I've hit a rough patch. I've only been interested in photography, indeed, in any form of art for s few years. I first became interested whilst in Greece on Holiday. This will make you laugh - I became interested in photography not because of the immense volume of beautiful views, objects, sculptures, etc in greece but Because the only english language magazine in the hotel was a photography magazine. One of the articles was "Get back to Basics" I read through this and thought, yeah - Sounds like fun. Since that Fateful day IN 1994 I have been addicted. I have taken almost eight thousand photos. MOst of them have been colour, minilab jobs, but recently, and after meeting a black and white photographer - I have gravitated almost entirely to B&W. I am so impressed with B&W for a number of reasons, first, I love the simplification of the medium. The way the camera pares down the view, changes colour into pure form and shape, the way most of the distractions disappear once you bleach the colour, a whole new world opens up. The world is an emotional place through the lens of a camera shooting Black and White. Second I am in love with the Shutter. Freezing the world - stopping time to a fraction of a second now I've bought a Minolta Dynax 9 1/12000th allows a contemplation of a moment far more minutely than is ever possible with the naked eye. Wonderful!

Only problem is, I can't find the energy to get out there any more. I'm really worried. Have I done my dash, blown my top, flown the coop? Have I burnt out that creative urge? Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a viagra for the shutter finger?

Anyway, whatever, Photos are very important devices, be they art, the culmination of scientific principles, technical brilliance, or just downright fun. Keep taking them, please.

-- Huw Crosby (crosby@magna.com.au), October 02, 1999

Answers

I often find inspiration from viewing others' exhibitions, although some are less inspiring than others.

-- Asher (schachter@a1.tch.harvard.edu), October 02, 1999.

How old are you?

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), October 02, 1999.

Age.

Physically twenty one, mentally six. Why do you ask?

-- Huw (crosby@magna.com), October 04, 1999.

Photography is not life. It has to feed off other activities and interests. I've gone six months without picking up a camera, and then gone months without putting one down. Sometimes the mind is contrary; decide not to touch anything photographic for a week. See if you can resist, rather than force yourself to shoot. Lack of energy can be depression (and a bunch of other things). Take a look at your outlook. Exercise. Pet the dog. One nice thing is that the creative urge can't be burnt out. It may go dim for a while, but rest assured, it's always there, waiting to resurface.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), October 03, 1999.

Be analytical about who you are and what you do and then go 180 degrees. And do it with some intellectual dedication, not just as a diversion or hoping for some vague epiphany to occur. Try showing the mystery rather than the literal.

Try going to a longer shutter speed and making unsharp images (using time in a different way & without a tripod). Try multiple exposures. Try editing for diptychs or triptychs. Think in narrative form in a metaphorical sense (not a cartoon story), since the emotive aspects of b&w are appealing to you. Shoot an entire roll of a single object on a black background (be sure to mark the starting point of the roll of film relative to a point in your camera back) and then re- load the same roll (lined up) and take your camera for a walk. Basically let go of control for a while, but do it with some dedication, not as some new age exercise of personal growth. Print the best images and hang them where you see them every day.

Maybe you just need a darkroom to complete yourself as an artist...t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), October 03, 1999.

Huh??

What the hell is a new age experience of personal growth??? Oh, and I've got a darkroom, I inherited it off my grandmothers boyfriend.

Thanks for those ideas though..

-- Huw (crosby@magna.com.au), October 04, 1999.

Have some enlargements made of your best photos, get them mounted and framed and hang them in a prominant place in your home. Sometimes seeing "your work" hanging can be inspiring. Take your camera with you everywhere, and try to take some shots every day.

-- Francis (Kelly@dfo-mpo.gc.ca), October 04, 1999.

When you leave the house, take a camera with you. The easiest and quickest to use that you have. Do not keep it in a bag. Keep it in your pocket. Point it at anything that grabs your attention, however briefly. Do not take extra lenses, filters, gadgets, light meters, etc etc. If you dont look, you wont see, and if you dont see you wont photograph.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), October 05, 1999.

Huw, don't worry if the urge to take photographs leave you for a while. If for some years you only feel like using the camera for occasional snapshots, that's OK. It happened to me, after several years of photography as my main hobby I lost the fun of it. It took me about 8 years before I got the "photo-flue" again, and this time it struck hard! I don't feel as if I have "lost 8 years" at all. I photograph when I like it and I don't look for cures when I feel like doing something else. But then again for the last 5 years I seem to become only more interested all the time... :-)

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), October 06, 1999.

Sink yourself into technical manuals and create assignments/excercises to spur you on. Try gum-printing or POP paper,....any # of alternative processes. Learn by attrition when these things work and when they don't....attrition is a motivator....buy bulk and burn film...don't use the viewfinder,,,build a pinhole....there are so many ways to a photographic end that boredom or lack of inspiration can never be an excuse. Do your black and white photos satisfy you? If so find a new hobby, if not you have lots of work to do yet. After that learn to print color, ilfochromes and process slides in a tank and reels then cross-process. There is no end. Don't "get out there"... look in your closet,,,drag interesting items out in the sun and shoot! use a point and shoot and snap photos out the window of your car on the way to work...photos of nothing but signs or hubcaps or cracks in the sidewalk. I've been at this for 20 years and I know nothing of photography....there is so much more to shoot and learn that my life will end before I can even see the beginning of all the photographic possibilities out there. Huw, you are too young to be thinking this way.

-- trib (linhof6@hotmail.com), October 06, 1999.

"The distractions disappear once you bleach the colour", I liked that part. Every picture you take is an original, by you, and you only. Set up the tripod at night and focus on the backdoor with the stars overhead.

-- John L. Blue (bluerose@hotmail.com), October 06, 1999.