How do you balance photog with other aspects?

I admit it that I have gotten camera equipment, and pretty much just stayed home and headed to the local wharf or the local garden or the local CBD; and done this for a good few years. Yep, not driven to another town, not jumped onto a plane. I hear you, in the USA you guys would think about Hawaii, Yosemite, or just that family vacation in LA. I have not updated equipment that often however because the technology is so good now and often now one can get second hand stuff of the current model stuff.

 

How have you balanced photog with other stuff you do in your life? Is photography something that compliments something else you are doing or have you like me who have gotten camera equipment and just stayed home and pretty much driven less than 20 miles away, had a wander with your camera and then drove back home.

 

Cheers....

For what purpose did you buy the camera equipment ? Just for snap shots of family and friends ?

For what purpose did you buy the camera equipment ? Just for snap shots of family and friends ?

 

The question can be a can of worms. Non photography people might say the same even if you don't earn a living with photography.

 

For me I'm with a local camera club so we have topics assigned with groups we belong to. Or we just do as we please with the local scenery be it street or gardens etc. I guess maybe I have not done much with my own time. Its just at home or the local town and whatever events that's on.

There is little wrong with getting a camera for snapshots of family and friends. Just like there is little wrong with getting a camera as a needed business expense, or a necessary tool for personal artistic expression. And anything between all that.

 

I don't see it as balancing with the rest of life, though. Photography is a natural extension, and a hobby for which I'll happily free up time, drive a fair distance or keep in mind for holidays. That's still not balancing, because it is what I like to do and what makes me usually more happy while doing it. Balancing the paid job and free time - that's balancing ... :-)

For me it's a hobby that hasn't quite taken over my life yet, I still have essential chores to do and bills to pay, so the hobby is secondary to those, but I always have a camera in tow where ever I go.

 

For long distance photo expeditions, I will thoroughly plan them down to a T, even to the hour I need to arrive back home

 

To be committed, an overly casual approach is not always advisable. Have fun, but treat your photography seriously

I have taken the rare trip within about an hour or two range from home specifically for photography (for example, my brother and I once did one to photograph covered bridges), but other than that, any dedicated photo trip has been to areas no more than 20 minutes or so away, but mostly within walking distance. Most recently, I get the camera out very little, but do take it on trips my wife and I take from time to time that aren't photography related (though I was sure I'd be using it a lot when we went to Ireland a couple of years ago - and I did).

I take pictures of work and play.

Not good enough to do it in my sleep.

When I was younger, I took a lot of photos when hiking or skiing or when vacation traveling, now mostly when walking within 20 or 30 miles of home.

I try to find interesting subjects near me so I don't have to travel to take pictures.

Is photography something that compliments something else you are doing or have you like me who have gotten camera equipment and just stayed home and pretty much driven less than 20 miles away, had a wander with your camera and then drove back home.

For me, it’s not an either/or question. Sometimes I incorporate photography into other things I’m doing and sometimes photography is the thing I’m doing and sometimes I can’t even tell the difference. For example, when I make a portrait of someone, I often go out with them around town scouting interesting locations. They’re often people I’m meeting for the first time. So, I’m also getting to know them a bit. Am I photographing someone or getting to know someone or both? When taking a walk around the city, I may take pictures as I go along. I don’t think too much about which is the dominant activity. Then again, I’ve gone for a drive to go to a specific place I’ve been wanting to photograph. I like to mix it up.

Documentary Photography was a requirement for my profession, but I always enjoyed it too.

 

For me, documentation was usually more important than the aesthetic aspects of the image.

Any one if you who have avoided a meal ie came back home to cook or took some museli bars out because that could had been a roll of film and processing? I have! Or avoided a trip away as that could had been a camera and or lens that last 8 years and not just 2 weeks away? Or even if you are away you avoid the holiday or food etc cos you're standing there waiting for the sunset with your tripod and when you're done it's 9pm. So often on a trip you split up with others. It'll be takeaways for tonight lol and yes again.

Photography is an important part of my life, and I go to great lengths to exercise it, at home or abroad. It is easy to become jaded to things nearby, so I try to "invent" various projects to see familiar objects and places in a new way. It is on vacation where I tend to go wild, stopping every few hundred yards to shoot something I find interesting. I'm currently in Seattle, which offers a lot of photo opportunities, both natural and manmade, and might as well be a foreign land to me, a Chicago denizen. Not a dedicated trekker, and aging poorly, I'm okay strapping on a 25# backpack of equipment and carrying a tripod to a better viewpoint.

Good existential question for us amateur photographers!

 

I sort of get the impression on PN that if there ever was an area, where modern digital tech and mature and senior men like to meet, it is around the world of still-photography. We tried the analog version of it in our youth with b/w and darkroom at home in our kitchens. It was exciting but there were also a lot of limitations. Just remember those ISO values available e.g. 40 years ago?

 

Somebody once said that photography is poor man’s work but rich man’s hobby. And elderly men, (at least some of them) have (finally) got their hands on some extra money after their pensions have been cashed. Some buy an enormous Harley Davidson or a fast sports car and start racing up and down their local promenade not noticing that the giggles on the sidewalk are more numerous than the sighs of admiration...and others instead buy very advanced gear for digital photography. They do not need it for their (modest) purposes but they don’t care because they are in love with the hardware and they don’t have to get permission from anybody. I have during the years bought way to many pieces of equipment and gear and some of it I never use. But I do not care to be frustrated. To hell with my mistakes, I just love what I am doing with the several items I actually did buy wisely.

 

Furthermore, still-photography vs. video productions, can be very relaxing and cosy, where you can progress step by step with your projects and ideas and scenes and motifs in exactly the pace that suits you. Well, except for sports- and action-photography I guess. And the possibility for slow mindfulness pleases often the mature mind. No stress!

 

I think it was the famous street-photographer Garry Winogrand who once took some people along to Mexico City to shoot some street photography project. He pushed them through each day in a relentless and exhausting tempo, so when he one morning woke everybody up at 5:00 to catch the golden hour or something like that, the whole group - where some had already become sick with diarrhea or yellow fever from drinking the local water - were moaning and complaining. Winogrand just snatched at them, “I hear you are talking about your own comfort!”

 

And Winogrand together with many other great photographers hate that you put your own laziness or comfort first. In stead it is their conviction that you must be totally committed and spare no efforts and be completely without any moans and groans in the holy pursuit of the sublime and perfect picture. Well, I do not need to obtain the “sublime” every day. I am happy with my little hobby, and I try not to be too pretentious with false hopes and all that...

 

On the contrary, I understand RaymondC and the urge to get easily to something interesting and not too far away from where you are located. Being contend with just sneaking out of your home and head for the nearest corner or the local harbour district within comfortable walking distance. And there is for sure thousands of interesting objects to shoot on that path, anyways. It is, as we all know, just a matter of looking meticulously enough to find the great motifs. "The great in the small" and all that.

 

On the other hand, I am sure that you will be rewarded abundantly if you travel to many exotic places far away and half the way round the world. And I guess it would be the right thing to do to forsake that new expensive camera you have been lusting for - because it will hinder you economically to travel. One should prefer the travel-opportunity when it comes along for the sake of a new camera, I guess. The old camera is surely good enough to take with you.

 

And during an exotic journey there will be endless amounts of fantastic sceneries and subjects that you could not even imagine beforehand. The swarming streets and temples in India! The majestic icebergs along Greenland’s coast. The millions of wilderbeast of the Serengeti migrating and passing by in an enormous dust cloud against the setting sun etc. etc. The world is wonderful for any photographer, young or old, adventurous and ready to travel thousands of miles, or like us a little more senior folks, who like to find the gold just around the corner from our home. Also because the years have rewarded us with becoming better and better at actually seeing what we are looking at.

 

But in the end it might be a good idea to stop and think: Deep down why am I actually taking photos? Because unlike many other art forms I can with very little effort produce at least something out of nothing? (Try that with a violin!) Is what I am doing important or of any value at all when I compare it to the joy I get or the time, effort, money spent? What do I actually prefer to photograph and why? And what could be more important or fun to shoot? And what would I like to shoot that I have not tried before?

 

Would it in fact be better for me to lay down my equipment (more often) and actually be there in the moment at e.g. an event, and not experience it all through my viewfinder, so I can return home and see a digital reproduction of what I attended, yes, but actually did not experience first hand, because I was so preoccupied with getting the right glorious shot I could save for eternity? So just my ego could be happy?

 

And by now I think I have even more thinking to do...or? Just do it, just shoot it...or? I have lost friends who loved to hike with me, because I was not listening to their conversation, instead I had my attention at the surroundings or the distant horizon. And I had to stop all the time to shoot something soo important I just found all the time, and who is going to put up with that nonsense in the long run? The choice should be easy. I can not talk with my cameras...yet...I think...so what to prefer? Humans, right? Or...?

Edited July 18, 2018 by philip_carlo_jorgensen

My mother speaks of being a young girl and begging her daddy (my grandfather) to come along on his photo outings to carry his camera bag. That was many, many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Today she admits that she was simply looking for any excuse to get him to spend time with her. I am poignantly reminded of this every time I pay attention to a photographic opportunity in lieu of to my wife or children (or grandchildren, now). So, balance can be a hard thing to achieve. My adult children mostly just roll their eyes. My wife goes out of her way to humor me, even making sacrifices to enable my hobby. I wonder sometimes if I've found the right balance, then then just keep trying...

As a young man wild about photography, I was already aware that passion could convert one from a participant in life to observer of life. Accordingly, I developed tactics to insure an adequate presence in each area. I would go on time limited self assignments which would let me circle back with friends outside of their working hours without camera. I might have just the camera and a spare roll of film and pay less attention to that than interaction with people. Quite a bit older with a tolerant, supportive spouse, I nearly always have camera equipment, and generally manage to balance conversation and photography along with the pleasures of travel. If the urge to focus (pardon the pun) intensely / exclusively on a particular photo project is overwhelming, I get up early, or ship my wife off to the spa, or other activity. On return from my efforts, it is easy to resume the usual balance. Methodology will always be subjective and specific to the individual situation.

You can Jekyll but you cannot Hyde... Phil S, do you grow fur and fangs when you shoot? Maybe better change to Nikon, then that won't happen anymore. :-)

Maybe better change to Nikon,

Would it have to be mirrorless - no, that's vampires.

Ever tried the new garlic-models? :)

For me photography has always been an extension of other hobbies. I bought my first camera - a Minolta XD-7 - to take photos of trains. I've always been into aquarium fish, and eventually became the photographer for a large fish club. I also created their website, and used photos of both, fish and club life for that site. I have also created other websites, and used my photos to make them more attractive. It helps if you can produce images that are well exposed and have an appealing composition. Mostly in the composition is where the art comes in for me. I've also done a lot of traveling, and have lived in different countries. There have always been plenty of subjects for photography. But very rarely have I gone out to take photos just for photography's sake. I like my photos to have some purpose, some folks who actually want to see them other than myself. If you are not good enough, or do not want to go through the trouble of putting together an exhibition, most photos taken for art's sake alone end up in a shoe box - or today on a hard drive - never to be looked at again. That doesn't mean they are not worth taking just for the fun of taking them, but that's not my thing.

Feeling the press of mortality, my younger brother and I have taken two strictly photographic excursions - Iceland (2017) and Ireland (2018). We're normally separated by many miles, and this gives us the chance to be together, doing what we both love;.

For me photography has always been an extension of other hobbies.

 

You hit it on the nail and bet me to it.

 

What is it for your guys, is photography an extension of something else you are interested in or is photography the main driver?

 

If one was into people some do portrait and event and documentary photography. The also may be into wildlife and or flowers. They could be interested in the outdoors like beach or coast or national parks, they could be into cooking or simply consuming food and drinks so may get into food photography or landscape photography. One could also be into football, hockey, rugby, karate or some other sports. Or they could be interested in travel to very different countries like Myanmar and Kathmandu or even just very developed city travelling like New York and Sydney or hotel architecture.

 

How much would it affect you if suddenly you did nothing that is of interest to you but you just did photography. So if you are into food, you suddenly didn't eat out you just came home and cooked and ate at home. If you were into pubs or vineyards you just didn't go. No concerts, no sport venues, no wildlife places, no travel. If you particularly like socialising then suddenly put that to a stop. So stay at home and do photography within walking distance or a short drive to your township and with the people you don't personally know and to see what is just around you like the odd bird that just happen to be buzzing around your house or your local township.

It’s funny but if I look back over all of the pictures I have taken, there are two distinct categories that stand out to me.

Personal photos of people, places, events, and things I found to be interesting.

The others were technical documentation, usually related to work.

 

The photos of the second category all had a bland, unappealing, disconnected feel about them for many years. Many taken for future technical reference.

Completely different from the former group.

But having come near the end of many productive years of hard work a certain portion of them have a newly mellowed even nostalgic quality in my eye now.

What is it for your guys, is photography an extension of something else you are interested in or is photography the main driver?

 

Quite a number of people already gave their personal answer to that question, since it was the question in your original post. You didn't get back on any of those answers, so maybe you could get a more compelling conversation if you'd actually respond to some of the points others have raised so far.

funambulism is your friend