Motivation. The drive to do what we do. I don’t think I would be wrong to say that at some point in your photography journey you’re going to lose motivation. Be it because the rest of your life is too busy (an old friend of mine used to always say life gets in the way, and I tend to agree) or simply because you feel like you’ve lost interest in what to shoot.
The fact is there’s many different reasons why you might find yourself unwilling to pick up the camera. I’m not going to judge. I’ve been there, on many occasions. When I first moved to Derbyshire life was so hectic and change was everywhere I think I had a few six month spans before I even thought about taking a photo. That’s not a bad thing. Breaks are good sometimes, but what if you want to shoot?
So I’m going to share a couple of ideas (in no particular order) I’ve found helpful along the way and has kept me going. You don’t have to do them all, but hopefully at least one will give you that inspiration you require.
Start a project
First off, what is a project where photography is concerned? Well, simply put, it can be anything you please. The best example I can give at the moment is the fungi book I intend to produce at the end of the year. It’s not much, but every time I go out for a photo walk now I’m thinking fungi. You don’t necessarily have to produce a book. But you could pick a single subject and focus on being the best you can with that. Or choose to capture just clouds for a month. That sort of thing. The world is your oyster.
Challenge yourself
For truly rainy days I have a book on my shelf with 30 photo ideas a day with something new to capture every day with titles such as, “water”, “cloud formations” and “abstract”. Another way you can achieve this is by entering the photo competitions at something like https://www.photocrowd.com/. I do have choice words on such sites, but they are useful if you want to have a bit of fun.
Join a club
Despite Coronavirus still being a thing at the time of writing many photography clubs are starting to meet up again and if not have switched over to meeting on zoom. Clubs can be an excellent opportunity to meet and chat with likeminded individuals, watch talks from some very knowledgeable speakers and enter specific competitions and be judged by photographers with industry experience. There’s usually a sign up fee to join but what you get in return makes them very much worth it.
Social Media
I imagine that if you’re reading this there’s a very good chance that you’re already on a social media platform. The reason for inclusion is for me to share how I use it to motivate myself. Similar to challenging yourself and joining a club I personally find social media achieves both. The challenge part? Challenge yourself to post on a regular basis to your favoured social media platform. Personally I’ve been going for a minimum of once per day for quite a while now. Does this mean I shoot a photo everyday? Definitely not. I’ve got a day job so that would be painful. It does mean that I try to get out when I can and fill up my camera roll with images that I don’t mind sharing. The club part….this one is really important in my opinion. Socialise. I know, it sounds horrible having to talk to people when you just want to post your pictures, but exactly like the camera club there’s a lot of knowledgeable people on social media and if you scratch the surface of likes and retweets you’ll find a thriving community of photographs willing to share how they got some of their best shots.
Start a blog
You might be thinking what has writing got to do with photography? I find a big part of my photography is sharing the photographs that I produce, and I love to talk about the pictures where I can. A blog is an excellent way of putting those thoughts into words and detailing what you love about a specific photograph. There’s plenty of software out there to help you too. https://wordpress.com/ is still a great place to start. In a similar vain to this I started my YouTube channel with the intent of sharing my images and giving insight behind them (check it out here for an idea: https://www.scottlyons.co.uk/YouTube).
Take some carefree photos
This one might be a difficult concept to get your head around. Or it might be easy and it’s just me who struggles with it, but hear me out. Have you ever looked at someone else’s photograph and thought, “I’ll never be able to create something like that, I might as well just give up now”. First and foremost, the only person who is judging you in this moment is youself….so stop it. Secondly, you’re overthinking things. I’ve had plenty of photos I thought were a bit rubbish but still got unexpected praise and it’s because sometimes we are our own worst enemies. The solution? Pick up the camera and run around with the enthusiasm of a small child who has been given the best toy in the world. Capture everything you see and just stop thinking about whether it is good or not. Just enjoy the process.
Treat yourself
A lot of people will tell you GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) is a bad thing. To sum it up you’re buying something new in the hope that it will improve your photography. There’s a lot of truth to that, but we’re not talking about improvement here, we’re talking motivation and putting the fun back into it for you. So buy that lens you’ve been looking at or pick up those ND filters that are stopping you playing with long exposures and change things up a little.
That’s it for now. I hope you’ve found this list useful and enjoy the little selection of images above for no other reason than I felt like sharing. Let me know in the comments if you have any tips yourself for how you cure those motivation blues! You never know you could help someone get out of their photography slump.
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