Photography Burnout?

Life burnout. Sounds about right... lol

Yeah, macro might be something to consider; when I get bored, I go look for bugs to shoot. But you're coming into a poor season for creepy-crawlies in Denver.

Maybe just leave the camera alone as much as possible for a few months.

Get a girlfriend/mistress


Oh, and feel free to send your unwanted gear to anyone you know named Moose in Las Vegas.

Sitting Elf wrote in post #15095655
Another option is to put all your gear away for awhile. Deep in a closet or whatever.
I've done it when I've been burnt out before. Last time I locked my gear away for eight months... BUT...
You WILL go back to it! Sounds like you just need a break. The itch will come back... UNLESS you're a wedding photographer!!!

so true

SCMedic wrote in post #15094040
...
Thoughts on this? ...

"Another one bites the dust."

Nah.

Been there and done that. My advice is to stop taking paid jobs. Just stop.
What is happening is you are getting to a point where you have little spare time. The spare time that you have to shoot is taken with paid gigs forcing you to make other sacrifices you don't want to make if you want to take the time out to shoot something for yourself. Even after my burnout and 10 year hiatus, when I came back the first things I did was announced my recent jump back into photography at which point friends and family everywhere wanted me to shoot for them. I went at it and within a year I was right back where I was before. I finally just learned to say NO. I just explained that I ruined my hobby once by doing this and I won't do it again. They all seem to understand that. If not, too bad. I did shoot my niece's senior pics but I did it for free because I knew they were broke and going through a hard time. They didn't ask - I volunteered. And since there was no money involved I could do it on my terms.

I know it is hard to stop. There is a great feeling when someone buys your work. But you have to quit shooting for other people.

kfreels wrote in post #15099917
Been there and done that. My advice is to stop taking paid jobs. Just stop.
What is happening is you are getting to a point where you have little spare time. The spare time that you have to shoot is taken with paid gigs forcing you to make other sacrifices you don't want to make if you want to take the time out to shoot something for yourself. Even after my burnout and 10 year hiatus, when I came back the first things I did was announced my recent jump back into photography at which point friends and family everywhere wanted me to shoot for them. I went at it and within a year I was right back where I was before. I finally just learned to say NO. I just explained that I ruined my hobby once by doing this and I won't do it again. They all seem to understand that. If not, too bad. I did shoot my niece's senior pics but I did it for free because I knew they were broke and going through a hard time. They didn't ask - I volunteered. And since there was no money involved I could do it on my terms.

I know it is hard to stop. There is a great feeling when someone buys your work. But you have to quit shooting for other people.

The problem I have is the lack of paid jobs. I've marketed myself to the nth degree, so far only one published, though not a paid job insight :/

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15102551
The problem I have is the lack of paid jobs. I've marketed myself to the nth degree, so far only one published, though not a paid job insight :/

If shooting photos for other people to make money is what you really really really really really want to do, then I advise you to start with a simple business telephone number from the local phone company - ie AT&T, Frontier, or whoever the ILEC is in your area. This will get you in the yellow pages and listed on a gazillion generic directories that you don't have direct access to. Next you'll need to make sure you have a nice, dedicated website that is well laid out and with lots of sample work in the area you want to focus on. A facebook page is good, but it is not enough.

The number won't go into the phone book immediately. It will take until the next printing. But it should hit the online directories in 60 days or so.

Next is google adwords.

Then finally, you have to get your name out there. Do a couple freebie jobs for charity cases. For example, back in 1991 when I started my studio, I visited a few churches and just let the officiant know that I was looking to expand my portfolio and was going to do two free weddings and I wanted to reserve them for couples that absolutely could not afford a good photographer otherwise. It would be a totally free thing with a free proof set they could keep. Needless to say, their families still bought a lot of prints. It also got people talking about me. And no, I didn't do any more freebies after that. I was pretty blunt about these being the only ones I would for free and told them what my regular rates were. It worked out very well.

One last thing....Your work needs to be really good for people to want to give you money for it. You need good sample work.

But again, you really need to ask yourself if this is something you really want to do and get paid for, or if you are just doing it for validation. For me, I really thought it was something I wanted to do. But really it was a path to justification of my equipment and of course growing up in the 70s and 80s I felt like there was some aura about being a "professional photographer" since it was actually hard back then to get a properly exposed image vs the auto-everything cameras with advanced algorithms built into every cell phone. There is nothing wrong with investing good money into equipment as a hobby and shooting just what you want to shoot. There are far more expensive and wasteful hobbies that produce absolutely nothing but a moment of accomplishment. At least with photography you have something you can hang on to and reflect on later in life.

it may be time for a vacation. a change of scenery could help spark your interest in shooting again. i have gone through burn out a few times and it is natural especially for creative jobs. recharge those batteries (literally and figuratively) and keep on moving forward.

prototypeimagery wrote in post #15103246
it may be time for a vacation. a change of scenery could help spark your interest in shooting again. i have gone through burn out a few times and it is natural especially for creative jobs. recharge those batteries (literally and figuratively) and keep on moving forward.

Doing this definitely gets my photo juices flowing again after being burnt out.

RichSoansPhotos wrote in post #15102551
The problem I have is the lack of paid jobs. I've marketed myself to the nth degree, so far only one published, though not a paid job insight :/

that's the recurring theme in the business section, lack of business because of all the GWC 'guys with cameras' doing photography on the cheap

watt100 wrote in post #15111745
that's the recurring theme in the business section, lack of business because of all the GWC 'guys with cameras' doing photography on the cheap

I have my doubts about that being the case. I think these GWCs that work dirt cheap don't take any business that would normally be paying more from a true professional. I think they are filling a market niche by getting people who normally wouldn't be able to afford photos at all. Those who would pay well for really good work still do for the most part. Now I'm sure the near catastrophic collapse of the economy which is still being felt plays a decent part in pushing that threshold down some. But again, those same people probably would simply go without photos if it weren't for the GWCs.

GWC's and the publics lack of photo quality knowledge is frustrating, but it's also something we all have to deal with.

There's a lady in our neighborhood that shoots all kinds of portraits for families around here and the pictures are 100% horrendous. Somehow people get on the community FB page and praise her left and right. I don't get it.

Back on topic.

Try shooting film for a while. That for sure will invigorate your passion.

I'm kind of in the same spot, that's why I just joined this forum (that and I just learned about it). When I first started in 05 I had no issue just going out and shooting. But for the past 3 years I've been shooting constantly for my unit (USCG) and really just started dreading it. Now I'm at a new unit and don't have the opportunity to shoot as much so I'm starting to miss it, I'm just lacking the creativity. Hoping to get inspired here!