Gettin' Yer Mojo Back

I assume by now you have all seen Mike Myers as Austin Powers and know the mojo jokes. Note - that is Mike Myers, not Michael Moore. Moore has an entirely different brand of mojo and I do not recommend it.

Photographic mojo is the power that drives you. The thing that inspires you and which you then take to new heights. Your medicine. You can get it, you can misplace it, you can lose it forever. You can borrow or steal it from someone else. You cannot buy it, but you can rent it. 

If you lose your mojo in business - ie. you run out of patience and patients at the same time, say - you can sell up and go get a job in the photo trade. And as soon as you find that you

can take successful pictures and sell cameras and write advertisements, your mojo comes back. Indeed the sight of an unoccupied computer keyboard acts as a powerful drug...

If you run out of ideas for photographs you can buy magazines or books. This is either wonderful or horrible because you run the danger of being drawn to merely repeat what you have seen. HDR pictures of gnarled Chinese babies smoking  on a beach with misty water under a ghost gum next to a cattle skull is the classic example. Granted, you may be able to take off successive prizes in camera club competitions with this but eventually the ninja hired by the Council Of Good Taste will find you and then it is all over.

If you cannot bring yourself to face people start taking pictures behind their backs.

If you cannot sell your pictures, give them away to homeless people. If the homeless people refuse to take them, send them in to Better Digital Picture magazine. If the homeless people give you THEIR pictures, take them and sell them. Mojo.

If your equipment seems outmoded and difficult to use, come in and see us at Camera Electronic. We can sell you brand new equipment that is difficult to use. Your pictures will not improve but your mates at the noodle restaurant will be impressed. Should you finally figure out how to make it work, come back to us and show us how.  We're not proud - we'll accept help from anyone.

A final note about lost mojo: lift up all the old newspapers round the house - frequently people put their mojo down and then put something on top of it and go frantic trying to find it. It might be dried out and smelly when you find it but you can use it until you can afford to buy new supplies.