Why bother?

Silva360

Why do you take photographs? What’s the point of it all? It’s a pretty boring hobby. You’re friends probably all think you’re a bit mad and your family are sick of waiting while you ‘get the angle right’. You might get up at some stupid hours on a weekend and take yourself off to some forsaken place just to have the rain come in before dragging your tired sorry ass back home. You’ve probably got hundreds or thousands of photos slowing down your computer. Photos that you’ll never print or look at again but you keep them just in case there’s a nugget that you missed first time around. You’ve possibly worked on a photograph for hours, days or weeks only to realise that it’s rubbish now that you have improved your technical skills. All that money spent on gear only to realise its limitations and your burning desire to spend more to reach some idea of perfection. All those hours spent reading technical books and learning all those skills only to take some your best shots hand held in aperture priority mode.

I’m sure you’ve encountered some or all of these issues/thoughts. So what drives you to keep going?

Ave Sodalis

The world is a stunning place and sometimes, in the doom and gloom of every day life, it's nice to be reminded of it. It's not so much the taking of the photo for me, it's the seeing of the photo I want to take. I just spend the rest of the time recreating and preserving that sight.

But, unfortunately, I'm not a very good photographer and that often hinders me and makes me want to give up. Especially when I see photos that you know have been taken with a very good camera and it's something I can't get with my own camera or current equipment.

Silva360

sup_dude wrote: »

The world is a stunning place and sometimes, in the doom and gloom of every day life, it's nice to be reminded of it.

I like that. Perhaps it's motivation enough to continue? I certainly don't think that the limitations of equipment should demotivate in the practice of photography. If you want to start a new topic somewhere to talk about your gear and where you see that a better camera would achieve the results that you can't now, I'd happily part take in the thread. I'm no expert of course, but I would try to offer advice where i could.

DaireQuinlan

sup_dude wrote: »

Especially when I see photos that you know have been taken with a very good camera and it's something I can't get with my own camera or current equipment.

There probably are technical fields in photography which require very specific bits of gear, but it's probably a mistake to get hung up it. HAVING the gear doesn't mean you'd take the same photograph. If someone handed you €10,000 worth of gear right now, you'd take exactly the same photographs with it as you're taking now with your current camera.

Bear this in mind. Your entry level DSLR and kit lens is an image capturing machine that's vastly superior technically to those available to photographers over about 99% of the history of photography. And yet somehow those photographers managed to do ok. You have the technical capabilities. The rest is up to you.

Ave Sodalis

By equipment I mean in terms of what I wrote beforehand for example, if I see a nice moment in the rain, I can't get a photo of it. I don't have anything to cover the camera with. Same with other shots where I need a tripod if there's nothing to sit the camera on. Or can't get the bird in the picture because it's just slightly out of reach. Small things that get irritating after a while.

CabanSail

I like taking photographs to express myself. It's a bonus that other people sometimes like them but I would still do it even if nobody liked them other than myself. What I like it that photography uses both sides of the brain. You have to have the technical expertise and a creative ability too. Getting those two aspects in balance is quite a big ask.

Like Daire said above, the entry level DSLR's and even many compacts, have abilities most photographers would have thought of as being science fiction a few decades ago. My camera, until 1989, had no auto functions at all. The only technology was the centre weighted light meter.

Mister Vain

Silva360 wrote: »

So what drives you to keep going?

I love it. I shoot people which can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, but its very rewarding when you give someone photos that they're really happy with.

And it gets me out of the house.

Silva360

sup_dude wrote: »

By equipment I mean in terms of what I wrote beforehand for example, if I see a nice moment in the rain, I can't get a photo of it. I don't have anything to cover the camera with. Same with other shots where I need a tripod if there's nothing to sit the camera on. Or can't get the bird in the picture because it's just slightly out of reach. Small things that get irritating after a while.

So carry around a large freezer bag, pushing the lens through the sealed end until there is a snug fit. It costs and weights practically nothing. That's what I do. Unless you're specifically going out to photograph birds, it's unlikely that you would be casually carrying around a 5k 400mm f2.8 lens in any event:) No camera and single lens combo will do it all, regardless of cost/quality. Tripod? Gorilla pod might be your answer if you don't want the bulk....

thebaz

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Bear this in mind. Your entry level DSLR and kit lens is an image capturing machine that's vastly superior technically to those available to photographers over about 99% of the history of photography. And yet somehow those photographers managed to do ok. You have the technical capabilities. The rest is up to you.

I know what you mean Daire, and most if not all my favourite images are from pre-digital , but there is something more classic , more organic , better built with a few classic old film cameras - yeah modern dslr do much more , hell my iPhone probably does more too .

But sometimes you can't replicate class, as you probably know

Calina

Silva360 wrote: »

Why do you take photographs?

Because I want to.

Silva360 wrote: »

What’s the point of it all? It’s a pretty boring hobby.

Only someone profoundly ignorant of the joy of creating something could suggest it was boring. If it doesn't interest you, that's fine. I personally thinki that watching football is the greatest waste of time on the planet. But a lot of people seem to enjoy it so...I see no reason to ask them why they bother it.

Silva360 wrote: »

You’re friends probably all think you’re a bit mad and your family are sick of waiting while you ‘get the angle right’.

Many of my friends are photographers. Many of them who are not have been quite happy to ask me to take photographs of and for them. As for the whole "getting the angle right" you've a narrow view of what people take photographs of. I take photographs of aircraft and of kitesurfers. I get a microsecond to make decisions.

Silva360 wrote: »

You might get up at some stupid hours on a weekend and take yourself off to some forsaken place just to have the rain come in before dragging your tired sorry ass back home.

So what? The early morning, rain or no rain, is a lovely time of the morning. Lovely and quiet, and regardless of the weather, full of possibility.

Silva360 wrote: »

You’ve probably got hundreds or thousands of photos slowing down your computer.

So what?

Silva360 wrote: »

Photos that you’ll never print or look at again but you keep them just in case there’s a nugget that you missed first time around.

I've revisited photographs years after because a) as you grow older you look at things differently and b) my Photoshop skills have changed over time so I can do different things, or get a better black and white conversion, for example.

Silva360 wrote: »

You’ve possibly worked on a photograph for hours, days or weeks only to realise that it’s rubbish now that you have improved your technical skills.

No learning is wasted.

Silva360 wrote: »

All that money spent on gear only to realise its limitations and your burning desire to spend more to reach some idea of perfection.

I haven't bought camera gear in about 5 years. And even if I had, who are you to diss other people's hobbies?

Silva360 wrote: »

All those hours spent reading technical books and learning all those skills only to take some your best shots hand held in aperture priority mode.

And some of them from the things you've learned from reading. Learning is never wasted.

Silva360 wrote: »

I’m sure you’ve encountered some or all of these issues/thoughts. So what drives you to keep going?

Nothing drives me. We're talking about something I want to do, something I get pleasure out of. I don't get up in the morning and go "man I have to take out the camera". There's no compulsion, only a desire.

What is your problem with people doing things they enjoy?

Calina

sup_dude wrote: »

The world is a stunning place and sometimes, in the doom and gloom of every day life, it's nice to be reminded of it. It's not so much the taking of the photo for me, it's the seeing of the photo I want to take. I just spend the rest of the time recreating and preserving that sight.

But, unfortunately, I'm not a very good photographer and that often hinders me and makes me want to give up. Especially when I see photos that you know have been taken with a very good camera and it's something I can't get with my own camera or current equipment.

I'd be interested to know what you're thinking about? Are we talking distance, shutter speed or what?

Because for everything I can't really do, there are many other things I can do...

Calina

sup_dude wrote: »

By equipment I mean in terms of what I wrote beforehand for example, if I see a nice moment in the rain, I can't get a photo of it. I don't have anything to cover the camera with. Same with other shots where I need a tripod if there's nothing to sit the camera on. Or can't get the bird in the picture because it's just slightly out of reach. Small things that get irritating after a while.

I have been known to use cling film.

Ave Sodalis

Silva360 wrote: »

So carry around a large freezer bag, pushing the lens through the sealed end until there is a snug fit. It costs and weights practically nothing. That's what I do. Unless you're specifically going out to photograph birds, it's unlikely that you would be casually carrying around a 5k 400mm f2.8 lens in any event:) No camera and single lens combo will do it all, regardless of cost/quality. Tripod? Gorilla pod might be your answer if you don't want the bulk....

That's not really what I mean. I meant in terms of the first part of my post. As in I could be out and about and see a really nice moment but can't get it because what I have with me. I don't have time to go out specifically to try and take a photo very often so it's usually just a case of seeing something special and happening to have the camera close by, or even just my phone. So if that happens when it's raining, then I won't have anything to get that moment with.

Mister Vain

Calina wrote: »

What is your problem with people doing things they enjoy?

I think the OP was being hypothetical.

Calina

Mister Vain wrote: »

I think the OP was being hypothetical.

He did describe it as a boring hobby.

Mister Vain

Calina wrote: »

He did describe it as a boring hobby.

Again hypothetical. He was listing some of the things you might encounter, at least that's how I interpreted it anyway.

Silva360

Calina wrote: »

Only someone profoundly ignorant of the joy of creating something could suggest it was boring.

who are you to diss other people's hobbies?

What is your problem with people doing things they enjoy?

Seriously? But since you asked, it's because I hate photographers and their pesky nerdy hobby. I like to annoy them on public forums.

Or it might be because I love photography and I was being deliberately facetious in order eek out what motivates us to keep on going despite some of the frustrations/failures we inevitably face.

You can choose which answer you prefer. In any event, thanks for addressing the original question

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

You can apply the same questions to any hobby really. Personal interests. I don't like football, I don't support a team, I don't enjoy watching sports in general and i'm a bloke. Why is that? I guess it's because sports don't quite stir up the passion that photography does, or any of my other hobbies for that matter.

A big part of what keeps me going is the compliments and support I receive from other people. Mainly non photographers, who believe the pictures I take are amazing. They don't quite understand the technicalities behind a good photo, they don't understand light balance (I don't think I do either :P), or appature etc etc, but they look at a picture and decide that it's fantastic, for whatever reason. I love explaining to people how specific shots were taken, long exposures for example. Non photographers are often very interested in knowing the different techniques, even if they will never use the knowledge themselves.

A lot of the support comes from this forum too. It's inspriational and really motivates me to get out and take more photos

Lyaiera

I've always loved photography. I asked for a camera for my first communion (and I was given one roll of film that was never developed.) I constantly annoyed my grandfather to show me his slides. Seeing what other photographers achieve in some ways drive me, to create a photo that arrests or captivates me like their photos do. That's where it began.

About six weeks/two months ago I was hospitalised, I had to leave college (where I was reskilling) and I was left with days of nothingness and an anguished mind, partly traumatised from my experience. I felt I had to express what was happening in my mind, something I didn't even have words for yet, that I couldn't pin down. My only expressive outlet was photography. One night, around 2am, distraught I stalked my apartment and quite quickly took a photo that summed up what I was going through (a fairly pedestrian photo.) I poured myself into photograph over the next few weeks, and it helped me make sense of what I was thinking at a deep down level. It provided a release for the tension building up inside me that I couldn't understand, let alone verbalise.

More than that it hooked me on the idea of expression. I started to learn to draw, but it would take years to develop my craft and skill to get to an expressive level I'm satisfied with, so I haven't returned to that. In the last two weeks I've taken to writing poetry. Now both poetry and photography have moved beyond simple expression, but feed back on me as a way I learn to relate to myself and the world.

Loire

@OP

I've taken one photograph I am truly proud of. It's of my eldest eating a snack next to her 2 day old brother. It's a great shot with the only thing in focus being my eldest's eyes. Most people who come in to the house remark on it and are very impressed when they realise I took it. It's enlarged to 20 x 16 and is hanging proudly in the kids play room. What's driving me, is that to this day I have no idea how I achieved this result - it was taken on Auto mode...the depth of field and composition are great but they were complete flukes. Now I want to master being able to achieve this level of photograhpy on a regular basis....getting "under the hood" as a car enthusiast might. As for the gear, it's the same with any hobby - head over to the cycling forum and you'll hear about carbon fibre frames running into thousands. I play golf and you can drop thousands here too!

Loire.

Silva360

It’s interesting to see what keeps everybody moving. I was genuinely interested because, of course, there are so many people buying cameras and then giving up quickly when they realise that the expensive camera doesn’t equate to the amazing photographs that they expected to get from it. And those who continue will usually have, sometimes lengthy, periods of self-doubt in their own abilities and/or frustrations with the quality of their work.

The original question* related to many of my own thoughts, frustrations, or simply things that have been said to me. I’ve ignored them all in the pursuit of something I love (landscape and nature photography in the main). Failure is often my motivating factor, the desire to get it right. Many failures make me want to throw my camera in the bin, but then that one gem sits on the screen and all is forgotten!

Onwards and upwards…..



*I hope it didn’t offend too many people

AnimalRights

I take gig photographs cos it always jogs my memory of what happened the night before.
Naked pics of lovers are always cool too.

Silva360

AnimalRights wrote: »

Naked pics of lovers are always cool too.

Whatever floats your boat! I'd personally prefer to remember the night!

Your gig photos are great though. I think my fave of yours is the Penny Rimbaud photo (not a gig, I know).

AnimalRights

Silva360 wrote: »

Whatever floats your boat! I'd personally prefer to remember the night!

Your gig photos are great though. I think my fave of yours is the Penny Rimbaud photo (not a gig, I know).

But the thing is I don't :P (gigs not naked lovers)

Penny was on a stage doing a Q & A so kinda live, ty for time out to look

Mister Vain

AnimalRights wrote: »

Naked pics of lovers are always cool too.

As long as they don't catch you peeping in their window.

Existentialist

I think the internet has the effect of constantly exposing us to the best of everything - the most accomplished examples of every art form. It's as inspiring as it is frustrating. We're surrounded by masterworks that provoke the desire to produce something ourselves, and at the same time constantly remind us just how mediocre we are. (speaking for myself here!)

Whether you aspire to be a dancer, singer, painter or photographer, you can find as much fantastic content as you care to look for, and it can have the effect of convincing you that it should be easier to make than it really is. We forget that mastering an art form is HARD, and hasn't gotten any easier just because cameras are cheaper than they've ever been. The old rule of 50,000 hours to truly master something probably isn't far wrong.

OP, I liked what you said about failure as a motivating factor. We don't get to see most other people's failures, we get to see their successes. We get to see all of our own failures, of course. So it can seem to each person that they fail more often than everyone else. It's a cognitive bias thing. But as you already know, failure is just a point on a path. As long as you keep going, it leads to better and better things. Giving up is the only real failure.

Mister Vain

Existentialist wrote: »

I think the internet has the effect of constantly exposing us to the best of everything - the most accomplished examples of every art form. It's as inspiring as it is frustrating. We're surrounded by masterworks that provoke the desire to produce something ourselves, and at the same time constantly remind us just how mediocre we are. (speaking for myself here!)

I agree with this to an extent, but there is also a lot of rubbish out there and even some mediocre stuff that is considered masterworks, but that just shows how subjective it is. I posted a thread recently about the standard of work from the IPPA and how I thought some of the award winning photos were far from stellar. What's frustrating for me is when I see these mediocre images winning awards and gaining so much recognition. Then again there are some photographers who I think are amazing but don't have the same pedigree because their work is maybe unconventional.

eoglyn

I just read through this thread. I really like the question, i think about this all the time.

I think of photography purely as medium, not an ends in itself, if you are getting bored of photography, then maybe its yourself or your activities that your bored with.
I notice that the people who excel in a particular area usually have some sort of insight or passion for that area, like great landscape photographers are almost always great outdoorsmen, sports photographers are superfans, bird photographers are enthusiastic ornithologists and street photographers... are usually creeps .
The enthusiasm and novelty that a photographer feels for their subject will come through to the viewer, and will make a winning shot.

The single greatest thing that photography has given me is an heightened awareness of my surroundings. The changing seasons, light at different times of the day and year, how people stand and relate to each other, textures and curious objects, are all things that previously passed me by.

Existentialist

Awards are too often about politics, don't you think?
I would like to think that 'real art' (whatever that is) is too far ahead of the curve to be considered awardworthy.
But I guess the truth is that all art is subjective.

akaspike

Going to keep it short here

Some of it boils down to the simple fact that if you put yourself in certain situations good things can come from it and your rewarded and if they don’t happen you can sometimes figure out why. Apply this to life.
(6 hours in 3 different locations)

(Band play encore in the middle of the crowd)

To get soaked 5 mins in…

...and wait for 5 hours to be rewarded

Others are for the fact that your capturing a moment thats just passing by, waiting to be forgotten, but you captured it and that story will always be told once someone looks at the image. It may mean nothing to the viewer, but it means something to you (Drilling holes to put frames up, while Rory listens to music trying to drowned out the noise)

You get to capture the little moments that mean so much more to other people, than you’ll never know. (mother and daughter)

It opens doors to places that you never thought you’d ever see (100k+ weddings)

And it allows you to wait for those little moments that pass everyone by, even yourself most days. (Passing time in London before catching a flight)

Everything has a story, and sometimes people just want to listen. It’s up to you to tell it.
Yeah you're always going to have the up and downs. It’s life. Put yourself in different situations, you don’t have to stick to one thing. It’s about enjoyment. You have to find a pleasure in it, if you can’t then why spend the energy, time, money etc.
Here’s the kicker, That photo you thought was awful etc - well thats the one everyones going to love. Try living with that.

Mjollnir

Silva360 wrote: »

Why do you take photographs? What’s the point of it all? It’s a pretty boring hobby. You’re friends probably all think you’re a bit mad and your family are sick of waiting while you ‘get the angle right’. You might get up at some stupid hours on a weekend and take yourself off to some forsaken place just to have the rain come in before dragging your tired sorry ass back home. You’ve probably got hundreds or thousands of photos slowing down your computer. Photos that you’ll never print or look at again but you keep them just in case there’s a nugget that you missed first time around. You’ve possibly worked on a photograph for hours, days or weeks only to realise that it’s rubbish now that you have improved your technical skills. All that money spent on gear only to realise its limitations and your burning desire to spend more to reach some idea of perfection. All those hours spent reading technical books and learning all those skills only to take some your best shots hand held in aperture priority mode.

I’m sure you’ve encountered some or all of these issues/thoughts. So what drives you to keep going?

Some Paraguayan gangsters threatened to attack with with sporks if I didn't keep shooting. And they're really pointy sporks, too.

There's no way I can stop now.

Existentialist

Ah, the old Paraguayan Spork of Damocles.

A prime motivator for us all.

Silva360

Mjollnir wrote: »

Some Paraguayan gangsters threatened to attack with with sporks if I didn't keep shooting. And they're really pointy sporks, too.

There's no way I can stop now.

As long as you're enjoying your hobbies

Mister Vain

I was shooting art nude in a forest once and an old man came over out of nowhere and said, "What's going on here? Are ye making a film are ye?" I said we were just taking some photos. He stood there for ages gawking. So eventually we went into an abandoned building to get some privacy. There was a beehive in the roof which got disturbed by the flashes and needless to say my model got stung, (just once on the foot of all places. ) That was one of the disastrous shoots I did but I always laugh when I think back to it.

I've had other mad mishaps and funny encounters on shoots but its all part of the experience. As someone who shoots a lot of models I have to deal with flakes occasionally which is very frustrating and there was times when I felt like throwing in the towel. I put a lot of thought and effort into planning locations, outfits, lighting etc but its so worth it when it all comes together.

CabanSail

Mjollnir wrote: »

Some Paraguayan gangsters threatened to attack with with sporks if I didn't keep shooting. And they're really pointy sporks, too.

There's no way I can stop now.

Existentialist wrote: »

Ah, the old Paraguayan Spork of Damocles.

A prime motivator for us all.

I hear that Nikon are working on a series of new Anti-Spork lenses. I am dubious if it will work with shallow depth of field though.

DaBlackMask

Nice selection of pics above...