Archive 2013 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Tapeman
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Join a camera club. My brother-in-law is a member of a club in Wales and he loves it.

Mar 18, 2013 at 08:28 AM

Tredders
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Guys, again thanks for all the replies.

Had a really enjoyable day today. With my wife at work, and our daughter in school, I was able to take my camera out with a clear conscience

Took a stroll around town, took lots of photos (buildings, people, trees, anything really!), bought a carbon fiber travel tripod for use with the X100, and then headed home to walk up to the hills at the back of the house to take some photos of the old church.

It was so nice not to have to rush home, edit the photos, caption them and send them off to newspapers, and I really enjoyed the day. I already feel quite liberated by the whole experience!

I do need to learn how to see a bit more creatively, so I'm going to investigate the books suggested in the thread. Whilst a camera club is a nice idea, I can't guarantee that I'd be free on a given evening each month, so if / when I go down the course route, it'll be online.

Mar 18, 2013 at 02:31 PM

jkhalifa
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Some great recommendations here, and I'm glad you had a good day out today. I'll add in my own two cents, as well.

You might consider something with a bit of a thrill factor. My "wake up the senses and photograph" hobby is urban decay - abandoned buildings like schools, churches, factories, etc. There's a bit of a danger element being in a place that is falling apart, plus the police factor, along with the real reason I do it, that I love to chronicle the history of urban neighborhoods and industry... it all combines to get the creative juices flowing.

Now I'm not actually recommending you follow me down this road of borderline insanity - but maybe there's something you're interested in that gives you a bit of a thrill, and you can adapt your photography to this. If the rush of a train going by gives you goosebumps, try photographing the railroad - the trains, the tracks, the crossings, the ballast. If you love heights, seek them out and find a perspective that makes them pop.

Everyone has something that gets them excited. Seek it out and capture it!

Justin

Mar 18, 2013 at 05:24 PM

canav844
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Start a 365, post it publicly on a facebook account or something where people will see it and you'll have some obligation, even if it's only a few loyal likes per day to put out material for those viewers. You'll see phases of some uninspired shots, you'll have incentive to start watching youtube and reading books to try new things.

The act of get out an shooting will engage that part of your brain and get it started again. It'll be a process, you may need to make weekly or monthly themes (B&W, pick a color, shape, style, technique, focal length, etc) and have daily self assignments to get going. I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check and see that I had done it. Five or six months in you'll be planning out shots for days and chasing that image sitting in your minds eye.

Best of all it's free, doesn't require parting with what you have nor buying anything new.

Mar 18, 2013 at 08:21 PM

Deborah Kolt
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

The 360 degree turn is excellent advice. Shooting a scene horizontally, then rotating the camera and shoot the same scene vertically is another way to get the creative juices flowing. Then get down low or shoot from above. Shoot the same subject with wide angle, then telephoto. Go out one day and shoot only things that are red... or blue. Go out and shoot during Golden Hour and vary your subjects - buildings, nature, etc. Rent a lens you have never tried before, and shoot with it for a week. Super wide, macro, fish or tilt shift - a new perspective can be inspiring. Work on skills we seldom use in sports photography, like composing entirely in camera rather than cropping. Read a forum you have never sampled before, look through their work and try to apply their aesthetic and techniques. I always enjoy reading the Wedding threads and find ideas I can use when shooting events, even though I would never consider shooting a wedding. (They also seem to suffer from burn out and repetitiveness, btw.)

Bryan Peterson's Learning to See Creatively has some interesting ideas for looking at subjects differently. There's also a more recent book, Picture Perfect Practice, written to help wedding photographers fine tune their skills and take their work to the next level. Loads of good ideas there.

Mar 24, 2013 at 11:01 AM

Tredders
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Thanks again for all the replies. A quick update so far: -

I shot the last-but-one hockey game of the season last night, and pretty much did it with my eyes closed. I know every inch of our rink, how all our players skate, where they channel passes etc etc. It just reinforced my decision to 'retire', and I'm really looking forward to going back to watching next season....

On the photography side, that decision has given me a new lease of life! I've probably shot more (non-hockey) photos in the last 2 weeks, than I did the whole of last year. I've been shooting everything from street scenes, to landscapes, to trees, to locks and door handles on buildings (seriously!), and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Sure, a lot of the pictures are dull or don't work when I get home and view them on screen, but I'm also learning about the types of photos that interest me, so it's all good.

I've even been lurking in FM forums that I've never been near before (city, street & architecture and landscape photographer to name but two), and just generally reading lots of online photography articles. In short, I'm definitely getting back "into" photography. Funnily enough, I just ordered the Bryan Peterson Learning to See Creatively book from Amazon, so I'm looking forward to reading that...

Thanks again to all who replied to this thread - your suggestions are gratefully received!

Mar 24, 2013 at 11:11 AM

Deborah Kolt
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

Someone mentioned Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye, which is a wonderful book, as are his others. As you continue to experiment, you might find inspiration there. You might also find David DuChemin's books speak to you. Within the Frame is gorgeous, as are his other works, but you might find VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography" resonates.

Mar 27, 2013 at 12:22 PM

mbcstdeni
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · So what now? Help me with life after hockey shooting!

How about shooting sports/ hockey from another perspective? I've shot youth/ kid hockey and soccer and baseball for a couple years now and there's something special and moving about kids sports - less of an action focus and more "moment in time" perspective (e.g. goal celebrations and kids mimicking adults). This seems to translate nicely into intimate portraits.

Mar 27, 2013 at 09:36 PM

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