Art vs daily responsibilities

[LoisWakeman]

Landscape photography seems to be the burning quest of many (not surprisingly) on this forum, and folks obsess about what may be the right equipment to use, how to process and on and on. Why don’t people into the genre grasp the fact that it doesn’t much matter: if the joy is in creation, surely, then, that should come from simply being there and waiting and capturing what God offers the ready mind?

Well said Rob. That's one of the reasons I never bother to list my camera equipment in my sig as if it was some kind of badge of honour; it's the eyes and the brain and the location - and what you make of them - that are important IM(female)O.

[HSakols]

Yes I'm one of those on the "burning quest for landscapes".  I don't even shoot that much but I just seem to get further and further behind in the work I want to produce.  I live 16 miles west of Yosemite Valley and teach elementary school. I'm exhausted by the end of the day and many times after turning on lightroom at home, I realize I'm ready for bed.  Just this week I was trying to still work on some work I think has potential from 2010.  Sometimes I jokingly complain when I go out to take photographs that I'm just making more work for myself and that instead I'm going to sell everything and take up golf.  I have no idea how you high volume shooters can keep up even when it is your full time job. I'll be happy if I can rebuild my website this next year. I'm not 50 yet and have to remind myself that at least I won't be bored when I retire forty years from now.

[Rob C]

Yes I'm one of those on the "burning quest for landscapes".  I don't even shoot that much but I just seem to get further and further behind in the work I want to produce.  I live 16 miles west of Yosemite Valley and teach elementary school. I'm exhausted by the end of the day and many times after turning on lightroom at home, I realize I'm ready for bed.  Just this week I was trying to still work on some work I think has potential from 2010.  Sometimes I jokingly complain when I go out to take photographs that I'm just making more work for myself and that instead I'm going to sell everything and take up golf.  I have no idea how you high volume shooters can keep up even when it is your full time job. I'll be happy if I can rebuild my website this next year. I'm not 50 yet and have to remind myself that at least I won't be bored when I retire forty years from now.

I just love optimism! In other people.

;-)

Rob C

[Corvus]

"How do you guys manage the balance between dayjobs and daily chores, money, you know, the "race" versus creating art, being free in mind and relaxed to create."

I didn't - I retired.

[Rob C]

"How do you guys manage the balance between dayjobs and daily chores, money, you know, the "race" versus creating art, being free in mind and relaxed to create."

I didn't - I retired.

Easy: made them the same thing.

Difficulties? Keeping that status quo alive.

Rob C

[Corvus]

Easy: made them the same thing.

Difficulties? Keeping that status quo alive.

Rob C

Correction -
I should have said "couldn't" instead of "didn't".

God only knows we tried. Finally, 20 years ago, we consolidated our modest retirement pkgs and took early retirement.
Since then we have never looked back.

[Rob C]

Correction -
I should have said "couldn't" instead of "didn't".

God only knows we tried. Finally, 20 years ago, we consolidated our modest retirement pkgs and took early retirement.
Since then we have never looked back.

Self-analysis should have warned you: that's not the mindset of the artist. To an artist, it's neither a concept nor a passing thought: no artist knows what a retirement pkg is!

;-)

Rob C

[Corvus]

"Self-analysis should have warned you: that's not the mindset of the artist. To an artist, it's neither a concept nor a passing thought: no artist knows what a retirement pkg is!"

Life and a your chosen life style can be an art form in itself.
One of art's highest forms in my opinion.

[NancyP]

I am an M.D. (pathologist). I don't have a family or a busy social life, so I can expect to have time on the weekend for a photo session. I am somewhat lucky re: photography in my day job, in that I teach and thus have need of images. It is possible to use compositional skills in the service of teaching, when doing photography through the microscope and close-up and macro photography of surgically-removed tissue/organs. The photos themselves - well, "TMI" in most photography fora.

[Rob C]

NancyP.

There's one big difference: your professional-needs photography has importance beyond itself. Other than another pro snapper, who can claim that? As a retired pro, that's the single biggest disincentive to getting the camera out of the safe: who's going to care, and if only myseslf, it doesn't much matter because I already know I could do it well over many years. I loved my genre; with that removed, there's not much left to excite, and playing at it with the wrong cast just brings ultimate disappointment.

Rob C

[NancyP]

There is a role for amateur nature photographers in showing the public the beauty and variety of local wildlife, using venues such as various educational events and public-access (eg, public library walls) shows. I know that I have been thoroughly impressed by the variety of species displayed by insect and spider macrophotographers, almost all of whom are amateurs. It is easy to love birds, harder to love spiders - and good images can produce goodwill for ignored species.

[Rob C]

There is a role for amateur nature photographers in showing the public the beauty and variety of local wildlife, using venues such as various educational events and public-access (eg, public library walls) shows. I know that I have been thoroughly impressed by the variety of species displayed by insect and spider macrophotographers, almost all of whom are amateurs. It is easy to love birds, harder to love spiders - and good images can produce goodwill for ignored species.

Nancy, I have always loved birds - my first such love was at the age of eight; spiders?  never!

I've sometimes wondered about the roots of arachnophobia. I certainly share it with a huge number of people, and have no idea why, other than the fact that some are deadly (both the people and the spiders, I guess). It doesn't come from parents, of that I'm sure, at least in my own experience. It goes deeper and far further back. Or, it's simply common sense: if some can kill and you are no specialist, how do you know which is which? A natural, built-in sense of self-protection, much as looking at a slavering dog tells you to stay clear: not only may it bite but it could be rabid.

Rob C