“Wasting time is not a waste.”

Seth Godin wrote the above on his blog last week. He went on to say, “Wasting time poorly is a sin, because not only are you forgoing the productivity, generosity and art that comes from work, but you’re also giving up the downtime, experimentation and joy that comes from wasting time.” I’ve been wasting a lot of time, been wasting time for more than a year in fact. The worst part of it all, I’ve been wasting it poorly not doing anything to further my photography.

How do you waste time, is it an effective waste of time, or are you wasting time poorly?

While thinking about experimenting think about the process of wasting that time effectively. Today, Sam Spurlin posted an article on his blog about The Art of Deliberate Practice. If you go read his post you’ll see a list of some things that may help you waste tie without wasting time:

1. Slow Down
2. Focus
3. Make Mistakes
4. Break it Down

It all makes sense. Waste as much time as you want, just get your ass off the couch and do something.

What process do you use when you’re wasting time, when you’re experimenting? Do you just go all kamikaze, or do you slow down and think about what it is you are doing and how make it better?

“If you’re going to waste time (and I hope you will) the least you can do is do it well.” ~Seth Godin

Instead of regurgitating what I wrote last week, these words from Ira Glass will suffice.

It’s been a year since any of us have posted.  A year in which we have all taken less photos, posted even fewer, and have questioned what the camera means to us.

There seems to be a natural progression, a step by step process, that many photographers take.  The awe one has when first taking up photography, the gathering of information to learn about specific things, the interacting with others on sites such as Flickr.  You find a niche, you develop it, you begin to get more particular, you acquire more gear, and you wake one one day realizing you’re overwhelmed with crap and you’re spinning your wheels.

Sure, you can pull off a kick ass shot of some hot model on a white seamless background.  But the photo means nothing to you.  There’s no meaning to it.  You can take your 275th self-portrait and it’s lacking in emotion.

Ever wonder why so many good, even great, photographers disappear off Flickr and other sites?   They get bored.  It doesn’t mean anything anymore.  Even the stuff they see from their contacts all begins to look the same.  And all that fucking gear has become cumbersome.

Are you feeling that way?

Think back when you first picked up that camera.  Did every shot have to be great?  Did you have 25lb lightstands to hold your VW bug sized softbox?

Probably not.

You were having fun.  Now you’re stuck in your car waiting for an endless train to pass.

If you’re bored put the camera down.  Go outside, look around.  Envision what would make a decent shot.  Do that a bit and you’ll start missing your camera.

Tired of seeing the same crap from your Flickr contacts?  Delete them.  Find new ones.

Sell the gear that holds you back and that you’ve grown to hate.

If you’re meant to be a photographer that camera will call you back eventually.  You’ll find a way to pick it up again and enjoy it.  Don’t ever get so burdened that it becomes something you hate.

PHOTOGRAPHERS…

Do you talk to your therapist about your hatred of overdone HDR shots? Are you kept up at night by bokeh overload? What about that deep rooted urge to punch those strobist geeks square in the jaw? If you’re conflicted by any of these issues, or by any other deep rooted hatred of your fellow photographers, I have the solution…

Get Over Yourself!

When it comes to photography I hear people complaining about all sorts of things, hell, I complain a good deal myself. Someone is always trash talking the bokeh groups, shitting on the pictures of kittens, or picking on those cute little Lego guys performing various little Lego guy things. If we are talking Flickr, people are always bitching about the photos that make Explore and they can’t believe that their picture didn’t. How dare the Flickr staff not hand pick their photo out of the millions uploaded that day?

I’ve been on hiatus for a few months, not taking many pictures, but I’ve been keeping up with that’s going on. I’ve been trolling Flickr, stalking photographers on Twitter and Facebook. More importantly, I’ve been thinking about my own work, or lack thereof. In my journey I’ve been talking about photography with a friend that is new to it, someone going through all of it for the first time. It’s given me a perspective on photography that I didn’t have before, or that I haven’t had in a long time.

At one point we were all at a stage, photographically, where bokeh is cool, where your new puppy is the subject of every other photo you post. We all go through the steps in our own way, it’s a process. It’s like learning anything new, like walking. First we need to figure out how to roll our fat baby asses over, then eventually sit up, crawl, all this before we finally get to wobbling around our houses. Along the way we fall, a lot!

Anything we do from the time we pick up a camera, to the time we either stop taking pictures is a stepping point. We take it all in step by step and for a lot of people it’s fun to experiment, to find yourself. It’s a fun way to learn about how a lens works or how your camera will react to light and shadows.

Think about the Strobist group, or other groups like that. Those photographers, myself included, will put the Strobist info into their descriptions to show off their mad lighting skills. They are just at a different point than someone else in their photographic journey. Lighting isn’t anything new, it’s been around forever but it’s kind of the same thing if we really think about it. We’re in that, just figured out bokeh but don’t know what depth of field really is stage, just at a higher lever.

In either case it takes some skill and a good eye to make all work together. Those people, you, me, we’re all showing off but if it get’s our rocks off then good for them, good for us, good for you. While there may not be a need for another bokeh group you know people want to feel important or feel needed, and creating a group is a way to get that feeling. The important thing to me is the end result, the image, what does the picture mean to the person taking it?

Sometimes I just try to remember that there are millions of people on Flickr, even more shooting pictures we’ll never see. From the nine year old girls, to the 90 year old pervs. There is something out there for everyone and we are all doing something different, this makes it better for everyone. It’s the diversity that I like…

In the first part of this series I wrote about having fun, and that if you are not having fun what’s the point of even picking up that camera that’s there beside you.

Today, boredom rears it’s ugly head.

Lately I’m going through the motions.  I’ll pick up the camera, go stand in front of a wall, and bang out a photo.  It’s too hot here in Mississippi to go outside, so I’m confined to this small space trying to eke out another turd to upload to Flickr.

And let me interject, if you’re wanting to read a happy article that’s going to make you feel the creative juices this ain’t it.  This is the mopey, end of the road shit here.

I’m bored.  Really fucking bored.  I log in to Flickr and I see people posting less, commenting less.  The stuff that does get posted?  I’ve seen most of it before.  I fave less stuff.  It’s not just me.  It’s others feeling that way.  The scene is dead.  Take this blog even.  It’s been neglected these past few months.  None of us really care to write anything lately. Maybe we’re all sitting around waiting for something to happen.  Some great motivation to land at our feet.

And it’s not happening.

So what do you do at this point?  Say fuck it and walk away in frustration?  I’ve seen a lot of people do that.  Not just crappy photographers, but great ones.  They reach a point where it all becomes too much.  Too much fluff.  Too much crap floating on the surface.

But before I break out the “End of the World is Near” sign and start marching around in a white robe, I know that all creative people reach a point like this.  A doldrum.

You either break out of it or you throw the cards on the table and get up and walk away.

And we all know if we wait long enough, that inspiration, that kick ass feeling of taking photos.  It comes back.

All I know is it’s time that feeling  to be resurrected.