I think I shoot too few photos

The real desire that I think might be getting in the way is the desire to create a "magic" roll of film where every shot is great.

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I think that bearing it in mind has a negative effect on a photographer. By trying to get the perfection thru every single shot of a film roll you eliminate yourself very badly.
I don't carry a goal either, as suggested by thomas bertilsson, although such a goal isn't bad at all.
Personnally, if I have a priority, it is to find something representative of an area. Whether i decide to explore one town district, one little town or a park, I make up my mind as to find something symbolic of this area. Nothing more, nothing less.
Concerning the shot frequency, I don't limit myself with a certain number of shots. I shoot whenever I feel it is worth it, whatever amount of shots it might require. While being a teen and being broke most of the time, I had an almost obsession as to limit my shots. But now, I have a decent job and enough spare time to enjoy myself with films. So I don't limit myself in any ways.

Keep shooting with joy, merriness and happiness. That's all what mattters.

Making hopefully great photos is the goal. Having them in the same roll is unimportant a goal and will work against the abovementioned goal.

As far as residual frames in a roll are concerned, you could choose a "residual theme" which you use to end all "tails". This should be something different from what you do normally.

Let's say you normally do street photography. Your "residual theme" might be "landscape in my city park". Every time you have a roll to complete, you go to the same park. You will explore it photographically "endlessly", in all seasons, with all films, with all cameras, and shoot there all your tails. You will have to look at it differently each time, you will have to train your photographic eyes to find different interesting compositions from the same familiar subject matter.
That also could be an exercise in using different focal length to the same subject, etc.

It goes without saying that if your normal subject is let's say landscape, your "residual theme" might be "people working in my district" or whatever.

You will end up with a series of your residual theme shot in different films, with different cameras, focal lengths, light conditions, seasons etc. and I think it is a very good exercise in seeing things "photographically".

Thomas Bertilsson said:

It takes real discipline to do this, but in a way it rewards you too, because when you shoot with a theme in mind, you eliminate a lot of noise, such as trying to capture everything that looks cool.

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I found this well stated and really helpful.

Thomas Bertilsson said:

Finally, it's good to practice; practice makes perfect.

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This is something I'm a bit more hesitant about. We obviously get better at something when we practice, but get better at what exactly? I might say that "practice makes us comfortable with things". In my case, practice has made me comfortable taking aesthetically pleasing photos that don't mean a whole lot to me or anyone else (you can look at my flickr to see what I mean). I don't know if everyone would agree with this, but I feel that sometimes we need to get shocked out of our comfort zone, and only then does practice comes back into play to make the new artistic territory comfortable. I guess I do agree, just with an asterisk and a footnote.

That said, thanks a lot for your response.

Due to family, financial, and more recent health issues I've been in a 30+ year ditch. Basically gave it and everything else up that long ago. Now I can't dig myself out of that ditch. But I can't make myself enjoy anything anymore no matter how much I once loved it. I'm trying though. I'll try and kick your attitude into gear if you'll do the same for me.

jakeblues said:

This is something I'm a bit more hesitant about. We obviously get better at something when we practice, but get better at what exactly? I might say that "practice makes us comfortable with things". In my case, practice has made me comfortable taking aesthetically pleasing photos that don't mean a whole lot to me or anyone else (you can look at my flickr to see what I mean). I don't know if everyone would agree with this, but I feel that sometimes we need to get shocked out of our comfort zone, and only then does practice comes back into play to make the new artistic territory comfortable. I guess I do agree, just with an asterisk and a footnote.

That said, thanks a lot for your response.

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hi jakeblues

what do we get better at when we practice ?
we get better at a lot of things ...

one thing i know i have gotten better at through exposing a fair amount of film is how to use my camera/s.
this may sound kind of strange, but every camera works differently.
sure they have shutters, and buttons, and lenses that might or might not have the ability
to stop down, but they all see the world in a different way, and getting used to THAT is the hardest thing of all.

i am not one to care about aesthetically pleasingly photos, to be honest i am not a fan of pretty as a post card photos,
knowing how a camera and lens and shutter works in a variety of situations can only be done through making a lot of exposures .. "practicing" ...

jakeblues said:

This is something I'm a bit more hesitant about. We obviously get better at something when we practice, but get better at what exactly? I might say that "practice makes us comfortable with things". In my case, practice has made me comfortable taking aesthetically pleasing photos that don't mean a whole lot to me or anyone else (you can look at my flickr to see what I mean). I don't know if everyone would agree with this, but I feel that sometimes we need to get shocked out of our comfort zone, and only then does practice comes back into play to make the new artistic territory comfortable. I guess I do agree, just with an asterisk and a footnote.

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It's completely fine if you don't agree. We express opinions and cite what works for us, but it doesn't necessarily mean it works for everybody else. I share my opinions simply hoping that somebody else might benefit from it.

Now, practice, and being out of our comfort zone are not mutually exclusive the way I see things. In fact, by practicing you get better at handling the camera, understanding light of all kinds, , instantaneously compose an unknown scene, reacting to the subject matter, and 'feel' the whole workflow, from exposure to finished print. And that makes you prepared to react to something that's completely out of your comfort zone.

So, to me, the more you practice and the more you shoot and print, the more able you will be to simply react to what's in front of you, focusing only on the subject matter, without having to think too much about work flow.

I have noticed this lately, where I basically have no time to print and shoot, so I find it a lot more difficult to be in tune with my work flow as something good comes my way; I basically feel out of practice, like a runner who hasn't run for a long time, and is trying to get back into shape.

That's what I think practice does.

John makes a great point here.

Knowing my tools/systems well is important to me so that I don't have to think about them when I'm shooting important stuff.

jakeblues said:

In my case, practice has made me comfortable taking aesthetically pleasing photos that don't mean a whole lot to me or anyone else (you can look at my flickr to see what I mean).

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I think you already know the answer here. Looking at your flickr, your work looks just about like every other "aesthetically pleasing" photographer on flickr. Meaning, it's not really about anything, just stuff that happens to be in front of you. A little color, a little black and white. Try that flare thing that all the portrait photographers are doing. You use the word "obligatory" and it really feels that way, like formalist gangsta rap (money, rims, hoes). Going through the motions, inspiration zero.

Great photographs are the result of hard work and an idea, even if a vague one, that can unite many images created over time. One sure way to undercut the unity is to use many different lenses, cameras and films. (How would Avedon's work look if he had shot some 35mm color neg with a fish eye, just for giggles?) It's hard enough to do great work with one camera and one or two lenses and no more than two films (one slow and one fast). Seriously, that's plenty challenging.

If you go that route, suddenly everything starts to have a uniform optical space. (Compare that to your average landscape photographer, with the super wides and the macros jumping back and forth. It's all very unsettling. Very few people can pull it off.) Now, you can choose different lenses for different projects, but try to keep each project so that the same film/camera/lens combos are used for all of the pictures in that project.

Also, shoot more MF. You'll get 15 frames on your Mamiya, so you can finish the roll faster. You'll find that you see better. The bigger negs are so much easier to proof and edit, too.

Hope that helps. Photography is incredibly rewarding but it is not easy.

When you write lots of posts on forums like these, you get good at... writing. Makes it worth reading sometimes.

When you take lots of photos, you get good at... you guessed where I was going with this... photography. Makes it worth seeing.

I like ParkerSmithPhoto's advice. Pick one camera and a couple lenses and a couple films. Start with MF, you might never go back.

You can get great yield from a few rolls of film if you put your mind to it. How many of us have put together a couple 80-slide trays' worth of entertainment from half a dozen rolls of film. And our friends really, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Take a lot of pictures of your friends. You know them more than anyone else. Reveal what you know about them. Get close, literally and figuratively-speaking.

As Sally Mann said (in a documentary about her I saw), "Take pictures of the things and people you love, that will be the best pictures you take".

Thanks for the thoughtful replies.