Sometimes it's the urge to just get outdoors and shoot while enjoying really nice weather or a particular time of year when everything is either bursting into bloom with flowers or beginning to settle down for the winter by trees shedding colorful leaves..... Sometimes it's simply that I'll be somewhere -- either at home or somewhere else -- and see something which catches my attention and I begin thinking about what kind of image could be captured of it, whether it's the entire subject or just a section of it.... When this occurs I usually grab the iPhone and start experimenting with it since I've got it with me anyway when out of the house, but even when in the house I'll pick it up first "just to see what will happen."
Once in a while that's enough, I surprise myself by getting something interesting with the iPhone, or at other times the iPhone experimentations convince me that getting out the real gear is going to be worth it and even more fun in exploration. Many images I share, some never get to the editing stage and others I'll edit and process but decide that while I like them and find them interesting that it's probable others wouldn't and so they don't get shared.
Other times I just pick up the camera, stick a lens on it and we head out the door to see what we can find. Sometimes we discover lots of neat things to shoot, other times not so much. Other times I get an idea in my head of something I'd like to try and spend some time with the camera and a lens or two and perhaps a tabletop setup to see if I can bring the vague idea in my head into reality.
Then there are the times when I'm in the middle of preparing something in the kitchen -- morning coffee, lunch, dinner -- and spot some action going on out on the lake, or Alfred standing in a new spot within reasonable shooting distance, and I drop everything, run to the other room and usually grab the RX10 M4 because it's sitting out on a table for just this purpose, and hustle out to the deck to shoot whatever is going on while it's happening before things change. Usually no time to grab the A7R IV and long lens, so the RX10 takes care of things.
Years ago I did a 365-Day/Photo-of-the-Day project and didn't make it quite to the end because I got burned out and also because I felt stressed at having to share with the group on another site something each and every day -- and I felt compelled to produce something outstanding each time. Well, for one reason or another some days the images just weren't as exciting, interesting or stellar as they could've been, which bothered me and overshadowed the enjoyment and pleasure of the act of taking photos, which was meant to be an inherent component of the entire process and project.
I much prefer our POTD thread here on MR where we can share photos we've shot, but they don't have to be on the very day, and can be from archives or whatever.....the more relaxed approach works for me, as sometimes I'll go out and shoot several images, all of which I find worth editing and then later sharing, and other times I may come home with one decent shot or none at all, but no big deal, no pressure. In the end it's really about me being out and having the experience of the process of shooting, connecting with my subject, more than it is the actual results.
