Blah

[anneb]

So I’m trying to break out of the rather gray blahs of the first couple months of the year…. everything is brownish/grayish outside, and so low contrast. It all seems like just so much noise against the underbrush. I just couldn’t bring myself to stare at more gray this past week, but would like to NOT have all my this week’s shots out of the archive. But with the weather and short daylight hours, it’s been really hard to get myself out with the camera.

Anyone else having the same problem?

[Elsinore]

Yep. No clue what to shoot and don’t really have much that qualifies in my archive either, at least that hasn’t already been used. There could be something squirreled away, but I’d really like to shoot something specifically for this week. Not sure it’s going to happen, though, unless I get some bright ideas.

[caradoc]

Anyone else having the same problem?

Turn it into an exercise.

I went and shot an entire SD card full of dead leaves, and posted a selection of the better shots to Flickr:

Find ways to make the composition interesting. Play with contrast, texture, depth of field. Have fun with that part of it instead of trying to find an interesting subject – invert the problem, pick a random subject, and try to make that interesting.

There’s an article in my most recent copy of PopPhoto about taking a day and shooting at least one picture every five minutes to try to develop your eye for composition for any subject.

I didn’t take a full day – just two hours. But I’m getting better with the D80, day by day.

[staplermofo]

Man, I’m glad I live in a city with stuff to do indoors.

Honestly people, if you can’t find something to shoot outside, bring a stapler.

[Claff]

Talk about limited daylight… I work third shift, get home a little after 6AM and go to bed. If I let myself (or rather, if the pugs let me), I can very easily sleep past 4PM, which at this time of year means I hardly ever see direct sunlight. It’ll get better in another month or two, though.

[SilverStag]

Claff, you and I are living the same life…. sux, no?

[staplermofo]

I work nights too, but I love it.

[Claff]

Takes some getting used to, but I’ve been doing it for a couple years now.

[mikaloyd]

I was going to start a thread for my first post here but this one fits my subject pretty well.

Sometimes I am just on fire with inspiration to point a camera at things and will travel 20 miles to get a camera to get shots of anything. Sometimes, like lately, I cant find inspiration to take 6 shots all day with a camera around my neck.

Once I start taking pictures it all seems to feed on itself and raise my enthusiasm till I am happily snapping away.

How does everyone else fill up on inspiration and enthusiasm when your tanks get low?

[Claff]

I don’t do squat during winter – don’t even like leaving the house except to go to work or out to dinner or stuff like that.

But once it gets warm out I’ll gladly jump in the car and drive a couple hours because I thought I remembered seeing something on the side of the road two years ago and suddenly right now would be a good time to go back there and check it out.

So to answer the question, I don’t do inspiration and enthusiasm when the winter blahs set in because I know once the days get longer I’ll be right back at it. The photography fix is satisfied now (somewhat) taking pics of the kids around the house.

[millera9]

The winter blah’s aren’t so much of a problem for me because of where I live, but when I get into a rut or get bored with photography, my solution is usually to try shooting at a different time of day. See something in a different light (literally) and get yourself out of your usual habits. Try getting up really early one morning or staying up really late. Or take a long lunch break and go shoot mid-day. Things like that make it interesting and I learn something new every time I do it (not saying too much since I’m a noob…)

The most important thing is that you’re having fun. If it isn’t fun and you’re not depending on it financially/emotionally, don’t do it for a while. Take a break, draw a picture instead of shooting it, or buy a cheap disposable and shoot with it for a while, see what you come up with. Don’t force yourself to do something that isn’t fun.

Claff that dog appears to be about 20 psi over-pressure. I suggest you keep him away from sharp objects lest he should be ruptured and asplode.

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