I'm obsessed, are you?

[David Morison]

The nature of my personna is that I will discover a new pastime and in a fairly short time it will become all-consuming.

It all started with angling when I caught my first Minnow on a rod and line when I was 7. This progressed to Coarse fishing, Sea fishing, Game fishing and fly-tying.

Then suddenly after many years I lost interest and gradually got into Hill-walking which rapidly progressed to Rock-climbing, Winter mountaineering, Alpine mountaineering, Ice-climbing and Nordic skiing, getting qualifications in all disciplines.

Then through my job I had a chance to spend a week on a yacht sailing from Padstow to Conway and I was hooked, soon had my own sailing dinghy and progressed eventually to Yachtmaster. Took lots of holidays chartering yachts from the Hebrides to Malaysia to the Carribean.

Through all this my interest in photography, gained from my father, and natural history, from my mother, remained constant companions. I didn't always use a SLR/DSLR - a Ricoh half frame, a Pen and eventually a Monox 35MB being my weapons of choice for these more active pursuits.

Now, well into my retirement, my interests are still Natural History and Photography but I am disturbed by the obsession of needing to take photographs all day, every day. When I was Rock-climbing I couldn't go past a crag or even a high wall without imagining a way to climb it, now I look around me all the time for scenes/objects/creatures to photograph or constantly look to the skies etc. for birds to ID. It is affecting my life in many ways - not concentrating enough on my driving is dangerous, not listening to my Wife is even more so! Through all this I don't think my photography is getting any better, only my ability to handle even more technical kit.

I am worried that these passions will burn out like all the others, so today (the first in recent memory) I am not going to touch a camera, but catch up on essential admin, do some hoovering and clean the windows - perhaps it might catch on - to my Wife's delight!

Anyone out there recognise this aberrant behaviour?

David

[Ian]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Avoiding your camera - very aberrant I think we all have swings in trerms of motivation. The current weather and work obligations make it difficult for me to get out in decent light - I really hate it when the light fluctuates so much because of cloud racing past the sun...

Ian

[Pops]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Look upon it all as mental stimulation as opposed to aberrant behaviour.

Bet your wife will be hoping that your sudden urge for housework will also become progressive and time consuming

[David Morison]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Well it didn't last long - after all the hoovering and praise from Her indoors when she returned from a shopping trip I just had to grab the end of the afternoon to go and look for Barn Owls, so I failed in my determination not to touch a camera today. Got a good view of one as it flew alongside the car when I left the location to drive home but no chance of a photo. However while out in the sticks alongside the Upper River Witham I came across this strange little Church - All Saints at Stapleford, Lincs. Lying some distance from the village with little sign that it is in regular use - no name board or notices of services etc. Grade 11 listed 11th C. and in need of a little TLC. Unfortunately locked so no interior shots:




Main door:




South door:





Inscription by the main door (the tower was rebuilt in 1770):




A last look as the sun set:




Canon 7D plus EF 40mm f2.8 STM


David

[Tom Holle]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Beautiful pictures...and I think I understand exactly the compulsions you are talking about. I haven't had the desire or opportunity of the type you have described but have filled my life with other distractions. I retired 19 years ago and started taking photography more seriously. Photography has fillled a spot in heart, has made me more aware of the world and the smaller things that make it so integrated and beautiful. It has made me look at people and their uniqueness and in some cases with more empathy. I would like to improve my photography and there is satisfaction in that but that's not, for me, the driving force. I usually tell those that ask: "It is something to do to keep an old man occupied", and I think there may be alot of truth to that.

[Autumn]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

What a beautiful set of images David. I can undestand your need to take photographs.

I retired almost 17 years ago and photography has been my main hobby. My problem is that I rarely go out just to take photographs. It is almost always combined with going for a walk or family or around the garden or holidays.

I have over 52,000 photographs and I can almost always remember when or where I have taken them.

My biggest fault is not being ruthless enough in deleting. I don't keep OOF or really technically bad ones, but ones that I think I may need sometime!

I have a new computer and am determied to try to reduce this number this year.

Another thing is that the older I get, I am not so mobile so I enjoy going through my old photographs to see how I can improve them on the computer. There are images that I adjusted 10 years ago which I now realise I could make a better job of and through Lightroom it is much easier as I don't have to save the adjustments separately as I did in Photoshop. Of course, I still use PS for the adjustments I cannot manage in LR.

It's been and still is a great hobby for me and to be able to have friends on this forum who are able to help in all manner of ways with photography and computing, this is a bonus!

[Pops]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Looks like a lot of the original church is still there and it certainly looks well maintained.

[escallonia]

Re: I'm obsessed, are you?

Looks like that's the original notice board, pity it was locked very nice David.
Regards John.