Hey guys,
Over the last couple of days, I've been thinking of giving up all photography, selling all my gear, and take up other interests.
I mainly, (okay.. only!) do drifting at the moment, and I've lost all motivation. I feel theres too much pressure from the public, but mainly my friends to take good pictures of them drifting, and I've lost all the "fun factor" I used to have. A lot more photographers have sorta cropped up since I've started (nearly 3 years now!) and that has sort of taken its toll on me.
How do YOU regather motivation after you've lost it? A lot of people have tried to convince me otherwise, saying to take pictures of different things, but, If the spark is not there, It's just not there.
Please help me NikonJin!
Leave drifting and start shooting something else.
Out of all the photographers that regularly shoot the events we attend, you are by far the best.
You only have to look at all the positive comments etc you receive.
Shoot what makes you happy.
Joe,
There are lots of people out there who has been shooting track photo for much longer than you and their photos are no where near yours. So you should be really proud of what you have achieved so far.
To be honest, shooting drifting/track racing can be really boring, especially in a small country like New Zealand where there are only so many cars/tracks you can shoot and 99% of them are small private days with no big racing teams or world famous drivers, no fancy pits, no "race queen"...etc for you to take photos of. You basically shoot from the same corner/spot and shooting the same car using almost exactly same camera settings again again and again. So once you master the panning skill (which you already have long time ago), there is really not much you can do to improve your photos. I personally got bored too after shooting just one year? So you are not alone.
Why did you start going to track and take photos there 3 years ago? I would guess it was just because you want to take some nice photos for yourself, not for your friends. I don't want to sound rude, but just because you have a nice camera and good skills doesn't mean you HAVE TO be there take some nice photos for your friends. So unless someone is paying you to go there to take their photos, i just won't care too much about them. And if you just don't feel fun shooting track events, then just don't go and don't shoot. I don't see the point in doing that if you are not enjoying it.
So is there any other kind of photos you like to take? Portrait? Landscape? Street Photography? Macro? Events?
I personally shifted from one area to another area the first few years when i first started doing photography and basically I've gone through taking almost all kinds of photos. It helped me to maintain my interest in photography and also helps me to improve my general photography skills as shooting different kind of photos requires very different skills and techniques.
So probably just pick one area you are most interested? or if you have no idea, i would suggest you just browse on flickr... i do it quite often when i'm bored as there are thousands of talented photographers and cool ideas from them..
here are a few of the photographers there that i check out their photos regularly and learned from them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/millylillyrose/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryaniceman/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyko/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34607579@N08/
or you can just go to pages like this to find some random photos:
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/2010/05/
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
No matter what you do, don't rush and sell all your camera gears... just leave them one side if you really don't want to shoot any photos.. go read some photo magazines/books and it may inspire you to come back..