This camera marked the low point of my photography. As you can see from all the installments of this series I bought more and more cameras and lenses. But this did not help with my loss of focus and creativity. I simply no longer enjoyed photography. My then most used camera the Olympus M5 Mk.2 felt overly complicated, I did not like the cramped controls and I hated doing post processing on every picture.
I work at a computer for a living (like so many people nowadays) and I did not want to spend more time editing pictures. Still I got this fixed idea that a new camera would spark my love again. So I sold the Olympus and bought the Panasonic GX8.
I suppose it was decent camera. It had a few megapixels more and the controls were slightly better. What I especially liked was the rangefinder style viewfinder (it sits on the left side which makes holding the camera more comfortable) which could also be tilted upwards. Like my ancient Minolta Dimage A1.
But in the end new gear could not compensate for what one might call photographer’s block. I only took 200 pictures with that camera but I managed to buy two new lenses. I was unhappy with life in general and like so many people I essentially did retail therapy. Therefore I only share one picture. because most of them are even to dull for thedullchannel.
Gray and Dull
Panasonic GX8 + Olympus M.25mm F1.8@F4 1/4000s ISO 200
This part of my life gave rise to the name “thedullchannel” later on. So something good came out of it. I used to go therapy sessions and took my camera with me. On one such days I came across these old East German office prefabs. As you can see from the shutter speeds this was a very sunny day. Still I only took a handful of pictures.
Shortly afterwards I sold all my camera gear. All the lenses, backpacks, filters, cameras and so on. I only kept the small Sony RX100 for the occasional pictures of my soon to be newborn daughter.
But here ends the slow decline. I obviously found a way to spark my creativity again. How…you will have to wait for next installment.