So, are you getting enough?

I don't get nearly enough! Although I did get a chance to go out this Sunday and finish the rolls in the ZI and the M6. It was a beautiful 65 degree day here in North Carolina, and the annual ArtWalk was going on. So, in addition to getting to shoot some, I got to check out some of the local galleries, and I even found a new pub for a nice frosty beverage and a sandwich! All in all, a pretty good day!

Now the problem is getting the time to hit the darkroom. The local Arts Council has a great darkroom I can use for $35/month where all I have to bring is paper and film, they supply everything else. Sadly, based on the last few times I have gone, I am the only one using it. They have cut the weekend hours back, and getting there during the week usually doesn't work out.

Cheers!
Alan
 
Like a lot of others above, I don't have as much time to shoot as I would like, and photography thereby becomes too closely associated w/ travel which doesn't come often enough.

Does any of this explain the focus on gear on RFF? 🙄
 
Full Speed Ahead

Full Speed Ahead

Right now I don't have the space to paint (I make very large canvases) so right now it's pretty much non stop photography all the time. Being arty has been my life pursuit even when I had a family around so I'm used to going without and taking piecemeal work in order to find the time to support my habit. It has always been art first, making a living second. It's made me in an uncompromising a**hole but I get it done!

I'm back to film from digital, so I plan for various shoots, burn up many rolls of film then spend literally weeks on end at the computer squeezing what I can from the equipment that I have. I'm only a gear head in that I like the older tools better than the newer. There are lessons to be learned from every lens I come up with, and I enjoy the adventure of breaking rules just to re-learn them.

Making movies from stills requires hundreds of good photographs, and that means a lot of picture taking so I'd better get back at it!
 
photography or ...?

photography or ...?

FrankS said:
I'm married with 2 children at home, so I'm not getting enough. My job extracts a mental toll, and the day to day basic living considerations leaves me with not enough energy or inspiration. So how about you, are you getting enough photography in your life? How many times a week? I'd love to use my Leica M6 more than I presently do.
Click to expand...

Hi Frank,
Don't feel bad; medidate.😀
 
No way am I getting enough. I have so many mistresses that I either find myself not being able to choose which one to use, or ignoring all but one and getting bored with the one I'm with. I am not yet fully in synch with this polyamory gig. (PeterC is the best I've seen at rotating his mistresses.)

On a serious note ... my blockages seem to be two-fold:

1. Combination of messy office space & no darkroom, so I get despondent that I can't see the workflow from shooting/neg to custom print.

2. Prioritization, especially when the Leafs are not yet out of the playoff race. 2-3 games per week, including HNIC which eats up more time than just the game, cuts down on time that I could be productive.

Bright spot on #1: I have charted a course to gear rationalization. In its infancy, but at least I'm thinking through to envision my "essential kit". The messy office still beckons me.

Bright spot on #2: I am making tiny but incremental gains. Forcing myself to get my butt in gear. I'm also pondering a major personal project.

Rover: Shoot no matter the weather, OK? Well, barring a driving rain/hurricane. "Good weather" is usually boring shooting. 😀
 
Nope, I ain't getting enough, but I'm coping. And I have a backlog of eight rolls (not a lot, I know) waiting for a dip in D-76 or T-Max. I don't even remember what's in them! 😱

But I'm coping... 🙂
 
Do we ever get enough! I try to shoot at least 2-3 rolls a day. This is done under the "label" research and testing. There are always these important questions lurking "Is there a major difference between the version III and IV Summicron?" or "What happens if you split develop Neopan 1600 in 1/2 time Beutler and 1/2 time Pyro?".
None of these questions are earth shaking revolutionary ideas, but it forces me to shoot and to carry at least one camera all the time.
Occasionally one gets stuck and can't find "anything" to shoot. This is when you have to force yourself to "waste" a roll or two. For me it is usually something like "OK, I am bored. Today I will go out in search of gas-meters in the neigbourhood". This was prompted by our ordering of a gas line and gas fire-place. I did only really find one and the rest of the time it was other things that caught my eye.
The film scanner makes this feasible too. Rather than backing up 5-10 rolls for printing I scan negatives and use the Lightroom as a contact sheet. This way I can spend some time looking at stuff and decide what to "wet" print.
As a challenge, I decided that from every neg file I have to scan at least 4 negs. This forces me to take at least 4 shots from each roll that is potentially interesting. Sometimes it works, sometimes not!

I did commercial work for decades and though it paid bills etc - after a while it becomes rather pedestrian. For the last 20 years I have been taking pictures for myself and occasionally for clients or friends. The beauty of this is that you only take the jobs that are interesting or a challenge. Look from the bright side (f16) - film is still cheaper than most hallucinatory drugs and the after effects are less harmful!
Keep shooting!
 
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No.

I work 16 hour days and it's shift work. When I get off the night shift sometimes I'll walk around and take pics from 7-9AM. However i have to use locals for development and in Greece I can't seem to find a dark room (people aren't sharing).

Now I can't complain because I'm currently working in Greece and my last place of buisness was Israel so I'm getting a lot of phot ops. But I lose sleep over it and sometimes I get about 3 hours of sleep before going back to work.
 
I don't think I get enough.
But I'm lucky enough to shoot every day.
Like today I walked down to the coffee shop with my camera and shot a roll of film.
Now I'm back, I have a shoot later, and then in the evening I will be taking pictures of a party.
Plus the fact that it's constantly with me when I'm walking everywhere.
 
i shoot every day yes, but mostly what others want me to shoot. Its mostly production so it could be up to 75 or 100 shots a day somedays.
Very pedestrian as Tom says...very mind draining. So I may shoot a lot, but not what i want to shoot.
 
Whew!... and I too, thought it was about sex life 😀 During the past few days, I've been running film type-exposure-development tests, and have shot a roll every day. I'm semi-retired and can't complain. BTW: At a recent conference I learned, 80% of persons over 65 in the western world... have definite plans for their lives, and have 13 friends, or more.
 
SolaresLarrave said:
Nope, I ain't getting enough, but I'm coping. And I have a backlog of eight rolls (not a lot, I know) waiting for a dip in D-76 or T-Max. I don't even remember what's in them! 😱

But I'm coping... 🙂
Click to expand...
Yeah...

Try 40 rolls

Cheers,

R
 
I'm in the same boat as many of us with families and full time jobs...too 24 hours aren't enough to satisfy the photo starvation. Often I find myself fonding my M6 or M3 playing with them after the kids are in bed. That is about a serious dedication.
However, I tend to lug either M6 with 35mm 'Cron or M3 with 50mm 'Cron with me all the time (unless there is stormy weather outside which are rare occasions in my area) hoping to spot something interesting on my way to/from work, supermarket, strooling with my kids, etc...in most cases though it ends by nothing, no single frame....
 
Since my last posting a couple of hours ago I have finished off a roll of Agfapan 400S in a Nikon SP "Wonder if Nikkor 35f2.5 # 269xxx is different from Nikkor 35f2.5 #265xxx?" and a roll of Acros 100 in the Zeiss SW with the Biogon 21/4,5 ZM. The sun was out and we strolled around our usual beachwalk. Met dogs and people we know. I have no idea if any of the shots are of any interest, but for the rest of the afternoon I have to finish another roll of APX 400S and possibly a M2/90 Apo-Lanthar f3,5 roll of Tri X. Actually, I think I will shoot with the Nikon's for the rest of the day. Three are loaded with that APX 400S and I want to get through the last 10 rolls of it in anticipation of the arrival of 4000+ ft of Couble XX! Oh, hell - I just loaded the SW with Fomopan 100 and the 18f4 Distagon! Boy, being semiretired is streesful some days!
 
alexz said:
I'm in the same boat as many of us with families and full time jobs...too 24 hours aren't enough to satisfy the photo starvation. Often I find myself fonding my M6 or M3 playing with them after the kids are in bed. That is about a serious dedication.
However, I tend to lug either M6 with 35mm 'Cron or M3 with 50mm 'Cron with me all the time (unless there is stormy weather outside which are rare occasions in my area) hoping to spot something interesting on my way to/from work, supermarket, strooling with my kids, etc...in most cases though it ends by nothing, no single frame....
Click to expand...

My situation mirrors Alex's and many others here. Which is probably why I spend as much time as I do on this forum; it's a vicarious way to involve myself with photography when I can't be out shooting. I did start walking in the early morning several days a week ostensibily to get some exercise yet my main motivation is to take pictures.

-Randy
 
Geez Frank ... you should be in marketing! I wonder what would have happened if you'd titled this thread ... "Is your current active photography involvment enough for you?" Forty plus posts in less than twelve hours indicates to me that you're a frustrated lot and the merest hint of sexual inuendo brings you all running! 😛

I can't seem to get enough of the elation of removing the washed roll of film from the Paterson reel and seeing those little square images on the celluloid that I put there with measured light and chemicals ... definitely better than sex! 😀
 
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