Gone Fishing
September 10th, 2007
As Marek commented on the last post, I’ve been a little off my game the last couple of weeks. Chalk it up to changes at work, the cumulative effort of keeping a film based blog going (seriously, it’s a lot of work), and just doing too much of the same thing for too long. The last couple of weeks I find myself repeating a passage from the Tao Te Ching over and over; “Keep sharpening your knife and it will dull.” My knife is dull. It’s time for a break.
On that note, I’m hanging up my “Gone Fishing” sign. The blog is closed until further notice, but feel free to poke around the archives. There are literally thousands of photos on this site, which should be enough to keep all of you busy for a while. See you back here when the fish stop biting or the beer runs out, which ever comes first.
September 10th, 2007
Say it ain’t so!
September 11th, 2007
Matt,
Everybody seems to agree that it harder to start again than it is to keep going. Don’t stop shooting.
September 11th, 2007
Matt,
I understand the frustration of feeling like one is in a ‘rut’ (for lack of a better term)… but keep in mind that every picture you take, every roll you process and every frame you print and/or scan & fiddle with, contributes to your ongoing development.
Sure, some people choose to restrict a blog like this to one’s “very best shots”, but on the other hand, it’s extremely interesting (for me at least) to see a record of the entire process - its ups and downs (and sideways detours).
Have you thought about pursuing a specific ‘theme’ or devoting your time to a specific photo project, where the goal would be to develop a portfolio of some (relatively small) number of images? Sometimes having a specific goal re-energizes the creative juices.
-Paul
September 12th, 2007
Hi Matt,
Just wanted to tell you that your website is that inspiring, that I started B&W photography again after 25 years absence.
What attracts me more than everything else is the sharing of your knowledge of B&W procedures and equipment used. There is a general shortage of knowledge transfer on internet in the area of modern B&W development and scanning techniques. You filled that nicely. Also your pictures are nice examples of what can be done in B&W.
Enjoy your “fishing” and hope to see you back someday.
Cor
September 12th, 2007
Yeah, very few people can keep up a film-based blog. Take a break and get some rest. I’ll keep the RSS feed in my bookmarks.
See ya later.
October 1st, 2007
I’m feeling a bit the same way with my own blog:http://pentaxk10dblog.blogspot.com/
You start off with lots to say and then gradually find that it becomes increasingly difficult to come up with worthwhile posts. One way out of the malaise might simply be to post less often instead of giving up altogether. That’s what I’ll probably end up doing. I’ve tried to post at a rate of once every three days or so. I might drop it to once a week or even once a fortnight.
You’ve done remarkably well to keep going for so long without becoming boring and repetitive. Maybe just a once-a-month post would keep your eye in whilst letting you recharge your batteries?
Regards,
Bruce
October 2nd, 2007
For a long time, I’ve been posting everyday, but that just gets to be too much. Now I’m just posting when I feel like it, which seems to work out to every couple of days, although I’m reserving the right to go for weeks without posting whenever I can break myself away ;-)
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
Matt