I'm a self taud photographer living in Denmark. I started photographing back in my school days, took a class for one year and it got my hooked. In my family there was a press photographer who took my out on a few of his jobs.
But it never happened then. I am a trained electrician, and later i became a socialworker but photography turned up again on vacations and as a hobby. That evolved into small jobs on the side, it grew and I turned pro for a period of 4-5 years. Then came Covid, it didn't stop my at first, but it got me thinking.
Being a pro is hard work, it's more about business and sales than it is about being a decent photographer. And to be honest, I don't do business very well, and I suck at sales, so I decided to go back to working as a socialworker. These days I work fulltime in a pchyciatric closed ward with intensive care, which I enjoy and love, and photography is a side hustle at the most, but primarily it is a hobby.
When working as a pro, my creativity slowly died. It died so much, that when i closed my compagny, i was almost unable to shoot anything. I was used to be given a task, say a wedding, a portrait, an event and so on, and the work was done like it should, but also like a routine I just finished without much thought. Don't get me wrong, the photographs where not bad, in fact some of that work I am very proud of, but after the business i was unable to come up with new ideas for a while.
I started taking pictures with filmcameraes. That helped. Started to shoot new things, that also helped, and then the ultimate push was to restrict myself when is was travelling or going out for walks.
Now I enjoy both film and digital. I shoot mostly film at the moment, using my digital camera for video more than for stills. I also build a darkroom in my office, and I am experimenting with the enlarger for printing my 120 and 35mm negatives. There is a pinhole camera being build, but that might take a while.
The point is, that i photograph for fun and for memories, but most of all i do it to relax from a daytime job that demands a lot from me, and i enjoy it very musch:-)
Peter64 (Peter Lundø)