Are You Shooting More (or less) than in Previous Years???

As a follow-up to my last post last week about conversions, I had myself wondering if I had been shooting more or less in the last 5 years. If I was shooting more than in prior years or if I was shooting less than prior years, I stopped to ask myself why?

Many people when they move into photography they often shoot quite a bit and many times they will explore a variety of topics. In my case, I started out taking travel pics as well as a variety of animals. My photographic adventures were fairly limited to my vacation times during the year with an occasional special project.

As I became more interested in people photography, I studied how to improve from a variety of sources and became intrigued by the possibilities.  I began to take many more images not only of people, but also pictures during my travels using different lenses.  As I joined different groups I purchased a variety of photographic supplies and of course I needed to shoot with them to test out my new abilities hoping to improve when each new opportunity. I was gaining experience in editing programs such as photoshop, so I of course needed to shoot a variety of genres. 

Business opportunities did eventually present themselves and I eventually began shooting even more than years past. Different photographers were posting on social media on a regular basis, so I also felt the need to generate new material to as a marketing strategy.  So to use the term 'conversion' from last week, there was a positive conversion (or benefit) financially and emotionally to continue shooting at a fairly high volume.  This of course had a slightly downside to it since I was spending many hours behind the computer editing images. (Side note here, there are companies and retouchers  that will edit images for you)

Last year, I noticed that I was shooting less. Certainly COVID was a part of the issue here, but not the only issue. I found myself becoming more picky about when and what I shot. Instead of taking every possible avenue to shoot images, I became more selective about what I really wanted to shoot. Of course, that did not mean that I did not practice and improve on skill levels. One should never fall into the trap where they feel that they are 'experts' and have no need of practice or improvement. This almost always ends up in a downward spiral not only with skills but also with potential customers and co-workers.

Are you shooting more or less than prior years? Why?