Vacuity

[Ivophoto]

You may be unaware of it, Andrew, but you have pretty much echoed the late Terence Donovan's credo.

It's a part of the tease for the non-pro simply because there is no obligation to make photographs unless you feel like it. And what on Earth can make that urge come alive in any generally meaningful and more broadly relevant fashion?

I fight that worry every time I take a camera out of the apartment: I invariably try to balance reward with effort, and then push that equation away at arm's length out of fear that I may, again, just think of myself as one of those mindless machines that have been programmed to do something and keep doing it, aimlessly, until the battery dies.

Who said it has to be "fun"? (You shouldn't have reminded me, Keith!)

:-)

Fun?

Fun?!

It has to be labour, Sir! Otherwise it can’t be right.

[Chris Kern]

Partly, the problem has little to do with photography per se, but with the way that time seems to slip away each day with one damned distraction or another creeping into my life and robbing it of shooting time.

I recall my father, as an old man and long-retired, often complaining that he simply didn't have enough time to do many of the things he intended to do.  Struck me as rather odd, since from my middle-aged perspective, he seemed to have all the time in the world.

Now I'm an old man, retired for eight years, and I can't manage to fit in many of the things I used to be able to find time for when I was working 8-10 hours a day (and commuting—Washington, D.C., traffic being what it is—for the better part of another two hours).

[RSL]

Take it from a nearly 89er, it gets worse as you get older. The days just melt away.

[KLaban]

Fun?

Fun?!

It has to be labour, Sir! Otherwise it can’t be right.

If ever - with camera in hand - that sense of fun rears its ugly head I'll typically resort to self flagellation until said sense abates. Ensures my reputation as a leader in the field of extreme vacuity and that of a really, really serious photographer.

[Rob C]

If ever - with camera in hand - that sense of fun rears its ugly head I'll typically resort to self flagellation until said sense abates. Ensures my reputation as a leader in the field of extreme vacuity and that of a really, really serious photographer.

Now you know why narrow, leather camera straps got banned, and those silly soft and wide ones became de rigueur! Political correctness: not even permitted a healthy, bracing good thrashing these days! Where's the sense of fun thwarted in that? Bah, humbuggery!

:-)

[Ivophoto]

Now you know why narrow, leather camera straps got banned, and those silly soft and wide ones became de rigueur! Political correctness: not even permitted a healthy, bracing good thrashing these days! Where's the sense of fun thwarted in that? Bah, humbuggery!

:-)

I prefer the chrome snake Zeiss Ikon straps. It epilate my neck hair before it grows. Every fun is suppressed in time.

Ok, maybe this will not work for the BDSM fans amongst us.

[KLaban]

Now you know why narrow, leather camera straps got banned, and those silly soft and wide ones became de rigueur! Political correctness: not even permitted a healthy, bracing good thrashing these days! Where's the sense of fun thwarted in that? Bah, humbuggery!

:-)

Or indeed, a jolly good strapping!

[Rob C]

Or indeed, a jolly good strapping!

Um, no.

I usually hear that world in connection with the word lad.

;-)