with anxiety, depression and all the BS that's in my life right now I'm finding it hard to be in touch my creative side. Some people are naturally good at it but I also believe quite of few them don't pursue it their entire lives either.  They just give up after a while and move on to something else that is trendy and I've seen it. I knew amazing photographers with just an incredible national geographic like portfolio and out of nowhere, they disappear. That isn't photography to me, I believe photography is a lifelong journey which has its ups and downs and periods of doubts.

When I first got into photography I didn't even realize I was into photography because I was just taking pictures for the heck of it as something to do. Never cared what people thought, I just did it for me. That was before social media. Now it seems I'm taking photos for _them_ instead myself. When I'm out shooting, I'm constantly questioning myself and asking "will people like this photo?" and when they don't, I felt horrible.

I realized that my best work are photos I've taken because I *WANTED *to take them. When you force yourself to take photos when you really don't want to, they'll never be as good. You think all the great photographers out there took photos every single day? Heck no. I'm sure they had a few weeks without pressing the shutter button here and there. 

Do I find photography silly? Depends. Instagram in particular comes into mind. I found many photographers on Instagram to be silly. Multiples of them taken photos at the same locations with almost the same composition and similar processing. I find that silly. Because they aren't taking photos because they like it, they are taken photos to become popular on social media. I went down that road and I'm trying to find my way back. Comparing yourself to others, editing your photos based on trends and others so you can get more likes and followers is not healthy for your photography.

Don't give up. I felt like giving up many times and you feel like that, just take a break and do something else to get your mind off it. Your camera isn't going anywhere. There will always be photography opportunities waiting for you when you feel that you are ready again.

You can't rush photography. Like I said, some people pick it up within a months or year and others like me takes many, many, many years and that is perfectly okay. There is not right or wrong when it comes to art.


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## DanOstergren (Apr 25, 2018)

zombiesniper said:


> martin7 said:
> 
> 
> > Lugging around a DSLR to take a picture of nature, landmarks, or artistic urban areas that everyone has already taken millions of better pictures than me is somewhat discouraging
> ...


Just wanted to chime in here:

Because one loses interest in photography does not mean they lose their reason to get out of bed in the morning, nor does it mean someone is giving up on something or have been defeated. I would never try making someone feel bad for losing interest in a hobby or profession or tell them they need to force themselves to keep at it, I would encourage them to find something that they actually do love to do and focus on that, and maybe in the future if they want to return to photography they will. If photography doesn't give someone joy, they shouldn't have to pick up a camera anyways.

Yes, it's a challenge to be great and disciplined with something, but it should also be enjoyable and fun to elevate yourself to that level of excellence.


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## zombiesniper (Apr 25, 2018)

I agree with your whole statement.

I was just making a satirical point in the first two statements and did in fact provide encouraging words after that.


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## DanOstergren (Apr 25, 2018)

nerwin said:


> Struggling with anxiety, depression and all the BS that's in my life right now I'm finding it hard to be in touch my creative side.


I suffer from these mental blocks as well, having been diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder and having awful anxiety.  I choose not to take mood stabilizers because they tend to drain my drive to shoot. In Summer of 2013 I decided to get a longboard on a whim (and because it looked good with all of my outfits lol), and it's helped me a lot with my overall mental health and body health. You're going to have to practice at first and you're absolutely going to get hurt a few times if you've never done it before, but it's good exercise, focuses my mind, and elevates my mood every single time that I get on it and ride. I make excuses just to be able to put my headphones on and go ride somewhere. It's been great for me creatively as well, because I find all sorts of amazing locations while I'm out riding, being outdoors inspires me in general, and I often feel quite motivated to make some photo shoots happen after going on a long ride. Perhaps a bike or longboard, or anything like that might help you as it's done for me.


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