Unintentional self-imposed limitations

"The limitations in your photography are in yourself." - Ernst Haas

I stumbled upon this quote by Ernst Haas today while reading something online. It struck me that this is exactly how I feel toward my own photography lately. Often on weekends or evenings after work, I'll head out on a photo outing with my DSLR in hand to capture whatever catches my eye. On some of these outings I'm accompanied by my partner or our dog (or both). Other times I'm flying solo. Sometimes I'm in the car. Sometimes on a walk with the dog. For the past year or so, I've not made time for these outings as often as I used to, and when I do go out, I feel like I'm searching for that "perfect photo" moment. A subject catches my eye, I take several photos, but inevitably the photo I capture is never quite as good as the way I had envisioned it. I'm stuck in a creative rut. A humdrum photography routine. Something I need to snap out of. The photo included here is one I captured on a foggy morning dog walk in the neighborhood. It was taken with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. A quick snapshot, but one I'm pretty pleased with.

I recently joined a local photography club. I'm still getting to know people, but the first meeting I went to had probably 50 or more people in attendance. I talked with several people and quickly realized this is going to be a great group. The monthly meetings include time to mingle and chat before a guest speaker shares his or her experience (last month was a professional photographer sharing photos from his recent travels), a photo contest centered around that month's theme and inspiration to do something great. Exactly what I need.

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