Hey Pandas, What’s Something That You Love Doing But After A While It Gets Annoying? (Closed)

Ex: reading, cleaning, dancing, etc.

I'm a fantasy photographer who works with models (though no money is ever exchanged - I do it for fun, not cash). I started as a model originally but found I enjoyed being behind the camera far more and have been doing it for maybe 5 years now.

As much as I love the creative process of shooting a cool idea and find it ridiculously fun to do, keeping up with the demand from models gets real old, real fast.

When I say 'demand', I don't mean models who are being difficult or want the world given to them. I'm talking about the demand for ME. I've won over 40 awards for my work, so I've had some success and managed to make a name for myself. Each of my fantasy shots can take between 2-8 hours to make depending on the subject and at one point, I had over 25 people a week contacting me and begging to work with me.

The trouble with this? I'm a huge introvert with Bipolar Disorder, and a people pleaser with social anxiety who struggles to say no to people, even to my own detriment. I can't stand using social media because people expect me to be available 24/7.

I couldn't keep up with the endless messages and the models getting slowly angrier at me for taking so long to get to them due to the demand. And all of this, I do for free. It's not a job after all, it's my hobby. I pick model's up/travel to them, pay for props and costumes, organise and pay for makeup artists or designers and spend hours on Photoshop every day to make sure they aren't waiting for images too long. All the while, more and more messages keep piling up in the background. I have people contact me regardless of experience, size, shape etc and that's fine as I encourage diversity. But you also get some completely inappropriate people asking too, like some entitled, bitter influencer who wants me to make them content free of charge, despite living on the other side of the world. Oh, and they want it done yesterday.

Some people are more patient and understanding than others but I've had a few unpleasant messages from entitled models or just normal people who want to break into the industry demanding I prioritise working with them (even though they live 4 hours away from me, have no experience, have no idea how to do their makeup and don't drive). These people are often the ones that want to go 'whole hog' and be the most OTT, complicated fairy/witch/mermaid I can possibly manage (including makeup artist and a full wardrobe of costumes and props). When I ask them to contribute towards the costs of this however, they tell me it's my responsibility as the photographer.

And all of this, I DO FOR THEM FOR FREE!

Needless to say, I stopped shooting 6 months ago due to the anxiety it was causing me. I do miss it sometimes but damn! Hobbies shouldn't be this bloody stressful!

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The_Nicest_Misanthrope

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Painting. I'll get so excited to start a painting, and then 30 minutes in, I hate my life lol.

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Roomba Gloom (No/None)

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Anything that's a repetition which is the majority of my hobbies. I hobby bounce enough due to ADHD but then I get bored part way through a project because I just did this 7263 times. I usually have to take breaks so I don't get bored or watch something while I'm doing it so I'm distracted enough to not focus on the repetition.

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Roadkill The Brave

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I've been into fandom stuff for a long time and I love doing gifsets and photoshop stuff on tumblr and other sites, making videos, etc. But as much as I love doing it, it's so time consuming and sometimes you get very little payoff if the fandom is small or dying out. So you really have to just love doing it for yourself and can't expect a lot of votes/likes/etc.

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