[AggieDad]

I have never been that guy who always has his camera with him, and at 80, I no longer go on hikes up mountainsides for dramatic landscape vistas. And raising up my camera with the Sigma 150-500 attached to grab a bird in flight is not as easy as it once was. So looking to rejuvenating my hobby, I tried a number new ideas. Here are some of the things that have worked for me.

Somehow I became involved in black and white photography and that opened my mind to new opportunities and new challenges. Doing monochrome also requires more time and effort for post-processing. To extend this, I began doing "projects." Each project is a based on a theme (i.e. cemetery statuary, trains, etc.). Getting images to add to one project or another gives me a reason to "git up and go."

I also extended my photography hobby with other activities. For example, I designed and built my own website. Having a website requires some maintenance and keeping it up-to-date – an activity for those days when I am not going out the door. Another extension involved messing around with electronics and building an automatic panorama head and an automatic focus rail for macro photos.

No matter what you do, I hope you find a way to pull yourself out of your photography funk and continue to enjoy this wonderful hobby.

[biz-engineer]

During our January family visit, I used the FA 100mm f2.8 Macro almost exclusively, and was dismayed at the number of the photos that were soft.

That's kind of weird symptoms for a burnout.

One culprit could be my seeming increasing focus (sorry again) on wanting to keep the ISO down to 100 or 200, resulting in a low shutter speed in gloomy conditions using Hyper-Av, my normal mode.

Set your camera to Auto-ISO and ISO program slope to High.

---------- Post added 09-09-22 at 07:06 ----------

Something needs to change, it seems, if my interest is to re-kindle. I've always shied away from the use of TAv mode

Seems you're too much focused on camera itself, no attention to subject matter. Visiting some photographic exhibition / galleries , looking at photography book from renown masters, may inspire.

Camera is a tool to serve a purpose. Absence of purpose makes the tool unnecessary. The place to start is to have the desire to create visual representations, aesthetically pleasing images by means of photographic media and the rest will follow.

[Unregistered User 8]

I haven’t used my cameras in almost a year. But the grandmother I’ve been providing 24/7 care to passed this afternoon. Time to live again…

Sincere condolences for your loss.

[microlight]

All,
Many thanks for your feedback, there is a lot of truth in there, even if some points are harder to hear than others! I appreciate it and will digest it, and plot my way forward. Starting with processing the photos that I haven’t yet done.

[Alex645]

Something needs to change, it seems, if my interest is to re-kindle.
How do people here maintain their involvement with photography?

All interests will have high and low tides. For me, it's about motivation and inspiration.

Photography, as is true of all visual art, is about the art of looking and seeing and then wanting to share that vision.

When in a routine of your usual environment, with the same where, when, what, and who, we tend to tune out our vision because it's the same familiar world. But when we travel or explore in different or unfamiliar places, we're forced to look again. Even the same familiar places can feel and look very different at sunrise or midnight. If there is change of what we do, for example hiking or cooking or for me, kayaking, then suddenly I'm seeing different things and/or seeing them differently. Or if there is a new child, a new friend or partner, or new puppy in our life, that will spark a change in the familiar.

So then how badly do you want or need to share this with others? Social media or a photo book or a competition or an exhibition?

I have friends and family that are not physically close to me, so social media is easiest way to share the new things in my life. Some of them don't use social media, so that's where the 20th century practice of printing a photo and sending that is welcome. I teach at a large school and every year I am asked to contribute to an art show. I welcome this as it "forces me" to show and share with my students (and their parents on Open House Night) that I practice what I preach.

And although I am competitive when playing games, for photo competitions, I just enjoy the diversity of how everyone that participates in finding different visual solutions to the theme. The theme is "sky"? When's the last time I saw a beautiful or unusual or memorable sky? Just that could be a goal to motivate me to find interesting weather and special lighting.

Some people fish because they are hungry or need the income. But some people fish because they just enjoy being out there either alone or with company and to gamble their time for the unknown. The same is with taking and making photos. But if just taking photos (fishing without catching fish) has no reward for you, then making photo(graphic prints) for a purpose (gift, decorate a special room, etc) can inspire and motivate.

Burnt out on photography? It happens to all of us. Some quit, some go dormant, and some of us find ways to reignite the flame because we remember how much fun or engaging it was and we want more or we want to evolve to discover and share to either ourselves or to others what being alive today looked like.

[noelpolar]

Being the ideas man that I am.... I long ago decided that no hobby I have should ever be alone..... so each new hobby/interest is just a new member of the family..... so...

Pentax meet Scrambler..... a family that plays together stays together....



Over the years I've accumulated a large family..... get out and do what you enjoy.... and see what happens from there..... and as a passing comment.... much joy comes from using nice tools for lots of us..... not just from achieving an outcome.... the destination is often way over rated.

[yucatanPentax]

I haven’t used my cameras in almost a year. But the grandmother I’ve been providing 24/7 care to passed this afternoon. Time to live again…

So sorry for your loss. Hoping that warm memories of the past are of some comfort in times ahead.

I had noticed not seeing as many of your comments lately and wondered. Good to hear from you!

[pepperberry farm]

I've been shooting in the Single In Challenge for seven years, and the Daily In Challenge for five - I currently cannot imagine not having a camera in my hands at some point during the day...

photography has become a daily therapy for me - i use it to remove myself from my job, from the news, from pretty much everything except what's going on with the interaction of my eyes, my hands, and the camera between them...

to keep my photography fresh, I've developed an advanced case of LBA (I did sell four lenses this week), and in the last year I've tried at least three different camera formats/systems (and about to try a fourth)...

I do get bored from time to time, but that's my own fault for getting lazy in my hobby.... and it usually means I need to change perspective in what I'm shooting, try something different, maybe more difficult....

[robgski]

My photographic inspiration is feast or famine, I can go a week without taking one picture, but then in one day I could fill up an SD card with varied and diverse subjects.

Just when I think I have nothing to shoot, I realize there are settings and functions on my K-1 which I have never used at all.

[garywakeling]

photography has become a daily therapy for me - i use it to remove myself from my job, from the news, from pretty much everything except what's going on with the interaction of my eyes, my hands, and the camera between them...

...

Yep, same here, daily therapy