Getting bored of photography

Hi all,
sorry but this is going to be a bit of a negative thread.
Over the last few months i have started losing interest in photography. I feel like i have tried so hard and not acheived as much as i would like.

I started off shooting street and loved it, it was exciting and new to me. Then i moved into motorsport photography as i love cars.
This was even better as i got to combine my two passions.

Then i pushed to go pro. I started a page, got myself a website etc and started shooting all the events i could. pushed to get my name out there but found there was so much competition and so many people out there that would shoot for free it would under-mine me. People don't seem to want to pay for something they can get for free.

These days i have to force myself to go out and shoot. I get bored when on a shoot or at a meet so just wander round aimlessly taking photos that i don't feel passionate about.

I have a few people that really like my work and love the images i produce but the ones i love are few and far between. I almost feel like i have peaked.

I feel like the best thing for me to do is to sell all my photo kit (of value) and spend it on getting a nicer car as i have been running around in a shed due to lack of funds.

I will keep my 35mm film camera and one of my lenses so could use it as a 1 year 1 camera 1 lens project and then review how i feel after that time?

Passion is overrated.

Unless it is simply a hobby. Making a hobby a business seems to end in squeezing all, or most, of the passion right out of the pursuit. Which is why it blows my mind that so many people lately seem to pick up a camera and then six months later start to open a business.

i was running as just a hobby for about 4 or 5 years. then started getting interest from people i had shot with so decided to try to make some money and get my name out there. Then as quickly as i had done so it all hit the fan.
I pulled back and tried to do it as hobby again but struggling to find the want to go out and shoot.

For me anyway hobbies are cyclical. I have a good few hobbies, mostly expensive ones ߘ, I find myself coming into and out of passion with each.
I have way too much invested with most of them to just sell off stuff then reaquire it when I find my creative juices again.
Woodworking is one of those hobbies, I put it down for a few years and am just now getting back to it, I have every thing in place for me to just pick it up when I want.
My advice would be not to sell your equipment but rather just store it if you can.
I never got anywhere trying to force creativity, instead just let the will to create come to me in time and move on to other interests for the time being.

see my next interest is cars. I have wanted to get myself a nicer car for a long time now (well over 5 years) and selling my camera kit would go to fund it. I would also nbe able to sell my current shed at my own pace and then if need be buy another camera once again. by which time the technology will have progressed.

Really dumb idea...as you discovered. Go to school and learn on of these...http://www.msn.com …our/ss-AAkW6n4?li=BBnb7Kz
Worked for me.

a bit late to go to school for me...
I'm happy in my IT job but thought photography would be good turning my hobby into a business.

Photography business is mostly about business, not so much about photography.

Friends and family will always say "Oh your photos are so good, you should be a professional" but this should be lumped in with the same category of platitudes with "oh your photos are so good, you must have a real nice camera."

yeah i guess i was kind of hoping for some gratitude from the people i worked with and i got nothing.
feeling very unappreciated at the moment.

I know i should be shooting for myself but when my own passion has faded where do i go from there?

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18217380
Passion is overrated.

Unless it is simply a hobby. Making a hobby a business seems to end in squeezing all, or most, of the passion right out of the pursuit. Which is why it blows my mind that so many people lately seem to pick up a camera and then six months later start to open a business.

True. I've had family tell me "Go pro!" from time to time. No thanks. HAVING to do something is the most direct route to hating it.

I totally get where you are coming from, but it was never more than an expensive hobby for me (though plenty of paid gigs at request of family and friends, not a business). Sold all my gear in 2015 and built a treehouse. Have built 4 more treehouses since. That said, I am missing having one nice camera and 1 or two lenses to take great photos when I feel inspired to do so. If you feel the itch to purge and try some new things, go for it....that is what life is about.

Keep a camera around. You may want to use it later.

Interests and hobbies come and go.

Trying to make a business out of something you like will easily turn it into a chore or something you don't like when its based on people. Photography as a business is a very difficult pursuit these days. Everyone with a camera is a "photographer." Look at all the watermarks on totally random "junk in their house" photos that get posted around here, because they're a photographer. Look how common it is for someone with a kit on social media is just basically churning out snap shots of friends and family because they're suddenly photographers the moment they get any camera. And then you have actual professionals who make a living with their iphone camera and are also photographers. It's mind boggling.

If it's a hobby and an art for you, then let it rest a while, return to it later. It doesn't have to be passion. It can just be fun. And when it's not, give it a rest, look at other things. You certainly do not need expensive kit to enjoy photography.

I use 10 year old cameras for my day to day photography and inexpensive lenses. I don't care if 7 of my cameras are sitting on a shelf just waiting for use. When I have the itch to shoot, they're there. I don't buy really expensive stuff. I have lots of inexpensive stuff, and so I have more tinkering and toys to fiddle with. Works for me. Photography is an art and hobby for me, nothing more. It's also my least expensive hobby by far.

Everyone gets bored of it sometimes. That's why there's other things in life.

Very best,

With the start of a new year coming...i'd say start a photo project like a 365 photo a day...it helped me out of a photo funk

urbanfreestyle wrote in post #18217450
yeah i guess i was kind of hoping for some gratitude from the people i worked with and i got nothing.
feeling very unappreciated at the moment.

I know i should be shooting for myself but when my own passion has faded where do i go from there?

Photography will always be a hobby first for me, but I do take on quite a bit of paid work.

Shooting for money has its ups and downs with regards to the passion of photography. On one side, shooting for money often gives you the opportunity to shoot things you otherwise wouldn't, which challenges you, helps your grow as a photographer, adds to your portfolio etc etc...and to get paid on top of all of that is great! On the other end, getting paid to shoot very often does not involve shooting something challenging, sexy, interesting, etc etc, so you're committing time to shoot something that doesn't necessarily feed the passion of photography, but is a necessary part of a relationship business.

And this is where things get frustrating. Shooting something that doesn't feed the passion of photography is a necessary part of this business, and it will feel like work. If you aren't adequately compensated for your work/time, you will never be happy. So the key is to be consciously aware of what your time is worth and to price yourself accordingly.

With regards to the fact that there are those willing to shoot for next to nothing.....no one experienced will charge peanuts to shoot forever, because again, any decent photographer will want to be compensated fairly for their time eventually. As such, there is a 'you get what you pay for' element to hiring a photographer, and there will always be people who are willing to pay more for a higher quality product.

Obviously to charge at a higher level you do need to deliver a higher caliber product/service, but you also need to be careful how you brand yourself, and because this is a relationship business, who you target as clients. You want to do business with people who value your time and talent. PERIOD.

If you try to land business by being the cheap photographer, you will have trouble shedding the cheap photographer brand (people will refer you because you are cheap). If you do decide to shoot something at a discounted rate or for free (and I do this from time to time for various reasons), make sure they know that you gave them a discount, and let them know what your standard rate would have been, particularly if they refer someone to you. No matter what you charge a client, always protect the brand!

Edit: I don't do this for the money at all. The reason I continue to shoot for money is because even if it isn't always fun, the fact that I'm shooting at all means I'm constantly learning and growing as a photographer, and because every so often (pretty frequently actually) I get assigned to something truly fun to shoot.

It's different for everyone. I have been doing this full time and supporting the family with it since 1986. (30 years this year). I have seen them come and go over the years and one thing that I see in those that have longevity is most do personal work outside and separate from their pro work. The professional work feeds the beast and pays for everything including the base to do your personal work from. Professional work is the clients. It revolves around what they and their agents (and by agents I mean people like art directors, designers, account managers, etc) need. If you don't feed that need and exceed that need consistently you wont stay in business. Personal work is where the passion is. The pro work feeds the family. The personal work feeds the soul.

I feel more passionate about photography now than I did 30 years ago. I am a photographer. It's not a hat that I take off the shelf and put on when needed. It really defines who I am. So my personal work is the hobby side of it for me. No one tells me what I should photograph or how with my personal work. My pro work is usually a collaboration. I actually enjoy that side of things a lot but I know in the end that it's not mine, it's the clients. As I have said, if I don't exceed the clients expectations consistently then I don't stay in business.

Here's a couple of great photographers and what that took pro work to support themselves and their art and this is what they had to say:
"When money enters in, - then, for a price, I become a liar, - and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work." - Edward Weston

"There’s always been a separation between fashion and what I call my “deeper” work. Fashion is where I make my living. I’m not knocking it. It’s a pleasure to make a living that way. It’s pleasure, and then there’s the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits. It’s not important what I consider myself to be, but I consider myself to be a portrait photographer." - Richard Avedon

Passion is very important. What will win out in both the professional world and the art world is a desire. I think persistence is the one thing that separates those that do well from those that fail and the desire to do what one has to do to make it is the key.

I read that someone is some tiny town in the middle of no where say that they have no commercial photography experience and they are now doing commercial work and they ask how do I get business. I respond move to New York, Chicago or LA and work for a known commercial photographer in one of those markets for next to nothing for 3 or 4 years then after all you learn about the biz and the people you meet then maybe give it a shot and the odds would still be against you. The response is I don't want to move. Then you know that they don't have what it's going to take.

I love what I do. Though I have had some success with my personal work I don't make near enough with that to give my family the standard of living that they deserve. So the base is the pro work. That buys the cameras, pays the mortgage, the insurance, health and business, the cars etc and gives me the freedom to create exactly what I feel in a very honest and real way with my personal work. It is mine.

What I am trying to show and say is for me and many others that a separation between what you do for you and what you do for others can be very important. If I didn't have my personal work and only do commercial work I would have probably lost the passion and been burned out a couple decades ago. But my personal work is my true creative outlet and that makes it all worth it. I have seen them come and go over the years. Many of them are still good friends and one thing that they lost was the passion and all of the ones that have failed where those that only picked up a camera to make a buck. I can also say I know a few that are no longer working professionally but still are photographers. One thing I do know is if you have lost the passion and desire already and you are just starting out then maybe this isn't for you.
Thats my 2 cents. Take it for what it is worth.

Allen