That Photography Depression.

I like that "go shopping" idea, but yes, I've experienced this before and in big ways. Today I looked at some pictures I took last year before getting my 20D, 17-40, 24-70 and 580 and shooting in RAW. I almost cried. I thought those were good pictures. For the last week I've been processing and printing my recent vacation and I have to admit, my depression for spending all this time and money this year has really paid off. It's the "I can't be too depressed because Johnny's mother is suffering worse than I am" mentality that always gets me back into reality. When I feel my digital stuff is driving me crazy, I take a roll of B&W film and shoot the whole roll on my EOS 3 to remind myself what it was like before and it makes it all okay again.

I'm not experiencing that with my entire setup, but I am experiencing that with one or two lenses that I've bought and I'm not happy because they're not getting used enough. Either the opportunity and the rationale for purchasing them has changed, or there are other factors getting in the way. I'm like.. why the heck did I buy that.. and now I look at selling it (losing even more money in the process), and working myself up because there are no good solutions in that particular niche within my price range.

"considering selling All my EOS stuff and just keeping my P&S"

I did once, and after shooting with the P&S for a while then I REALLY got depressed.
Don't sell your gear, you will regret it.

Yep. Been there, done that.

Well, not as far as photography goes, but it's only been a little over a year since I first bought my XT. Been a hobby/amateur picture-taker for years, but it wasn't 'til I could see the results immediately that I finally started to truly understand some of the esoteric stuff.

But for other hobbies? Oh yeah. I've turned several hobbies into part-time or even full time "day jobs" and found pretty much each time that even though I once enjoyed it immensely, even obsessed over it, eventually I've gotten utterly sick of them.

The trick is take a break. Go do something else for a while.

Find a different hobby for a bit, something else you can obsess over and indulge. Doesn't matter if it's stamp collecting or skydiving.

Buy a cheap car that needs work (or that you can hot-rod on the cheap) and fix it up. Do you like fishing? Try hand-wrapping a bamboo fly rod; the materials investment can be pretty cheap, but it takes time to do up right. Or if you already have a good fly rod, try tying your own flies.

Take up kite flying. See if there's a place nearby that offers blacksmithing classes and go beat on some hot iron. It doesn't matter, as long as you find it interesting. Get your mind off the idea of taking pictures just for the sake of taking pictures.

And I guarantee that somewhere in there, you'll eventually find a new opportunity to take a nice shot.

Doc.

I can't say I've ever been dragged into that funk.

When I have my camera, I'm cookin' on all four burners. I look around more, and see more, than I do when I don't have it with me.

Even if the results I end up with are less than acceptable, I don't get discouraged. That means there's just something more for me to learn so that, next time, my results will be better.

But a "photography depression"??

Not here...

I got depressed a while back. Then I decided to do something about it. I sold two lenses that I didn't use and wasn't keen on (still waiting for the check for one). Then I bought a nice tripod to replace the bad tripod that I have. The bad one will probably go in the garage sale.

I might get another lens or maybe two. I'm thinking of the Tamron 11-18 and also that I've heard Tamron will produce a 70-200 soon so I might go for that.

I also changed from shooting JPEG to shooting RAW and my photography is a lot better as a result. I still feel though that for lenses longer than 100mm I need IS.

Even though my camera was a life saver, I do find times where I wonder "why?" Artisitc Angst, I guess esp since I also use my camera in my work and there are pretty definite parameters to being accepted in this field. I feel so constricted when shooting for research, but I must continue it at least until I get some publishable ethnography and get tenure. It really takes the fun out of shooting.
Regardless, I know that if I put my camera down I become more "depressed" so when I feel this way I force myself to go shoot- use only one lens, use only onefocallength, shoot only one particluar thing. . . before I am home I am "cookin' on all four burners" as steve says. Somehow I find a way to dismiss the "It has all been done before" part when I'm out there everyday shooting something.

The other way to break the depression (for me) is to literally break it (camera) and then have to wait for Brownie to come. (tapping foot in frustration) ---- any time now. . . .

~wu

I've been there too! I have a friend (a ni*on user) that I compete with, we keep eachother going through the slumps!

I shoot because I like it ... I don't care about the gear that much. If I didn't like shooting I would stop and do something else I liked more. I am pretty sure I will stop at some point. I don't care to be honest.

My life isn't very complicated. I sometimes wonder if I should invent some melodrama like 'photographer depression' but I have better things to do and think about so I haven't bothered.

Wow looks like I am not the only one indeed. That is kind of good to hear. Actually I think I got super serious into photography this year which means buying all new EOS gear, etc. because I got into a Painting Funk. I love to paint as much as I like to Photog but I always seem to go over board with any hobby.

Years ago I used to collect Paper Money (Hey anyone from Europe have any? ) and I remember that once I bought a price guide, suddenly my favorite notes seemed less favorite once I found out they were worth a quarter. After awhile I burned out from it simply because I got the "What's the point?" attitude. I mainly collected that for the art work on it, nothing more.

So my fear I think I am having now, and especially when I posted this thread is. Am I buying camera gear to use or to collect? If it is to use that is great but if it is the latter, to collect I better figure that out quick and stop right away because I could go bankrupt collecting this EOS crack.

I went out shooting with a untested lens that I just got last friday. It was a old Classic 80-200mm L but it seemed to be ok but then I took pictures of ducks (what better way to test a telephoto lens then ducks in a park?) and man alive did that ever depress me seeing the results, half were blurry and the other half seemed to be over exposed (but I did start shooting in RAW recently so it wasnt too bad). Below is my only decent one I got out of more then 100 shots.

Anyways I think "Photography Depression" can be a good thing, it really makes you think and look with in yourself to see how into photography you really are. I think I am still very much into it, but my lens buying days are over (except for a 100-400 L).


(Spent about $5000-$6000 on EOS this year but that is Total not worth )

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