I am sure it will pass.
A weird, unfamiliar space.
For years now I have had a constant mental queue of ‘want’ or ‘need’ items. But not now.
I thought it was by fluke, but I just survived a long holiday vacation break with internet access and was free to visit my local camera store during all open hours and… nothing. I bought nothing.
Film or digital.
This is weird.
So after years of gear churn what happened?
Let me work through it by listing some possible reasons.
- Tired?
- New thing, same result fatigue. No longer found it ‘fun’ to relearn a new control layout. Climbing learning curves was no longer amusing.
- Tried?
- I have bought or borrowed all the gear I wanted to try, which did a lot to demystify what gear will or will not do. Confirmed factually what I knew already logically. It is more about what you do with the gear than the gear itself.
- Refocused?
- Stopping the swapping allowed more bandwidth to focus on the shooting which made the experience more enjoyable.
- Stopped the churn?
- Towards the end of my gear churn journey, I realized that I was repurchasing previously traded gear. Was just robbing Peter to pay Paul. So I stopped. If I have it and I know I want it just keep it. At the same time if I know I will not use it sell it.
Close, but none hit the nail on the head though. It all can be summed quite succinctly.
- Finished.
- I realized I tried all that I wanted to try, bought those that I wanted after trying, and those that remained did not interest me. Towards the end of my gear churn journey, I realized that I was repurchasing previously traded gear that I regretted selling. So I stopped. If I have it and I know I want it just keep it. At the same time if I know I will not use it sell it.
Now what? Shoot more film of course.
Eric L. Woods 