Photography.

Normal people take "snapshots".

People into photography appear to be autistic sex pests,obsessed with numbers, f-stops, and phots of birds with no interest in them.

Amature Radio?

Hey whippersnapper, I did the cartridge thing as a kid – made walks with my parents a bit more interesting. Boxes of them still in their loft I think.
Mind you, I didn't catalogue them…

i find football, discussion of football and professional footballers tedious.

this has nothing to do with how posh i might or might not be.

Flyfishing for farmed trout in a man-made reservoir is the worst. I tried it when I had a really bad back. Gave all my tackle away when the back got better.

even more weird than that is when you pretend to be posh, and not like football.

I'm not posh and hardly think cleverness relevant – I just don't like football because I'm only interested in sport I'm doing (or performed by fit women)

People into photography appear to be autistic sex pests,obsessed with numbers, f-stops, and phots of birds with no interest in them

I haven't the slightest interest in the technical details of getting the snap – it's all about capturing an arresting image

I collect Swiss/German watches, that's pretty dull, 'Adrenalin to the pound' it must be fairly close to the bottom of the scale.

I quite like the technical side of photography but mainly because it allows you do determine how your image appears when taken. I dont think you can take good shots without at least taking a slight interest in the technical details as to how it is achieved, even if you dont find that the good bit. Cameras in auto turn out family snapshots, not arresting images.

(I can't stand football either, never could even as a kid).

It's not exactly difficult to find other peoples' interests dull, usually because you CBA to work out why they might be fun. Folk with short attention spans, little intelligence or need for adrenaline seem to whine the most about stuff that doesn't jump out at you and scram "excitement".

But I have to say I have no idea why people convert photos to look like photos of model scenes and I found Tai Chi unengaging but good for me.

i used to collect empty milk bottles !!!!
does anyone remember the glass ones with pictures on… pink panther etc !!!
i was only a kid though… 😆
P.S. i dont still have them !!!! if i did they might be worth afew quid..

or not !!

I tried electronics (making shit radios and things with seemingly pointless falshing LEDs) before I got into time-trialling…

Road time-trialling (very useful but duller than a wet thursday afternoon in an old folks' home).

Got into photography a bit after that and, after I'd got over being an autistic sex pest, I found I could make an enjoyable living out of it, and still do.

I'm still a sex pest when the Mrs wants me to be though.

To my mind, swimming is seriously dull, in the same way that time-trialling is. Even more dull than football, and nearly as dull as golf (which I haven't tried as a hobby but was always suggested to me by my golf-mad family as a 'fun' thing to do).

Singlespeeding!

I dont think you can take good shots without at least taking a slight interest in the technical details as to how it is achieved, even if you dont find that the good bit. Cameras in auto turn out family snapshots, not arresting images.

I disagree. All my best shots have been when I'm in a beautiful spot, see something amazing, whip the camera out and just frame the shot. I think the most important factor is being there, then secondly framing the shot and thirdly getting the technical aspects right.

Highly technical shots often look 'over produced' to me.

As for boring hobbies – swimming, f*ck me. I was thinking about triathlon for a while so I went swimming a couple of times a week. I spent a while working out my technique and then I ended up working on my fitness. Up and down, up and down, jesus.. the only thing stopping me frmo falling asleep was the risk of drowning.

Can't be fashed to play golf, although the beautiful freckled girl coached me briefly on a simulator and I watched her playing and started to see that it might be a rather good discipline. It is basically throwing shapes after checking which way the wind is blowing.

I'm pretty sure (whisper it) that cycling is pretty dull, we're just used to it.
We spend ages poring over largely infantile magazines and websites trying to work out which components to buy, then get the one with lots of acronyms that matches our saddle. We build a bike up, and take a series of photographs of it, which we put on the internet so that people can slag off our gardens.
We get up at the weekend, put vast amounts of paraphenalia in a car and drive somewhere. We faff ourselves into our equipment, deal with the fact that some part of our bike has stopped working and needs fettling, then ride solemnly to somewhere that serves tea and bacon rolls or cheese straws. We sit, drinking our tea and discussing whether our rebound damping is dialled in enough for the square-edged steps we've just come down and pontificating on the purity and connection with the steps we feel because we're riding a hardtail this season. Then we ride earnestly back to the car and go home.
It's fun for us, clearly. But I'm really not convinced that there's an actual difference between the 50 chaps sitting around in the middle of Peaslake yesterday shooting the breeze next to a huge pile of expensive and spangly excitement equipment and a collection of fishermen or model-railway enthusiasts. It's blokes, with equipment, some repetitive skills, a lot of shopping, hanging out mostly without their wives.

I'm going to take up lawn bowls when I'm 65. 🙂

You must have been really awful or terminally lacking in attention to find photography "dull"!
And I love Terry's half-witted reply: "People into photography appear to be autistic sex pests,obsessed with numbers, f-stops, and phots of birds with no interest in them"

What a Stupid man.

I disagree. All my best shots have been when I'm in a beautiful spot, see something amazing, whip the camera out and just frame the shot. I think the most important factor is being there, then secondly framing the shot and thirdly getting the technical aspects right.

Yeah, but there's no saying they wouldnt be even better if you took more notice of your settings! I don't personally see how you can get highly technical shots that look overproduced, but I suppose that's down to personal taste.

Yeah, but there's no saying they wouldnt be even better if you took more notice of your settings!

Course I take notice of them – but third after the other two things I mentioned 🙂

As for technical shots – the "oh look how clever I am I can make the depth of field really narrow" pictures often make me yawn… not always tho – it's something to know about but not over-use, like the rest of it. It's kind of like make-up on women. It's a tool to help you not a activity in itself.

Thought all of that went without saying? I'm working towards that end, miles from it, but it seems to me that all the good photographers know that composition and time/place are key points and that technique and settings round off a good picture and simply don't mention it, hence concentrate on settings in discussion. Of course some people get caught up in settings and screw up the rest, but you'd not use someone who crashed a car while trying to change gear correctly as an example of how to drive 😀

You must have been really awful or terminally lacking in attention to find photography "dull"!
And I love Terry's half-witted reply: "People into photography appear to be autistic sex pests,obsessed with numbers, f-stops, and phots of birds with no interest in them"

What a Stupid man.

Why are you so bothered?

You're not one of those weirdy blokes taking "art" photos are you?

If you are, I've changed my mind, its not dull. You're exactly right. I'm stupid.

I'm going to start a blog, that'll out-dull photography.

Maybe I'll tell the world what kind of a riding god I am.

When you progess to a higher level, what's paramount is originality and composition.

Right now I'm fascinated with geometry.
Take a great image. Now overlay this with tracing paper. Now draw all the various traingles (how many can you even name?!), rhombuses, rhomboids and parallelograms; these in particular I'm fascianted by, both in nature and in the man-made world. Squares and circles are too regular and are "boring"!
Trapezoids so oft' lead the eye into an image, towards your subject matter, likewise rhombus shapes.
This is just a snap-shot of where photography can lead you – not some half-wit comment from a Luddite (see one post several above)

Look at the athletics this past fortnight.
Several accredited photographers, similar kit, same subject matter, and what comes out of the World's was quite fantastic.
Loved the image of the English tripple jumper on his way to winning his gold – truely inspired image.
I'll find it on-line if I can; I know the Telegraph used it large.

Right now I'm fascinated with geometry.
Take a great image. Now overlay this with tracing paper. Now draw all the various traingles (how many can you even name?!), rhombuses, rhomboids and parallelograms; these in particular I'm fascianted by, both in nature and in the man-made world. Squares and circles are too regular and are "boring"!
Trapezoids so oft' lead the eye into an image, towards your subject matter, likewise rhombus shapes.
This is just a snap-shot of where photography can lead you – not some half-wit comment from a Luddite (see one post several above)

Good work on proving photography's not dull.

I would have tried using, I dunno, a photo to show this.

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/89872608.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921CC759DF4EBAC47D08EFB09DAABE63F931AA3DA011C8BE1BE95D42AD6F911A29A
There's also a cracking shot on line on the Telegraph's web page.

This was then adjusted to make the image more compatable with a viewing public, namley stretching the horizontals 'til they were flat.

Terry – I stand by my earlier comments – you seem a very 2D person in your dim-wit post, "People into photography appear to be autistic sex pests,obsessed with numbers, f-stops, and phots of birds with no interest in them. "
or
You're not one of those weirdy blokes taking "art" photos are you?
What a fool!

Terry.
To educate you a little.
http://www.px3.fr.
In the professional section, go to the winning image in Car section (the last category, I think).
I also won a 3rd place elsewhere on the site and 3x honourable mentions one submission was of a series of 5 images taken at Mayhem and Clic24 in 2008.

Ti29er, proving that while photography may not be dull, he certainly is….

Thought you were a bit touchy about the photos thing. Hadn't realised you were a "winner". Oooh look at the shiny car. Well done.

I wasn't being entirely serious about photography.

But you have to admit its a bit odd to be obsessing about your settings when you're faced with a stunning scene. You could say dull.

And, Timmy, to educate you a little, the use of mechanical devices to attempt to capture emotions and feelings is, quite honestly, misguided.

Photography has its value in documentation, but its not art.

Even if that is what you tell your "models".

I used to collect matchboxes, about 150 mum;s friend workeed the cruise ships and brought me back lots, and my stepson used to go to a Dr Who club once a week

Are you really that simple?
"Photography has its value in documentation, but its not art. Even if that is what you tell your "models".

Please, please, stop this uneducated drivel.

Whatever else Ti29er vs Terry Wrist proves, it is that people who do what may appear to the ill-educated to be dull activities are very passionnate about them and regard them as very interesting.

We should remember that before slagging off the Dungeons and Dragons lot, and the prize marrow growers. 🙂

For a few fated days I was the youngest amateur radio "ham" in Britain. You had (have – dunno) to be 16 to sit the exams (inc morse code)and I did it the day after my 16th birthday (I went solo in a glider on my 16th birthday as that was also the earliest you could do that – but that's a different and much cooler "hobby"). I did it because my next door neighbor was the oldest licensed "ham" in Britain (90 odd)and he thought it would be cool to live next door to the youngest. He had been an electrical engineer/inventor by trade and whizzed around in a heavily modded Sinclair C5 at quite stupid speeds, but I digress.

As a challenge to learn it was OK but then I realised that the only people you could actually communicate with were other sados nerdelling in their back rooms without much of merit to say……….20 something years on and the world has gone full circle and the only thing that's changed in the technology – kill me now!

And, Timmy, to educate you a little, the use of mechanical devices to attempt to capture emotions and feelings is, quite honestly, misguided.

I guess that's why no one bothers having pictures of their family.

I guess that's why no one bothers having pictures of their family.

I bet you'd feel more emotion if it was a lovingly crafted portrait.

Or if Timmy was taking the photos.

+1 Ti29er

No pictures of your family?

How many Dads reading this savour every single image taken of their children as they grow?
The digital revolution has changed our imaging landscape, and we seem not to print our pictures quite as we used to.
I see this as a retrograde move personally.

Seeing ones family on your pc's screen is one thing, having them as a print is another.
I make every effort to commit to print as oft' as I can, but just like you, I too fail to do them justice.

http://us.leica-camera.com/home/

Home

Two offerings to illustrate what I belive is not simply just a passion, a pass time but a profession for some.
I apologise for throwing my toys out of the pram Terry – not like me!

And, Timmy, to educate you a little, the use of mechanical devices to attempt to capture emotions and feelings is, quite honestly, misguided.

People have been doing so for decades, if not centuries, and doing it well. Creating a good photo is indeed an artform that takes a lot of skill and a good artistic vision/eye. People who obsess about their hobby/passion/job are often the best at it. While no-one is suggesting settings and numbers are the ONLY part of taking photos, they're certainly a major part – get one of the numbers wrong and you have lost that moment in time and lost the ability to catch it properly for others to see. Any art can be broken down to its bare parts usually can then displayed as pointless and incapable of portraying emotion. Referring to painting as "lobbing a bit of coloured paint on a canvas" would make you wonder how anyone could portray anything with it.

Just because you dont enjoy it [whatever it is] doesn't make it dull, it just means you dont like it. I can't stand football, I think its a pointless waste of life with a bunch of men acting like boys kicking a ball round a field. But I can see how people enjoy and value it, even if I feel it's dull.

Despite it being rather dull and boring, I find myself strangely drawn to clicking onto this thread, only to find nothing of any interest. You could say that it's becoming a bit of a hobby of mine, it's certainly rather dull.

But you have to admit its a bit odd to be obsessing about your settings when you're faced with a stunning scene.

You could say dull.

I never do, I'm too excited 🙂

And, Timmy, to educate you a little, the use of mechanical devices to attempt to capture emotions and feelings is, quite honestly, misguided.

Photography has its value in documentation, but its not art.

If you DO succeed in capturing them then it probably is art, but I'd agree most of the time it's just craft

Despite it being rather dull and boring, I find myself strangely drawn to clicking onto this thread, only to find nothing of any interest. You could say that it's becoming a bit of a hobby of mine, it's certainly rather dull.

I totally agree.

I would have thought it was very obvious that you'd have to be a complete idiot not to appreciate that the skill and artistry of a good photo. And recognise when someone's winding you up.

So its not photography that's the problem, it's photographers.

Right then, riding around on bikes with stupid sized wheels. What's that all about?

In my early teens, collecting Small Cacti, had over 70 in my bedroom 🙄

Hook, line and indeed sinker.

Right then, riding around on bikes with stupid sized wheels. What's that all about?

Amen.

It's blokes, with equipment, some repetitive skills, a lot of shopping, hanging out mostly without their wives.

Indeed. It's all about that streak of autism that's in every man, which means that he can only really comfortably communicate with other men through the medium of consumer technology and acronyms.

It is also the reason why the world of work is, for so many, so tedious – we have yet to identify the labour that overlaps perfectly with our inner Rainman.