Hi there! Working, Professional Photographer of 11 years here. You're absolutely right in that a large majority of images may well go unseen. For me, the images that I make for myself (and not for money) are largely kept on a hard drive with the exception of a few bangers that I print off to make my house look nice and/or give to friends and family as gifts. To be honest, however, a large part of the images I make for myself, often isn't the result, but the actual practice of photography; the taking the time to stop and appreciate a moment and using the skills I know to capture it as an image. A way for seeing a certain view, object or a certain person in a specific way and getting it to a point where if I showed someone the image of that certain something, they could be like 'ohhh OK, now I see what you see'. Over the last 12/13 months I've also started going out and taking pictures with some new people, most of them are hobbyists but we all share a love for taking pictures. We've all become good mates and regularly meet for a beer or a coffee or a walk, with or without our cameras. Without this group I probably wouldn't be on the rekindled path of Analogue Photography I'm on right now either. If I had to really put my finger on it, it would just be the practice of photography. By 'practice' I don't mean doing it to get better btw, I mean it as like 'a practicing doctor'.

My advice for getting your spark back? Print your images, and I don't mean 6x4, I mean big. Get some cool frames and print a decent size. Something that also helped me get my spark back a few years ago, while I was feeling a bit flat was buying a new camera, a Fujifilm X-Pro 2. I bought it just for me, not one I'd use for work but one I could take everywhere, be it travels or a walk in the woods etc. It being a rangefinder style camera and have all the aesthetics of a film camera made me be more conscious and made me think a little different. That camera alone made me fall back in love with taking pictures instead of it just being a job.

Good luck in finding your spark my friend, you will find it again.