Are you obsessed with the technology only?

Oh. I've found that going to exhibitions other than my own hugely satisfying, and something that makes me a better photographer. When you're getting started, it's hard to know what a really good print looks like until you've seen some. Even better in some ways is going to a gallery like the Andrew Smith Gallery or Maggie's Weston Gallery, putting on white cotton gloves and actually handling the prints.

I have all of my photos in Catalogs for each year in Capture One, so I can easily see all photos I took that year in chronological order. In the field, I often take multiple versions of an photo, but not only do I never delete any photos, even if I never process them (unless there are obvious technical flaws), I also never delete the edits. Every time I edit, I do it on a new variant, so I can easily compare different edited versions with each other and with the original unedited version, so it makes it easier to improve upon the original version and upon the previous edits. When you can compare different files, different edits, different years, you can see how much you have progressed over the years. And of course being able to see how much you have progressed, you will realize there is even more progress that can be made with extra effort, and that will provide some motivation for taking more photos and downplay the importance of new gear.

The difference is probably because I see photography as an activity differently than you do. I didn't realize until a few years ago that other people largely see photography in an entirely different way than I do.

That's not the point.
"Will this camera comply with what you have in mind once brought down to the reality path?"

Sure I'm happy with any new toy, but old enough to know how much I'll play with it after the "new thing" fade.
Should I buy the 150-600 ? weight is the barrier, not the money.
Evening today from the balcony with the 70-300 I shot this one. Would have been better with 150-600?

I give you a sample of a saving decision that got me out before I nearly burned-out:

I started 2 years ago with Carnivorous Plants.... I bought some 35 new plants in this period ... I ended up this winter with more than 100 pots.
.... I have "the green thumb" ... one plant can lead to having 3 to 7 pots after 6 months..... besides that ... I love to grow small things.
In November I found a shop that accepted to receive for free all my near to adult production. Plus an online mate visited me and went away with my biggest pots.....
I'm down to 65 big pots... but but but .... I have around 150 plantlets to repot 🤦‍♂️

One of the main reasons I got back on a camera is... because taking a photo of my plants with a cell was good, but not good enough.

So I opened a "vitrine" to put there my plants/my pics.

eu.zonerama.com/AlainCH2/1191151

Now I have also the CH2 logo, design, and merch. I don't do it for money. The pure satisfaction of doing it.

This spring my first Dionea selection "Ch2 Rosa" will be on sale in a friend shop.

Does that make me happy? Yes, in a way.
But it helps me a lot to trundle ahead a little better than crying and complaining all day long about my pains.

Does my camera and lenses make me happy? Yes in a way.
I would love to walk with them in the wood, I can dream of that while shooting from the balcony.
Probably on the spurt I will do it, how much will it last if the weight is too much?

Writing this post I nearly passed away, heart playing tricks I suppose.
But I kept doing what I was doing, whatsoever, and that helps and helps a lot.

( Doc said, too many surgeries, not much can be done anymore, and raised the pills number )

PS:
This post took 1:40 to be written, checked, corrected, and posted. I'm pretty satisfied 😁

Studio lighting is an invitation to GAS.

I've not got a studio area available, but even so I think my lighting kit is somewhere around 1/5 the size of that lot. (It could be more as it's widely scattered - 2 strobes at work, 2 in the bedroom & one in the car, plus the video ights in the garage...

I confess to loving gear, too. But I'm a poor pensioner. What to do? Answer, second hand gear. It's amazing how cheap some second hand gear is, especially if it is no longer state of the art. Most of the time, state of the art is GAS, not need. But there are superb bits of gear, now languishing on the back of the second hand shelf that can meet your needs, as long as you understand what your needs are.

For example, I have had a m4/3 fit Kipon OM mount shift adaptor hanging around unused for years with no useful lenses to fit to it. This week I bought a 1980s 17mm Tamron adaptall lens from ebay for £90. It fits my shift adaptor perfectly and I now have the equivalent of a 35mm PC shift lens for a mere £90. It will complement the tilt-shift adaptor I have for my Sony (which requires huge medium format lenses - also purchased used) when I'm going walkabout with my lightweight m4/3 outfit (also all purchased second hand).

Example 2: Ever since I saw the work of AlanS over on getdpi, I've been taken by the style of shooting landscape with wide aperture, shallow depth of field. I picked up a 85mm f/1.4 lens from MPB for £100 for my Sony. It's great, it's giving me the results I was aiming for. And cost what many people will pay for a premium lens cap.

GAS on the cheap is my motto.

As for motivation to go out and shoot, I don't lack for that. I have projects and genres and styles to pursue. My problem is that I live in the suburbs of London and aside from the leafy streets of, er, houses, my local park is the only nearby shooting location. I'd like to take up landscape photography more seriously but that means organising myself and arranging trips. We have a little shack just over the border in Scotland which is ideal for camping out free of charge for locations like the English Lake District, but it's an 8 hour drive there (on packed and these days, badly pocked, UK roads) and I hate driving. I will go, I will...

First light (for me)

Tamron + shift adaptor

85mm f/1.4

I found recently some very interesting videos on YT by Kim Grant. She's giving some very good advices and propose a refreshing approach about photography and problems photographers can encounter:

This one, or this recent one, honest and deep

Before discovering her videos, I stumbled on James Popsys videos, and they rekindled the will to go out and simply try, even without succeeding, but having fun and learning in the process ;-).

Greg

Exhibitions are often disappointing, IMO. The reason is I have selective taste (I don't mean "high" taste, I mean I Iike the things I like, not anything else). If the images are not to my taste it doesn't matter how technically good they are or how famous they are, they're boring (to me).

That fact puts me off the idea of exhibiting my stuff because then I'd likely be forcing my taste on other people who might not like it. And I've learned that taste is so personal, there is no real concept of good or bad photography that everybody understands. The best you can hope for if you are looking for praise is to be a popular photographer by following the trends or to be niche and find a critic who likes your stuff. Or be that critic yourself and settle for that.

To me, the best reason for looking at a lot of other photographers' work is that it helps you work out what you like. Used to love Ansel Adams, now no longer like AA so much, more into dreamy, atmospheric, moody stuff than hyper real corner to corner sharpness. And it was looking at other photographers work that made me realise this: Haas, Pete Turner, Kenna, Fokos, Ephraums, Percy, Rajkovic, Gavin Dunbar, Denis Olivier, Michael Levin, Adrian Vila, some of that old B&W super contrasty B&W stuff... (pah, someone will undoubtedly pronounce in a haughty tone, pictorialist kitsh. So be it).

Viewing the work of these people inspires me to make my own work, even though my work will never be in gallery bookshops.

There are a small number of YT photographers I follow. In order of favourite photographs they are: Adrian Vila (aows on YT), Thomas Heaton, Nigel Danson.

I also follow James Popsys because he is a charming and natural presenter even though I don't find his videos particularly useful. I sometimes tune into Kim as well because I want to photograph Scotland more, but I find her a bit new-agey and her actual work is not inspiring me. Fototripper (Gavin Hardcastle) is hilarious, a natural comic ("Nikon/Canon/Sony/Cadbury/whoever, if you're watching....get in touch". A more occasional vlogger, but one worth watching just because he is such a good photographer is Craig Roberts (e6 Vlogs). He can photograph anything well. Inspirational on a different level.

Adrian (aows) is my favourite photographer at the moment, alongside Bruce Percy. They shoot how I want to shoot.

A nightmare story to me. 😁

I have a need for neatness and lack of clutter (a response to being dis-organised perhaps, but I suspect more a need for simplicity because I get easily overwhelmed by complexity).

This year I completed a massive rationalisation of 20+ years of back catalogue. Getting rid of all the duplicates and unedited crap was very cathartic. My recent work (from the last 4 years) is super stripped down. I get rid of everything that is not a good quality keeper. My intention is to keep bearing down on the weaker photos until I've distilled the essence of what I want to photograph. I now actually enjoy browsing my own work.

A friend once said of me (regarding music) "Dave has completely distilled his music taste down to the minimum, he no longer likes anything"

Yes, she's a bit new-agey (her journey through life could explain partly that, and takes only what fits me in all these videos), and this tilts some inner red lights, but I appreciated her non-gear approach, and the five points discussed in the first video I linked that can somehow block a photographer at one time in his/her journey seemed fitting here.

James, yes, is very funny and the outdoors are inspiring.

I'll go and check the others you mentioned, thanks!

Greg

It's a joke acronym. Gear Acquistion Syndrome.

Gear acquisition syndrome.

You have also WAF (in photography, and even more Hi-End audio): wife acceptance factor.

It applies mainly on bizarrely huge loudspeakers.

Greg