How do you keep yourself motivated?
So, recently I restarted my project. Last time I lasted 90 days and forfeited because many reasons (some of them valid, other not). This time the motivation to start over was finally buying a new camera that I wanted for a long time. And there is no better way to get to know the gear than using it every day...
However it is three weeks in and I find it much harder to keep myself motivated this time. The main reason for this I think is that I don't want any of my pictures to be lame or so called "streak photos". I want them to be at least a bit interesting and I want to do stuff that will improve my skills.
But it is hard to be creative every single day considering all the exhausting things I have to do like running my own business, parenting a little kid and a ton of other duties.
This project is supposed to be fun (I guess), but sometimes I feel like "it is already 11pm, I have no idea for a photo and I don't even want to take the camera out of the bag".
Do you get this too? If so how do you manage? Or am I just a whining little b**ch and I should shut up and take these damn photos? ;)
tania For instance, I find my photos much better when I don't work, especially when I'm on holidays. Probably because my mind is free. I sometimes have to struggle to find something decent when I work.
Piotr Daniel That's also true for me. I guess a free mind is needed for everything that demands creativity.
FlyteWizard I think if you are "afraid" of having lame pictures or streak pictures, you'll fall into the perfectionist procrastination, where you don't do it, because you don't want it to fail.
Katrina Yu I think this is so so important. By allowing ourselves to fail we open ourselves to the lessons the failure will teach us.
Piotr Daniel I think you are right about the mechanism, but it is not the case here ;) I am not afraid to fail, because well... nothing depends on it ;) It is rather the fact that whenever I do something I need to do it the best I can - yes, that's the perfectionist in me ;) And when I feel like I am not giving 100 percent - that bothers me.
Piotr Daniel There's a business saying that nothing teaches as good as failure and nothing makes you more lazy than success. ;) Been there, done that :) So I agree with you.
Katrina Yu Fail entails here lame or "streak" pic as you've mentioned. Sometimes it's the fear of creating badly that stops you. We, humans, hold so many expectations on ourselves that sometimes our bodies/skills can't keep up. We have great taste and amazing ideas/vision that we want to come to life but our work when we do it falls short, it's just not good enough. This is "the gap" that a lot of artists have talked about. Everyone goes through it and it is during this phase that a lot of people quit.
Ira Glass explained it better: singleblackmale.org/wp-content...
Aga Ka and only those can succeed who are not afraid to fail....
Gosia
I too lasted for about 90 days when I did the project for the first time in 2015. Now I have even less time (little baby). What keeps me motivated is
1. tookapic is still alive and the experience here is fantastic, I don't want to miss it
2. the photobook after completing the project.
And also, I'm not afraid to post streak photos and that really helps. When it's really hard I take a random picture of my baby :D "World full of colors"
Yes, take these damn photos.
Good luck!
Szymon Maciejczyk "Or am I just a whining little b**ch and I should shut up and take these damn photos? " ... good one ! ;) keep on going :D
Kazzi Yeah! Take these damn photos! Just do it! youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao...
vera 😅 a strong conviction!
Magda Korzewska In my case first 30-40 days was quite hard. As it was late nov-dec, limited day light and for some reason I was not comfortable with using my camera during lunch breaks. I end up in the evening with no idea what to take. Meeting with other Tookapicers from 3city also helped, Agnieszka Hania, Olek gave nice feeling of community. After 2 years I do not need any additional motivation, this is your daily habit as brushing teeth. The only thing I need is time management as this became sort of addiction and too much consuming hobby. My advice try to find your back-up idea for photo, and try to make a small project out of it. Good luck.
Anne
It won't be comforting, but for me first 11 months was the hardest ;) And then it changed when I changed my attitude to photography. I tried to do new things and be more brave. In my situation it also could be fact, I had more time at home at december and photography was also my escape from problems.
About streak pics- it happens, everybody has it, sometimes it's even whole week, or two or three. It's not the end of the world ;) It can me demotivating, I know. But you doing this for you and I guarantee you, it's worth it :))
And about creativity- maybe try week themes? It helps me really, really much, because it reduce unnecessary thoughts and concentrate it on specific subject. For me it's a lot easier to focus on one thing for a week, cause ideas create next ideas ;) Good luck!
Kazzi Paweł wrote some blog posts about it, like having a list of photos like "always wanted to take" or ideas "hey, I always wanted to try this" -> for example water droplets caught mid-air. For me, sometimes I catch myself at 11 p.m. without a photo or any idea - but it's the perfect moment to stop thinking for a moment and just look around my actual environment... and whatever catches my eye can be an idea for a photo. Look through popular photos, look at photos from Your neighbourhood, put on Your shoes, coat and go for 15 minutes walk with (or even without) Your camera... I see Your crystal ball - and it's a perfect item, now go find some chrismtas lights or put it on a little wall next to the street and use Your Olympus with "live time" or "live comp" modes standing in front of it. And don't You ever, ever, ever give up.
Darlene K There are a lot of things to photograph. Of course i would love to take conceptual photos everyday, but like you said life is busy.. so experiment with different lighting. go dark.. go bright.. go moody. I just started a 365 day project. I am afraid i might fail too. I took a picture of my cat last night. sounds boring, but if i catch him doing something interesting the photo might be that bad.
Lauren Huston Hey, half my feed for the past 11 months has been cat photos! :P
Marta Tomaszewska I've cited it in another talk there already, but it fits here perfectly:
"If you want something badly enough, you make arrangements. If you don't want it badly enough, you make excuses." // Hanif Kureishi
You just need to answer one simple question "what do you want to do in your life" and then start doing it ;-)
I really like taking photos. And it is only a matter of "keep going". Don't ask yourself "for what?" or "why?". Just "do I like it?", "do I want it?". And keep going ;-)
Good luck!
Piotr Daniel "If you want something badly enough, you make arrangements. If you don't want it badly enough, you make excuses." // Hanif Kure - I often say the same thing, but sometimes it is not that simple. Sometimes you have to be pragmatic instead of just doing what you would like to do...
Marta Tomaszewska I understand it in a bit other way - it doesn't say that you should do only what you want. But if you start doing something, and you're not sure that you want it, you always, sooner or later, find excuse not to do it. But if your desire is strong, you'll manage to acomplish it, of course in the scope of acomplishable things ;-)
Piotr Daniel Keeping my fingers crossed for you ;)
Lauren Huston Kasia if you look at my stats, I am missing ~260 photos. I should have had my two year anniversary back at the beginning of January, but I only reached my first 365 completion in the second half of last year. So I will be (internally) celebrating my 1 year of no missed photos in April this year, over 2 years since I started the project. :) It's as they say, it's okay to fall off the horse, as long as you get back on again!
Lauren Huston
Thank you. :) It was hard to keep going when I'd already missed so much, but I would have been very sad I think to give it up completely.
Good luck with your new project. :)
vera Hi Piotr! I understand so good what you feel! I think it was the same for me...
But now I think that the streak pics are inevitable, unless you're a professional photograph and have a lot of time! For most of us it might be the same!? That's not a shame to make streak pics, because it maintains your photography active! And sometimes, you're estonished how you can develop new ideas because of urgency! I accept it's a part of my project and I try to make the best I can (not the best of the world! ;-) )
I have some tips for streak pics:
1) My bar is white and behind I have a white curtain. In the evening when I have no idea, I choose an object in my house and put it on my bar. I even created a gallery now named "on my bar" tookapic.com/vera/galleries/96...
Perhaps you'll find a nice place in your home to put an object with good light and nice background.
2) I photography the mountain that is in front of my garden. It takes me 3 minutes. I thought it's not very interesting because I see it every day, and with Tookapikers I've realized that many people find it beautiful! Of course not sure you have a mountain just in front of you, but in the street were you live, perhaps there are a coffe-bar, a flower shop, a parc, a bench... ? You'll find what you like the most. Finally it becomes interesting to see the same place in different moments of the day, of the year!
tookapic.com/vera/galleries/30...
3) Find a nice lamp
4) Make a portrait of my child, my husband, or a dog (hihi) reading, playing, sleeping...
5) I try to make one photo in the morning as to have a reserve of something with good light. I don't like to have a bad light
6) I look a lot the photos of the other people and it always gives me ideas!
Piotr Daniel Wow, thanks for so much input! :) Unfortunately no mountains in my backyard haha ;) I do have a baby girl and I take pictures of her almost every day, but I decided not to post them online (a bit of privacy freak I am).
However I just moved to a new house where I have a spare guest bedroom where I want to organize a mini-studio - I will be able to play with light and composition any given day. I am completing my gear right now :) I am not sure if this will be interesting for any of the followers but product photography and stills are definitely something I want to work on. :) And portraits, but that needs a bit more time and even more preparation ;)
vera Great idea for the mini-studio! In my opinion, a nice photo of a product is interesting! how you lighten it , stage it, the choice of point of view! Good luck for your project and do what you love!
Piotr Daniel "All geared up" :) A lot of fun ahead (or at least I hope so)! :)
Piotr Daniel I feel like that last 1,5 years ;) The 365 for me is a way to focus on something other than work or duties (and something I can do everyday)... Anyway I look at your profile and I think a lot of people would like to make pics as good as your "streak-ones", so don't be too harsh on yourself ;) Good luck! :)
Karolina Oksiędzka Hmm... motivation. My motivation is that I talk about my project all the time. Paste my photos not only on tookapic, but also in a Facebook gallery. That way people in my surroundings now about it and ask a lot of questions. This attention motivates me a lot. If I stop posting my photos here, I'll be still doing it on Facebook, cause people like it and respond very positively. Throughout the year I renew a few contacts that I've abandoned just because of the 365 project. Words on screen don't mean as much as kind words face to face. And those words are my motor - my motivation.
Asia I also have like that. But right now I thik that I paid for using Tookapic, so I can't give up. Plus I think how much better I will be after this year. My big motivation is when people like and comment my photos. I like to be appreciated :D
Piotr Daniel I guess everybody likes that ;) Paying for the service is also a good motivation boost :) Keeping my fingers crossed for your project :)
Asia <3 <3 <3
Aga Ka It depends really why you want to do 365 project. To me the reason is that I want to learn to take as good photos as I am able to but to achive that I need to practise. Few months ago I took a break due to real life and bit of health problems. In that time I hardly ever took photos. Other reasons for taking a break was also not being able to photograph what I want and getting result I want. I am bit less tired then I was back when I took the break, and I am happy to be back here. I got a new attitude towards tookapic too. I accept every time I need to make crappy streak pic - my son, my husband and my rabbits come first. ALso from bad streak pics I can learn something... maybe different light, framing would make it bit better? that is why I am open to hear criticism about all of my photos, even the obvious 2 min and really bad creations (although I am not tagging those with ''feedbackplease'' as I do feel like it is waisring peoples time). In the end my pourpose is to learn. And than there are coming other days when I have time and I try my best - still with different result, but again, to achive result I want I need to practise and get better. But without tookapic I would not have the motivation to go and do it when I have time. And that attitude makes it funn for me. Keeps me motivated. I don't know what the result will be in a year from now, but I will never know if I will not try. I wish you good luck with your project, I hope you can last for a year and then see for yourself if you want to continue or not :)
Lauren Huston Welcome back :)
Aga Ka thank you :)
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tania If I remember well, Pawel wrote once we need 60 days or 66 (!) to have a new habit properly installed. That was first my motivation. Keep it up until 66 days, then 100, then 200 and finally 365...
When I finished my 365, I found so funny to see - with a distance - how bad, even awful, and sometimes very funny are certain of my photos. And that's part of a 365. It's - almost - impossible to be good every day. But it doesn't matter. Your life isn't every day bright and joyful. Your life is what it is. Same for your photos. They are traces of your life, traces of your days, or nights... They are you. And that's fine :)