Finding Time to Photograph

[Fotos53]

I found this question or questions on the Leica forum and thought that

it's a very good question for large format shooters. I edited and

changed it a little bit for large format shooters.

 

"Not knowing how many of us are professionals (who I assume have all

day everyday to shoot pictures) or students (who can always skip the

class), I'm curious to know how you normally find time to shoot all

your photographs. I'm quite jealous to constantly hear some forum

members are going to this spot or that spot to..do..just..photography."

 

"Am I the only one who struggles to keep the a balance and try to

sqeeze in some time so I can to shoot."

 

"How do you deal with this issue?"

 

In my case I work as a free-lance wire photographer (going on 17 years)

using all digital gear and find it hard to break alway and go shoot for

fun. Seems I'm always thinking about how I can make a buck doing this

shot or that shot. Wishing I had a large format camera with me and the

time to shoot a few sheets on an assignment when I travel by myself. I

already have a ton of gear for work with me. I also have a family with

a house with projects to do and a life to live. I wonder how you do it?

 

Your answers and opinions are most welcome.

[gene m]

"Seems I'm always thinking about how I can make a buck doing this shot or that shot."

 

You've answered your own question.

[michael gordon httpwww]

You make time. It's as simple as that. If you're not making time, then photography is not a priority in your life. If you want it to be a priority, make time.

[markedwardsmith]

I work on Wall Street (12 hrs a day) I commute 1 hr each direction. I am no different than many of you out there, and not looking for sympathy.

 

But if you love something, whether it is photography or anything else you find the time to do it. You make concessions elsewhere.

 

Some prepared photogs actually make some money doing it too. But for the majority of us it is a labor of love. And the key word is Love. You have to sacrifice something, someone, sometime in order to do it.

 

There is really no other way.

 

Mark

[art_haykin]

Do you ever find time to stop and smell the roses, play with your kids, have an occasional matinee, read, wash the dog, or engage in the fine art of just loafing. If not, you MUST be happy in your work. Res ipsa loqitur.

[ed_pierce2]

I understand the frustration. With a full time day job and a family, it seems I never have as much photo time as I'd like.

 

I find it helpful, first, to remind myself what's truly important in life, and attend to that.

 

I've become pretty good at maximizing my available time for photography. The hard part is finding large blocks of time for shooting or printing. Everything else can be done within small slices of available time. So I try and do a little every day of those tasks which can be done quickly; developing film, filing negatives, mixing chemistry, mounting, matting, framing, cleaning, etc. I try to have everything ready so that when a big block of time comes along, I don't waste any of it doing things I could have done last night.

[clayh]

Balance. Not too much, not too little. The balance point is different for everyone, but I

find that relying on good old protestant work ethic Max-Weber style guilt is as good a

guide as any. If you start feeling guilty about ignoring your family or your art, then fix

it. Oh, and getting rid of mindless distractions like televisions will also free up an

amazing amount of time. You can get 4 times the information in 1/4 the time if you

just read the paper with your morning coffee and just rely on watercooler talk to tell

you what happened on 'The Bachelor' last night..

 

So, develop healthy guilt and take a sledgehammer to the TV

[bruce watson]

Clay is right. First thing you do, is kill your TV. You'll be absolutely amazed at how much time you "suddenly" have.

[william_whitaker1]

Hardly watch any TV, so I can't blame that. But I <I>am</I> going to have take a sledge hammer to my computer. Damn internet sucks the life out of me!<P>

 

<I>See! I'm at it again!!</I><P>

 

Sympathetically,<BR>

Will

[greg_smith4]

I think winter is my least productive season. By the time I get

home the light is very contrasty, and only have about 3 hours to

shoot before it's dark. Using a 4x5 in the freezing cold isnt much

fun either. I like winter to work on my darkroom skills and look at

other people's work.

[geoff_billett]

I am a 46 year old single Community Psychiatric Nurse with a 15 year old son. Following put everything and everyone else first for so many years I am now being absolutely selfish and undertaking so much photography it is becoming perhaps excessive. I identify projects, take annual leave or weekends and do them, both in England and abroad. I watch NO tv and spend most evenings reading about photography on the net or in the darkroom. I aim to have an exhibition for every project I undertake and some published photos from the project, either self financed by overtime or in magazines. I am putting the maximum in and want the maximum out - seize the moment. Oh my other love is music - I enjoy live music. As for my son he is seeing a different father -focussed and ambitious in a subject I do for love not financial reward.

[w_t1]

geeze, i was going to jump in and add the comment that i've eliminated the TV, but that looks like a popular response

 

also, you have to learn to say "NO" to people...the boss, the neighbor, the "friend".......

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I am suffering from charity burnout the last few years, and am being more selfish with my time as it relates to my shooting and other hobbies like woodworking....while still keeping the wife and kids a priority...it ain't easy. Fortunately I have a wife who has hobbies of her own, and we try to schedule each other's free time...a lot of my outdoor shooting, at least part of the year, can be done before 7am when the kids get up...

 

Nobody died ever saying "i wish I'd spent more time on the (TV,computer, etc.). Those things are passive, I don't care what the guys over at dpreview.com say...

[gary_samson2]

Read Edward Weston's Day Book's - he simplified his life to make time to photograph

every day.

[Troll]

I have always carried a Minox, or an Olympus Stylus, or now a Minolta Xt. Unfortunately, I spent most of my adult life in circumstances where it has been either illegal (govt. security) or unethical (hospital) to photograph. Now that I'm retired, I see photographic images EVERYWHERE!

[dave_henry1]

I don�t think guilt is a good thing and not helpful in evaluating

your priorities. I too, over the years, have struggled with trying to

find the right balance in my own life and after reading numerous

biographies and autobiographies of the famous photographers

came to the realization that they all had terrible family lives. I

don�t think it is possible to lead the normal family life and still put

in what it takes to be really successful as a photographer.

 

If you decide to follow your heart and pursue photography

vigorously that doesn't leave much time available for family or

anything else. Re-read Ansel Adams' autobiography and the

several biographies of the other greats and you will see what I

mean.

 

Start tallying up the amount of time the "biggies" put in the field

seriously shooting (not to mention promoting). I've read they

average 200 - 250 days per year. At a seminar David Muench

mentioned he spends over 200. I knew Galen Rowell and he

spent about the same amount of time in the field. True, many

have staffs now to support them but that didn�t happen over

night.

 

A family and the other stuff we fill our lives with all take time. If we

elect to make a normal life our priority, then embrace it fully and

be happy with a Saturday morning photo shoot or a nice sunset

after the kids� soccer practice.

 

Which ever direction we take, don�t constantly be looking over the

fence wishing you were elsewhere because either your family or

photography will reflect it.

 

It�s hard to fulfill that creative vision when the family is waiting in

the car. Pressure and anxiety will kill you. Make a decision on the

direction for your life, don�t �what-if� your self to death and then

enjoy.

 

Just my .02 worth.

[michael gordon httpwww]

Here's a few more things to think about:<P>

 

<I>The hardest thing to do in photography, as in life, is to make commitment.</I> ~ Brooks Jensen

<P>

<I>If a photographer really expects to produce great work, they must, just like musicians, be prepared to practice their craft every day. Every day. This does not mean one has to take pictures every day, but one must at least practice seeing every day.</I> ~David Bayles

<P>

<I>The photographers with the most good photographs are the ones who spend the most time photographing.</I> ~Stewart Harvey

[silent1]

Just a personal take on this:<p>

 

I work a nine hour day, and spend more than two and a half hours a day getting to and from work (including a couple mile side trip to drop off and pick up my wife at her work, a 4x10 shift); I leave the house at 5:15 AM and get home between 5:00 and 5:45 most days (occasionally later, almost never earlier). If I were to get eight hours of sleep every night, I'd have to be in bed before 8:00 PM (I get up at a quarter of four).<p>

 

I still manage to shoot one to two rolls of 120 per week, and (now that I have the last bits in place) will probably manage a 2-3 sheets of 9x12 cm per week as well in my plate camera. I use the few minutes I have to spare before my wife's shift ends. I take pictures in the neighborhood after dark (when I ought to be sleeping, sometimes). I carry my cameras with me <i>every</i> time I'm out of the house (harder with large format, but some compact cameras are portable enough) -- typically two 6x9 cm folders, a 6x6 folder, and a 6x6 TLR; I'll be adding a very compact 9x12 cm folding plate camera and its tripod to that fleet tomorrow (which will mean I need a bigger bag -- working on it).<p>

 

For me, if I have the cameras with me, and I'm thinking about photography, I'm constantly seeing images I'd like to record -- but I can't stop in the middle of the freeway and take a shot, so I'm well primed by the time I reach a time and location where I actually can open up the camera and capture a couple shots. And that's all it takes -- being equipped and ready. If you have everything ready to go -- equipment organized, film holders loaded, notebook for exposure data handy -- you can set up even a monorail camera in fifteen minutes, and something like a Century Graphic or Pacemaker can be ready to work in as little as two minutes from opening the case.<p>

 

My suggestion would be to watch eBay for a good deal on a Graflex of some kind, with holders, lens, and a case. The camera itself is pretty compact, and a couple film holders will fit in a coat pocket (or a Grafmatic will hold six in about the same space as two double holders). For a couple hundred dollars you can have a setup that will fit in a carry on but is sturdy enough to check through, weighs less than twenty pounds, and lets you take LF with you. For that much again you can add a wide and a tele lens on compatible boards, and have the versatility of a basic 35 mm setup from thirty or so years ago, at negligible extra weight.<p>

 

Then it's just a matter of actually getting out the camera and setting up when you see something worth recording, instead of wishing you had the time to make that incredible image. With a Graphic, you should be able to go from locked bag to ready to shoot in about five minutes -- the rest is up to you.

[dave schlick]

i can tell you the downside of this question.. im very buisy and work 6 days a week and have to fight for the family car on the 7 th day.. went on a weekend vacation this summer to yellowstone and took the 4x5 with little or no practice for about a year.. got one very nice picture, the rest were crap. had to relearn many lessons and some new ones.. no regrets, had a ball but if id been out more id not had as many problems.. im now an ametures ametrure but at least theres one good one that i did nail.. good luck dave.

[roger_hicks1]

Probably the best exhibition at this year's Rencontres in Arles was a series of portraits of his work-mates by a Chinese miner who works 12-hour shifts. He makes sure he is last into the cage, and first out, so he can shoot in the quarter-hour before he takes a bath and goes home. And Tim Rudman, well known author and excellent photographer, is a practising doctor. If these guys can do it, any of us can -- if we want to.

[bruce_wehman5]

The advice to aspiring writers to "write about what you know" is often lost on photographers. We think of ourselves as explorers and as such are drawn to places often distant from our immediate experience. We need to "get away" to photograph. But as artists like Sally Mann have shown this doesn't need to be. The home, the workplace, the family are all fertile grounds for exploration. Maybe it would be easier to get away if we didn't have to go as far.

[geoff_billett]

Following my perhaps hurried comments earlier, it seems imperative that there is some aim involved in one's photography, and that aim may be to either merely improve one's eye, skills or sense of joining closer to those great photographers which inspire us all, or perhaps to actualise ourselves and seek our own style and potential outcomes. Having no clear aim ultimately leads nowhere and just re-inforces that 'tomorrow I may do some photography' approach. Having local exhibitons really stirs me on to want to produce more photographs and improve those I have done. T travelled through the graveyards of Spain last year documenting people over All Souls weekend - had an exhibition and then bravely submitted images to Black and White Photography magazine and they are being published in this month's edition. I am currently photographing trawlermen, retired miners and other industries in west Cornwall - all in my spare time and holidays.

 

We only live once - actualise that dream and use those amazingly expensive bits of kit we all own - were all a long time dead.

[John Crowe]

When I was single I shot a roll of 35mm film a week, on average, and 3 rolls of 120 a month. With a wife and 2 young kids that has all changed. I probably shoot 20-30 4x5's and 20-30 rolls of 35mm a year.

 

An interesting balance is beginning to occur though. Last year my family drove 2 hours with me to so that I could spend the weekend at a motorcycle racing event. I took the kids one morning and the rest of the time they all swam in the hotel pool! It saved me all the driving back and forth that I usually would have done and we still spent much of the weekend together in a relaxing environment.

 

Since the kids started playing soccer every summer I make the effort to take my camera and get lots of shots of them and their friends.

 

When I am not the one dropping the kids off at daycare in the morning I will make the effort to leave an hour or so earlier to see what I can find on my 1-1/4 hour commute to work. Of course in the winter it is pitch black both ways!

 

On summer vacation I will be up at 5:00 AM and take lots of photographs and be back before everyone rolls out of bed. Then I will take one complete day to hike into the wilderness of one our provincial parks on my own. With the nice images I have created my family is becoming much more tolerant of my "escapes" to the point that even a couple of weekends in the fall I can get away.

 

My daughter, alhtough only 8 has expressed some interest in what I do with photography, and I can see in the future that both she and my son may tag along on some of my shorter excursions.

 

Have fun!

[scott_walton2]

You have to schedule the time. I shoot commercially and need the creative

shooting to "recharge my batteries" and with a family and life in general, I

schedule the time accordingly. Winter shooting for me is a must! I love the ice

formations and other shots of beauty. I let my wife know, contingent on how

the weather/conditions are and she is very receptive as she knows I need this

down time. I manage to "escape", on my own, about 5-8 times a year and am

grateful for that time. It usually ends up being a weekend-5 days and my wife

can sense when this time is close. Psycologically, it is very needed for a

person to "shut down" and my wife knows that when I come back, I'm

refreshed and a much better person to be with.

[bob haight]

You should looks at Yul Brynner's work published by his daughter. Simply always had a camera with him and took fantastic pictures. The key also seems to be having the ability to put people at ease as you shoot. Take that LF setup on that errand this weekend never know what you will see. As they say, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you. Nice thing about LF you need only shoot a few shots and than its fresh in your mine how you want to develop when you get home.