I was smiling as I read Paul Lesters “Settling and recover time” post at Paul Lester Photography. As Paul recounts, we’d had lunch earlier that day and a topic discussed was the lag or recovery time between returning from a major photography trip and our wanting to pick up cameras again.
The funny part was that on the drive back home from that lunch with Paul I’d been thinking this subject would make a good post.
Paul beat me to it, only fair I guess since he’d asked the leading transition question! From here on I’m sure to pack my laptop to our lunches so I can get the drop on Paul if any good ideas sprout from future conversations. ;-)
I’d been thinking about this subject even before Paul asked his question. It was only that very morning that I’d finally taken my first photos since returning two weeks ago from my Alaska trip.
Paul had experienced a similar photography recovery period with his recent return from Utah.
All of the reasons Paul stated in his post certainly play some part in this recovery/readjustment time phenomena. Beyond that, I personally seem to need time to process and mentally file these types of experiences.
If I immediately jumped into another “project” perhaps I’d feel cheated of proper closure.
LOL! You’ve gotta move fast, Earl! :-) If you’ve read the comments, you see that we are not alone in our ‘condition’. It seems that this affects quite a few people, dare I say the majority of photographers. Of course, my statistical sample is way to low to make any such judgments, but then again, I’m not a statistician so I can make these leaps without fear of censure! ;-)
Paul, I would “guess” that many, if not the majority, of people would experience this. I don’t feel it’s a negative thing. I’d perhaps worry more if I could immediately move on and not feel anything. I want my photography to be about emotions, feelings and enthusiasm at least as much or more as the techniques and science.
Maybe for us these types of trips are like eating a big wonderful meal. It takes a while before we get hungry again. :-)