You know the feeling. Stupid early. Still dark. You stumble out the door half-asleep, backpack digging into your shoulders, but you’re buzzing. Crisp air. No one around. Tripod in the blue hour glow. A little cloud action. Then boom golden light!

One of the most euphoric, surreal things you can do with a camera.

So why did I stop?

Messy answer: landscape photography is what got me hooked… and then slowly drifted out of my personal work. For a while I didn’t question it. Eventually I had to ask: why am I avoiding something I used to love?

Here’s what I unpacked.

The Weather Became a Slot Machine

I started treating the sky like a pokies screen. Will the clouds light up? Will I get epic Light? Rain? but not too much!

And when it didn’t happen, I went home empty and annoyed. I stopped going out unless the forecast looked ideal. I was refreshing charts like a Tik Tok Doom Scroller, It stopped feeling creative and started feeling like a rigged gamble.

Tripods Killed My Curiosity

Tripods have a purpose. But for me they turned into anchors.

Find a composition, set the legs, level the head… and stay put. No movement. No wandering. No “what if I’m wrong and the photo’s actually over there?” The frame got static. So did I.

Gear Creep Turned Into a Job

I packed like I was going to war! ultra-wide for drama, tele for compression, NDs for long exposure, spare batteries, lens cloths, maybe a drone if I felt spicy.

The “quick sunrise shoot” became an overplanned expedition and half the time I only used one lens anyway. The mental friction (“ugh, do I really want to carry all this?”) kept me home more than I’d like to admit.

Pretty, Not Personal

This one stings. I looked back and realised a lot of frames felt… generic. Even from places no one else had shot.

Why? I was running a formula: foreground interest, leading line, dramatic sky. Foreground–midground–background. Rule of thirds. Boom.

Technically fine. Aesthetically pleasing. Creatively hollow. I wasn’t making my picture; I was performing “landscape photographer.”

So… What Do I Shoot Now?

I still shoot landscapes… just not the old way. I care less about golden hour and more about what a place feels like. I’ll go on epic hikes with mates, document the trip, and if a landscape presents itself, bam I’ll shoot it. Otherwise I’m not out there to “shoot Landscapes” with a capital L.

Call it travel. Call it documentary. Call it street. I don’t care. I’m capturing my version of the world and how I move through it. Sometimes that’s a vista or Cityscape. Sometimes it’s a crumbling sign, a dingy alley, or someone just existing in perfect light.

What I’m Actually Saying

Landscape photography brought out a side of me I didn’t like: the perfectionist, the over-planner, the guy who checks the weather ten times and still ends up disappointed. I started chasing a shot instead of chasing curiosity.

That’s not why I picked up a camera.

Now I move lighter. I react more. I get weird with angles again. I notice stuff. I enjoy it.

If you’re burnt out or stuck, maybe it’s not your gear, your skills, or your location. Maybe it’s the pressure you’ve built around what a “good photo” is supposed to look like.

Let it go. Shoot what stops you.

The Dark Side of Photography