RSS
Monday, June 21, 2010
Photography vs Passion
A couple of Christmases ago my gift to myself was a digital SLR camera. I had been wanting to take up photography for a few years and after about six months of saving I was ready to take the plunge.
I got myself a Canon Digital Rebel XS with a kit lens and a Flickr Pro account and started taking pictures. I haven’t taken nearly as many photos as I would have liked to by this point two and a half years later. My skills haven’t progressed much past “dude who recently bought a camera,” either.
See, I have this problem where my passion for things I like fades. I love taking pictures, but I just can’t get into it sometimes. The same thing happened for me with riding roller coasters. I’ve ridden about 180 different roller coasters and have been fascinated and thrilled by them since around the time of my earliest childhood memories. Recently, though, the passion for coasting has faded.
I’ve managed to get a few photos I’m really proud of. I’ve gotten many, many more that I’m not proud of in the least. But that’s how photography goes. For every 10, or even 100 photos you take you might get one or two that you really like.
Part of the reason my passion for taking pictures faded is self doubt. I’m sure I’m not a very good photographer. There are plenty of good photographers out there! Why do we need more? (For further reference and to see the trend of why I don’t do things, check out my previous post about blogging.)
I manage to convince myself that the creative works that I do are sub-par and shouldn’t be done. I have a dusty guitar two dusty guitars. I have unfinished code in at least three different languages. I have two draft blog entries saved on this very site.
I have a goal this summer. Laura was kind enough to put together a bit of a challenge for me. Each week she’s giving me five things to take photos of. Some of the prompts are concepts, some concrete things, some adjectives. The interpretation of the prompts is up to me. By the end of each week I will have taken at least five photos that I am proud of.
Now I just need to get around to starting. I’ve pushed back zero day on the project for the last month or so, which brings me to another thing I have a problem with: procrastination.
But I’ll write about that later.
Share
