Stephen Moore asked:
> A question, please, to the collective Pentaxian wisdom:
>
> How do you psych yourselves back up out of a slump,
> namely a run of bad results? Or maybe more important,
> how do you psych yourselves so that a run of bad results
> doesn't degenerate into a self-perpetuating slump?
I'm no expert on getting people out of slumps, but I can
tell you a few things that might work for me, and let you
choose any that sound like they might help you.
Put down the camera. Just _look_ at things
for a while. Look at things and just _imagine_
the photograph without trying to capture it.
But also imagine the movie, the painting, and
the poem.
Look at your older photos. Look at what worked
in them. Look at some of the ones you thought
_didn't_ work and ask yourself whether you like
them any better now. Choose a couple that you're
proud of, smile, and tell yourself, "I did that."
For a couple of near-misses, ask, "What would I
have changed if I had _staged_ this instead of
capturing real-life action?"
Pick a stationary subject and stare at it for half
an hour. Imagine the effects of different lighting.
Maybe even move some lights around. Lie on your
back and look up at it. Put your face against it
and look along the surface of it. I suggest a
human MOTAS ("member of the apropriate sex"), but
in that case, make sure it's someone with whom you
have the sort of relationship where you can do that
without freaking them out. :-)
Pick up a magazine and look at the motorcycle
photos in it. Don't just look at the ones you
wish you'd taken and think about how good they
are: think about whether even those could be made
_better_ somehow. Look at the ones you don't think
are so amazing but were good enought to be published,
and count their flaws. Then look at them again and
see if you can see why they're still decent shots
despite the flaws. Then go back to your photos and
see whether their flaws are as bad as you'd thought.
Take some of your prints and cut them up: try
unusual croppings, or _make_a_collage_. If you
screw up badly with the scissors you can always
make more prints.
Pick up the camera again. But try a different tuning...
oh wait, that's to get a _guitarist_ out of a rut.
Try a completely different kind of subject, or
use BW instead of colour (or t'other way 'round),
or better yet, go in a completely different direction:
maybe try a couple rolls of nothing but double-exposures.
Get your mind off the kind of photo you're trying to
perfect, and give yourself a chance to _stumble_ into
insights elsewhere that you can bring back to what
you're trying to do. DON'T fret about being any
good at these different approaches! *PLAY* with
them!
Shoot a stationary or slow-moving subject very
slowly and methodically. Lacking motiviation and
inspiration? Go ahead and focus on _mechanics_ for
a roll or three, getting back into the groove of
having your fingers Do The Right Thing as a result
of practice, and play with all the variations (DOF,
lighting, angle, lens choice) in a methodical,
almost scientific way. Then look very carefully
at the photos resulting from that to see whether
you managed to create any art as a side effect, and
also just to make note of what techniques were
_interesting_.
Then take those mental notes of what techniques
are interesting, and the new ways of seeing subjects,
and the refresher on general technique, and the
back-in-practice ability to get the settings you
want without thinking too much about them, and go
shoot another race and see what new things you see.
And expect to get one or two good shots out of the
whole race, and call it a victory if those one or
two shots are ones you can't wait to show everyone.
> Even allowing for a possible subconscious paranoia (that I'd have
> to drop the camera in a hurry because a bike and rider would
> come tumbling toward me through the gravel trap), I'm still
> asking myself: How could I have sucked that bad?
The answer (repeat it to yourself a bunch of times): Everybody
has an off day. It happens. Some days, you're just going to
blow it: forget your lines as you walk on stage, start a song
in the wrong key, type "rm -r *" in the wrong directory, drop
something expensive, all sorts of mistakes that are below your
skill level. Tomorrow you'll show everyone it was only that:
and off day (or week or whatever, but temporary).
-- Glenn
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