When you first enter the world of photography, there’s often that creative, fiery gust of excitement that comes with taking pictures. You often want to go out and take shots of just about everything. However, once going out to photograph becomes a routine, boredom starts to set in.

Which begs the question, how do you reignite that spark when you feel you’ve lost it? In this article, we will talk about the 10 things you can do when you begin to feel bored with photography. Let’s dive in.

1. Embrace Boredom

When we get bored, our immediate impulse is to look for the TV remote control, our phones, or anything that will stimulate us. We hate the feeling of boredom, so we reach out to the next available tech to keep us away from the boring situation.

This explains why you’ll watch a series movie through a long flight, play a computer game or read a magazine even if the content doesn’t necessarily interest you.

When carrying that camera no longer excites you, the impulse will be to put it down and find another activity that will keep your mind busy. In other words, the tendency is to run away from the boredom.

Unfortunately, running away and distracting yourself is often counterproductive and often only serve to keep you in a prolonged state of boredom. It prevents you from being able to examine the real cause of your boredom and finding an effective solution for it.

When you’re bored with photography, stay right where you are. Instead of running away, face and embrace boredom.

Understand that it is alright to be bored at times. It happens to everyone at some point in the course of their work, studies or career.  Recognizing this fact is the first step towards overcoming the fear of boredom.

Remember that if you can embrace boredom, it can no longer scare you and you won’t want to run away from it. Once you’ve learned how to be at peace with boredom, you can begin to find active solutions.

2. Take the Time to Reflect

Take some time to step back and reflect on your life as a photographer. Go back in time to when you first started out as a photographer and ask yourself some key questions: what drove you? Why did you fall in love with photography? Why do you think you’re losing that drive?

Ask yourself what you’re drawn to. If you find colors and patterns intriguing, perhaps you should try abstract photography. Or, if you like the adrenaline rush of capturing fleeting moments, maybe you should try wildlife or sports.

Start to see things more clearly and notice where your boredom problem is coming from.

Maybe you started on food photography because there was money in it. With time, you realize that it’s not the genre you are genuinely interested in; you realize that what gives you the thrill is landscapes or nature.

Suppose this is the realization you make during your reflection, already you’ll have figured out not just the root cause of your boredom but the potential cure too. But, all that starts with a moment of reflection to discover what works and what doesn’t.

3. Meditate

While continually stimulating your brain can alleviate your boredom temporarily, it often leads to more boredom. The reality is that constant stimulation diminishes the effect that the stimulus has. A better way to alleviate your boredom is to avoid stimulation. You can achieve this through meditation.

When we meditate we become focused in the present moment; we don’t allow any distractions from elsewhere to set in. This type of emptiness increases the value of stimulation and makes the activities we engage in feel more satisfying. 

Also, meditation puts you in an ideal state of receptiveness. The mind is most creative when it is quiet, and the body is relaxed. In this state, your mind is freed past the suppressive inner dialogue and is naturally receptive to the creative stimulus it receives from its surroundings. During this focus, we often think of the most rewarding ways to overcome our boredom.

4. Teach Others 

There is a Latin proverb that says, “By teaching, we learn.” This is true for photography as well. It’s normal to reach a point in your craft where you feel like your skills have reached a plateau.

An excellent way to break from this is by sharing your knowledge and experience with other people. You’ll realize that a lot of learning will come back when you share it out.

Teaching can help remind you of those things you’ve learned as a beginner that you were starting to forget.

Also, helping others with their photography keeps you in search of new knowledge. New ideas tend to come up when you try to answer questions other photographers have asked you.

This dynamic can stimulate your curiosity and help you reclaim your passion for photography.

Additionally, teaching others is a great way to find inspiration.  

Students tend to be more open-minded and willing to experiment with novel ideas than their experienced teachers. They are not yet bounded by the rules and traditions that typically comes with expertise.

Watching beginner photographers come up with uniques ideas can be motivating, especially if you thought that your skills have plateaued.

Also, teaching can help us feel that our efforts are contributing something to society and that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. The type of fulfillment that comes from helping others is essential to a fulfilling life and one of the best antidotes to boredom.

5. Get Involved and Be Active in Your Community

Connecting with like-minded individuals can help reinforce our values and gives us a sense of validation. This validation increases our self-esteem and helps remind us of who we are.

Being reminded of our identities and purpose can be beneficial, especially when we are starting to lose interest in our passions.

For example, surrounding yourself with fellow photographers can help you remember the reasons why you fell in love with photography in the first place. 

In addition, being a part of a community reminds us that we are not alone. It mirrors to us how universal our worries are, including boredom.

A community gives us a place to learn, share and connect with others. Such connections are essential in our lives, especially when dealing with issues that are integral to the human condition, such as boredom.

6. Find a Different Form of Creative Outlet

Take a break from photography and boost your mood by engaging in a different form of creative outlet. This could be any creative activity and does not necessarily have to be artistic.

One mistake that people make is to think about creativity in the artistic sense. But, creativity can be expressed in many ways beyond outside the world of art.

Creativity is about learning new ideas and how to communicate them. Trying out a new fitness routine, learning a language, cooking a meal; all these things are avenues where you can find creativity.

Engaging in these activities releases you from the artistic obligations of photography and can help restore motivation.

7. Turn to Unrelated Mediums for Inspiration

Sometimes we get bored because we are uninspired by our craft. But, inspiration doesn’t always have to come from photography. Rather than checking out images for inspiration, try turning to unrelated mediums.

Watch movies and pay attention to the nature of compositions and the different color schemes that have gone into creating that movie. Or, listen to music and use it to create mental images that you can translate into your work.

By paying attention to the practices of other people, your creative engine will ignite. You may come up with novel ideas that you never imagined before. Then, with your new set of ideas, you’re able to feel rejuvenated and ready to work with new energy.

8. Challenge Yourself

Letting yourself stay within a comfort zone is what courts boredom, and you have to get out of that zone to keep the passion alive. If you feel as though you’re starting to become complacent, then it’s time to mix things up and try something new.

Go out of your way and do something that you are not used to or one that you’ve never done before.  The idea is to keep injecting some degree of novelty in your work and finding ways to make it more dynamic.

Suppose you’re a nature photographer, consider trying out macro photography or portraits. These genres of photography will take you to an entirely new setting.

Moving from the outdoors to the studio means that you’ll be exposed to new equipment, new gear, and you have to learn things anew. You’ll have to get acquainted with studio lighting and learn how to manipulate it to produce different photos.

The same applies if you were to shift from studio photography to something like landscape photography. Here, you have to learn to use available natural lighting. You’ll learn to wake up early or stay out late to catch the blue and the golden hours.

The challenge of realizing what you don’t know can be quite stimulating. The learning process keeps your mind engaged. With every slight change into uncharted waters, there is a learning curve.

This learning process allows you to rediscover your passion for photography so that when you return to what you used to focus on initially, it is all new and exciting again.

9. Let Your Mind Wander

Space out and let your mind drift away to other things. While this may be unwelcome in a classroom situation where attention is required, spacing out has some fantastic advantages when it comes to dealing with boredom.

During daydreaming, a part of the brain called the “default mode network”  becomes active. So while your conscious mind takes a rest, the subconscious becomes active. In this mode, the mind becomes more effective in connecting disjointed ideas into concrete solutions for some of the most pressing issues and problems.

The brain does not like to be bored and will do anything to get out of it. In the state of boredom, the brain works extra hard to come up with something to do. This response is similar to the way a scared body does upon summoning an adrenaline rush.

Research shows that spacing out inspires deep contemplation and creativity. When you let your mind drift to something and not actively think, your brain continues to sort out your problems in the background. In the process, it more effectively comes up with the solutions.

So, boredom may be an excellent opportunity for you to discover things about your photography that you weren’t aware of before. Allow your mind to wander and give your subconscious a chance to work and figure out creative ways of solving your problems.

10. Work Out

Working out is a great way to clear your mind, increase your motivation, and help you think. 

Exercising can give you the motivation you need to find photography exciting again. The increase in activity in the hippocampus experienced during exercise is associated with higher levels of motivation, happiness, and excitement.

Studies have shown that exercising for as little as 30 minutes a day can have a profound impact on increasing your levels of motivation and happiness.

Also, exercise is a good way to clear your mind and stay focused. When you work out you do two things, you remove yourself from any of the feelings or emotions felt before your workout. At the same time, you keep your mind occupied by focusing on the current workout you are doing.

Finally, after working out you typically experience higher mental capacity due to the increase in blood flow throughout your body. Working out will not only clear your mind but it will also help you think. If you are in a rut taking photos, working out and then taking photos is a good way to spark some new ideas and gain some insight.

Conclusion

One of the greatest myths in society is that we have to be excited about something at all times if we are passionate about it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fulfillment in our careers is something that we have to cultivate for the rest of our lives.

At some point, we all get bored with what we do for one reason or another. What’s important is that we learn to make the most of that creative space once it sets in. This realization is by far the genesis of a truly successful and phenomenal career in photography.