I think I’d just have to slow down and get myself out there once again – smell the rain, dance in the surf, to feel alive again. Not dwell on my lack of inspiration. It’s like an endless spiral, you know. Just sucking you in deeper and deeper, the harder you try.

On touching the camera:

Bear in mind that photography has many outputs.

There are two types of work – You can either do commercial work or personal work.

I guess in this sense commercial work would be much simpler because the client gives you the guidelines. But how about personal work? Personal work can vary from thematic exploration, expression or art (and more).

BUT most importantly, how about taking the word “work” out of the equation? Photography was never meant to be all “work” and no play.

Remember, photography can be as meaningless as it can be meaningful. It is an output of our ideals, a secret passion to capture images around us. Sure, we call a similar string of photographs a series, but there’s always something inside of us just wanting a piece of frozen time, anywhere, any day, any time – with little or no thought to it except to say “we caught that moment, it’s mine”.

Therefore i suggest it is time to pick up the camera – lose your premptive, rational mind. I suggest using your Bessa instead of your 20D. Stop thinking, start shooting (like they tell us). Sometimes you have to discover meaning, not create it.

I understand how you want your work to be as expressive as your soul. But perhaps we shouldn’t be forcing ourselves to produce these images. These things come naturally and not every single photograph we take need to conform to the ideas in your head.

Don’t you think that if you consciously try to express yourselves through your photographs, they become contrived? Letting your shoul shine through your photographs can only be achieved when your emotion takes over. The camera doesn’t exist anymore, but becomes a part of your anatomy, a natural part of you. This is the (in SMU terms) best case scenario. The only other way i can possibly see it working is that you consciously set checkpoints along the way to let your images convey what you want to your audience.

At the end of the day, you’re a great photographer. You’ve come a long way since you first picked up your camera. In some ways or another, you’ve impacted many people’s lives with what you’ve done so far, including mine. It’s okay to take photography less seriously, to use your camera for impromtu, spontaneous shots. Not everything has to be crafted from gold to put a smile on our faces. Shoot in basic jpeg if you must, to take things less seriously (it works for me).

Growth will come once you take a step back and understand who you are, where you are and where you’re going, instead of being on the edge all the time.

youre part of very few people whose work deserves more than money

its just looking in the right direction, not shadow of things, otherwise you already look in the past

Firstly, I am a subscriber to your feed thru google reader. Its a great contribution, keep up the good work!

i was living in Bangkok and having the same kind of problem as you. I was bored, I had taken all the usual shots of buddhas, kickboxers and monks and would go out all day and come back with nothing. Not one shot.

1) I think a change of scenery is a good idea. Or maybe to move out of your comfort zone and approach a project that you normally not be interested in/familiar with.

2)minimise your equipment when u go out. Just take a nifty fifty or equivelant for your camera.

3) start a project that is really really simple to get off the ground and really easy to pull off.
I think topology projects ( becher style) are a really good idea to get the creative juices flowing. Taking pictures of the same thing but different is easy to do and can be quite fun. How about different hawker shops in singapore? Or more simply, shoot different plates of Bee Hoon Goreng ( yum yum. BTW i used to live in Singapore). You pick a topic and just go with it. It kind of cleanses the mind and give you a fresh start. Zen photography. Youre still taking photographs but you are kind of on autopilot. And you may just have a great project!

So what did I do?. I started taking pictures of electricity cables in and around Bangkok.Thats all i did. Didnt think about composition just did It. Until I found that the work was getting more and more simplified and more and more abstract. i was kind of on auto pilot.

Anyway this cable project has just got me selected for best of show at the International Photography Awards !!. So it can pay off as well.

Last but not least .Try to broaden your horizons. I have just started a blog which is more of a personal scrapbook of creative thinking, it includes photography of course, but my inspiration could be a music video or book or a beautiful woman :) .

Or maybe a few beers would help, but you are in the wrong place for that! beers are so expensive in Sing!

Keep us all updated whatever u do.

Now , back to programming my new website. bummer!

Richard

Just shot a performance today for work and it was definitely a very rewarding session as I enjoyed myself. The images were great, definitely portfolio material but it’s different when you’re shooting for yourself (and your own ideals) and trying to deliver something for your clients.

Hey Shaun, saw your pictures a few days back. Love the autumn colors and the beautiful light. Go shoot some of Norway’s awesome landscape man! School’s pretty much boring and I can’t wait to get out in a few months’ time…I guess we all go through this phase in our creative lives and as An Xiao said, we need to constantly shoot and exercise our muscles. The problem with me is that I’m not so interested in aesthetics and the resulting images get very very very mundane. I think I will post on your blog about your ideas. Haha,

it’s also something that i felt and am feeling quite abit now. Especially the part where you say:

“perhaps it’s the constant pressure that I place upon myself to create meaningful work. Random street shots had to say something, that abstract shot is no longer cool because someone probably shot it before…and then I find myself not touching the camera at all.”

let me know what you think of what i said. anyways, how’s life in SG? i’m in Norway so out of the world more or less.

cheers,
Shaun

i really like this blog! keep up the good work!

what i do in such cases is to switch the gear around a bit, if i dont have anything else, i shop for something. especially old camera gear can be had quite easily and cheap, so trying something new and else is always good, i dont know if you shoot film at all or only digital

what also gets me going is the film development, as it is some kind of process, taking a picture -> developing it yoursself manually -> seeing the result

it’s very good for reflecting after so many days of “waiting” for the roll to finish

hope you get on track again

regards from vienna, xax

I think I might just need to get myself out there but wandering the streets is getting kinda boring without looking out for anything. hmm. I will see what I can do in the next few days. Thanks again!