Photo-constipation

Here is a lovely term coined by Deepa Mohan

Photo-constipation:

It is what many ‘serious photographers’ suffer from as they have to edit the images. Its usually when after one trip, it takes three months, sometimes, for just a few images to emerge out!

I, for one, have been suffering from it the last few month. What about you ?

26 Comments

  1. Pradeep · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Yes Kalyan,
    Am not yet in the ‘serious photographers’ group, but do suffer from it.. 🙂 It usually takes a month or more.. depends on the moribund work schedule at office..

  2. Clipped.in - Explore Indian blogs · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Its high time to consult a photo doctor 🙂

  3. Vinay · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Ohh yes yes!
    Its been over 2 months since I returned from Bhutan…only about 2 or 3 images have made it to flickr 🙂

  4. Sandesh · March 12, 2010 Reply

    I won’t dare to call my self serious photographer. But ya surely I suffer from that a lot of times.

  5. Vijay · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Yes… Absolutely true. Even though I’m not very professional in photography, this, so called “Photo-constipation” irks me. 🙁 🙁

  6. Tarique Sani · March 12, 2010 Reply

    There is a cure for it – you have to go and sit with was firm belief that you can 😉

  7. ramkrsna · March 12, 2010 Reply

    I guess SLR and RAW formats are the culprits, it takes time to process hence the constipation. We’ll again point and shoot, jpeg formats would lead to “photo diarrhoea” in many cases.

  8. Aravind Balakrishnan · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Hey Kalyan, ROFL, What I find most compelling about this notion is that the unemployed (Photographer!!!)presumably imagine only a few types of jobs they could fill…. Whose line is it anyway?

  9. Mital Patel · March 12, 2010 Reply

    well its really true kalyan. i am suffering too from that diseases but i get nice time to work on those images while i am on work trip 🙂

  10. arati rao · March 12, 2010 Reply

    hardly a serious photographer, but yeah — the valparai trip is sitting in my head and hard drive 🙂 my excuse? the place was just too utterly beautiful and my photos dont do any justice! 🙂 whatever!

  11. Radha · March 12, 2010 Reply

    That’s one hell of a term!
    Images from the December Valparai workshop are still struggling to make it to the processing stage. Photo-constipated I definitely am. Guilty as charged 🙂

  12. Ashwin · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Of the zillion photos I captured from my Rajasthan trip, I managed to upload *one*. Yea, well what can one do. Nothing seems good enough or everything needs careful scrutiny before going out. Hang in there folks, one day those photos will go online.

  13. Deepak · March 12, 2010 Reply

    hahaha.. Yes!! I know the feeling! I have got a back-log of almost a year.

  14. Prem · March 12, 2010 Reply

    True not only for ‘serious’ guys, but amateurs too.

    I have pictures sitting for processing for so long now… and I have realized that if I dont process snaps within a week or two of the trip, it never happens.

  15. Amit · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Second that. Happens even for an amateur like me. If I don’t get on it _immediately_, the photos spend forever just sitting on my hard disk.

  16. vivek · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Good to see , this is a common ailment . I was worried i got a exotic one 🙂

  17. Deepak · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Didn’t know this is such a common problem 😉

  18. Bhooshan · March 12, 2010 Reply

    I do & what a delightful coinage! Unlike its name-sake, the more you sit on it(no pun intended!), the longer & less painful the pressure to publish! I might add that the only laxative that works is someone else with similar frames publishing it ahead of you in known circles. Performance pressure from your circle can heighten the condition. Some are known to exhibit false-positive symptoms due to rebellion! 🙂

  19. Dilip Chacko · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Great coinage. Possibly another name for cold feet when it comes from people like us who can hardly claim to be known as ‘serious’ photographers

  20. Monish · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Oh yes, it matches my (non medical)condition, November 2008 Italy pictures came out a cool 12 months later and now another set is waiting to complete ten months…really constipated…lucky the Valparai workshop set was out in 3-4 days…:)

  21. bhooshan · March 12, 2010 Reply

    On second thoughts- if photo-constipation is the equivalent of “writer’s block” – which is essentially a creative problem – it just reaffirms the well kept secret that the creative process in photography has moved from the camera to the computer. Right or wrong is not the point but it surely has shifted. With exposure bracketing, HDR, RAW, 12 megs etc, there is no constipation with the camera in hand, for sure.

  22. uberVU - social comments · March 12, 2010 Reply

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by kalyanvarma: Do you suffer from Photo-constipation ? http://bit.ly/c4OvkD

  23. Kishore Murthy · March 13, 2010 Reply

    I have been photo-constipated for almost two years now. I am essentially bloated, but still can’t stop eating. Its driving me crazeee.

  24. Nagesh · March 13, 2010 Reply

    Absolutely. Chronic condition with me! The funny thing is that this particular “constipation” hasn’t made me reduce my “intake” 🙂 🙂

  25. Dhanya · March 20, 2010 Reply

    Good to know that there are so many in the same boat as me 🙂

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