So many things to photograph...

[Jan Van Laethem]

Does anyone on this forum have the feeling that they don’t get out enough to take photographs? I certainly do. I started out in photography as a kid, must have been about 9 or 10 when I used to borrow my father’s camera and went out shooting at the local park. As a kid, there was loads of time and my fondness of photography was only restricted by the amount of film available. On holidays, I was usually the one carrying the camera and taking the family pics.

As a student, when I could finally afford my own camera, I took pictures of almost everything. Loads of time available to wander around town or to go into the field to take landscapes. I remember I could spend a whole day out and never get tired of taking photographs. Most of the time was spent searching for new locations, or going back to previously discovered locations when the light was better. Just being out with a camera and doing your own thing was part of the joy.

Now, with a daytime job, a loving wife who unfortunately does not share my passion for photography and a 3 month old daughter who takes up all my free time and is literally eating away my photography budget, I find myself more and more longing for those days where I could just pack a camera, a couple of lenses and film and wander off. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that one’s personal circumstances inevitably change with time. I guess it’s part of getting older. Right now my daughter is possibly my biggest photography project to date, and one that hopefully will lead me to get to grips with portrait photography, a subject I have never really explored in depth. But there are so many things I see on my trips to and from work and never have the time to photograph. I constantly make notes of places I need to get back to but never seem to find the time. There are dozens of projects in my head that never seem to materialize.

Anyone out there frustrated with lack of time? How do you fight the “photo blues”? How do you combine your passion for photography with your work and family life?

 

[agricola]

jan

it doesn't get any better - the kids grow up, your wife needs you more and understands the need to take photos less - so you get on a guilt trip when you want to meditate and take time to shoot.

solution may be to try really hard to involve your wife - mine has a good eye - when she gets in the groove she is constantly suggesting very interesting viewpoints

so I got her a canon Ixus and I'm trying to encourage her to use her eye - once she gets the bug ...

 

[slm]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I shoot during my lunch hour, I'm lucky enough to work in the downtown core though.

Cheers.

 

[tripod]

Priorities change as you become an adult and responsible for a family, but you still need to make some free time just for yourself. It just won't be as much as before.

 

[denkrahm]

I joined the local photoclub, that way you get out every month for some quality picture time. On holidays I get up early and go back - with better light - to the places I saw before, and take my time to enjoy them photografically!

 

[alexz]

Quite familiar situation, must admit 🙂
I was into photography since 1997, the addiction quickly grown on me, went through several SLR system, formats all the way up to large format. since 2002 I became a Dad, naturally my lovely daughter drawn nearly 90% of my photography passion on her while the spare time I had before for the hobby shrunk by some 60%. Then my second daughter was born in 2005, shortly after that I realized that the expensive SLR, MF and LF gear unfortunately isn't going to fulfill my actual hobby desires due to lack of free time (I was also student for B.Sc.EE degree - very tough time and worked 50%). Somehow, that came up while I begun to realize that I'm getting tired from the sophistication of nowadays professional SLR photography technology and willing to start off with basics. So started to dig into RF and immediately hooped by even by the idea of having being able to lug around a small, light (comparative to what I used to in pro SLR gear world) and high quality mechanical camera and 1-2 lenses, no annoyance to my wife on walks/trips with kids due to large heavy camera gear to count on, being able to shoot at relatively low budget on films and developing myself at home (B&W) instead of figuring a spare time to waste on drives to the lab, etc...
Lately, a major turn in my carrier happened after I finished my degree in EE, so last 4-5 months went almost non-camera due to spending nearly all of my time (aside of family) to get into the job, learn new things and start building my carrier, but now I'm feeling like getting back to my RF addiction is nearly instant - just pick a light and small camera off the shelf, pull out a roll of Tri-X out of fridge and go out....
Certainly that wouldn't be so easy and instant would I have to unpack a bulk of super-wonder SLR machine with heavy L lenses....if certainly would have its place if I'd be into an appropriate fields of photography, but that isn't my case.
The only thing I'm sorry about is my lack of abilities/free time to devote to LF...well, another trade-off in our lives...

So, the bottom line in the story - a simple RF approach and probably manual processing (B&W, that is) will probably save your hurt fulfilling your hobby desire...

Alex

 

[hans voralberg]

Shoot your family, with what you decide =)

 

[Ducky]

You know you need to get out when:😡

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

Agricola: I’m also trying to involve my wife as much as I can. On a recent holiday trip abroad, she took pictures with a digital point and shoot. Back home, I scanned in my best slides and mixed them into a slide presentation with her best digital pictures. It works fine for holidays.

Nextreme: Great idea. Although I work a couple of kilometres from the town centre, I guess I could take a shorter lunch break once in a while and put the remaining time to good use.

Tripod: This is exactly what I meant, I need some time for myself, even if it is just occasionally.

Denkrahm: Getting up early and driving to work well before time leaves me some space to take some photographs along the way. Not much, but it helps.

Alexz: Good point. I bought a small camera bag a couple of years ago, so I can only take one camera and two lenses, there just isn’t room for more. I find that taking just 2 focal lengths improves my photography. I guess that having less choice makes me work harder with what I have.

Hans: Good point, I am working on that.

 

[Sisyphus]

I feel your pain. I am in the same boat--wife, 20 month year old daughter--despite this though, I am insistant that I have time to photograph. I spend one day per week in the darkroom, and I will spend one or two days per week going out to photogrpah after work, and I am working on two intensely involved projoects, which require travel, and I work in multiple formats.

How do I manage, especially with the complexities of my wife and daughter?

First, yes, my wife was / is upset, but I have been photographing since I was child, like you. Photography is my passion. I was photographing before she came along, I was travelling and photographing and working on my personal projects before she came along, and while we were dating. This is one of the reasons what I think attracted her to me. Prior to this, my previous relationships did not work out, because of the photography, and they thought it was a phase I was going through, and would eventually outgrow. In the end, and unfortunately, those couple of relationships did not work out.

When I started dating my wife, I was very clear that I was going to pursue photgraphy in one form or another, either commercially, as photojournalist, or as someone who works on their projects independently. I dated my mife before marrying for thre years, and a lot more of my time was consummned by the photography. She accepted it as we were dating, and since I thought it was not an issue for her, I asked her about marriage.

After we were married, she expected me to change, and devote less time to photography and more time to her, which I did at first, due to the excitement of being married and such, but as time went by, and as things started to settle, I began to devote more time to photography, trying to reach a reasonable balance. What I thought was reasonable, was unreasonable to my wife. I have been with her, now, for 8 years, and the past few years has been a constant argument about this, and now that we have a child the arguments were more intense about the photogrpahy. It became so intense that I told her that photography is so much apart of my life I will never be able to give it up, and this is something that she will have to accept, and it is something that my daughter will have to accept. And I still dedicate ample time to my family. I told her if she asked me to stop doing the photogrphy or limit it to once a month or less, one of two things was going to happen. I would either consider her request, and my new hobby would be drinking, or if it became so unbearable, I would ask her for a divorce. So I asked her to sit down and lets discuss this like to reasonable people and find a solution that we would both be happy with.

She actually listened, and we did come up with a reasonable compromise. She felt that there were things missing in her life, and she felt that it was not fair to her that she had to stay home take care of our daughter while, I get to play. I did not think of it as play, but I accepted her interpretation for how she felt. It was not so much that I was photographing was the problem, as much as it was that she felt like she was giving up a lot of her independance. She wanted to take some classes, yoga, painting, gradening, etc . . . or just time to herself.

So we agreed to schedule time where we can both do the things that interest us--I watch our daughter when she wants to take a class, or she will watch out daughter while I photograph. We also schedule time to be together as a family, and I think one fo the key things is to be flexible. There will be some nights where my wife requests that I just come home after work, if it is day that I was planning to photograph, and I will just comply and not make it an issue. I figure she understands now how really important this is to me, and I have come to understand that if she is asking me to come home it is because she needs a break or help around the house.

I also print in a wet darkroom one day a week, which can be time consumming. However, I am flexible. I will usually wake up a bit early, set up the chemicals for the day, but then I will take care of our daughter while my wife can sleep in, usually make breakfast, and then I might start printing around 1 or 2, and print until 3 in the morning. Sunday, my wife might take care of our daughter in the morning, so I can sleep in a little, but then we will spend the day together, or I will take our daughter out so my wife can have sunday to herself and relax. It wasn't until she tried it that she relaized it also worked to her advantage, and she felt less frustrated. Again the key is to be flexible--sometimes she asks me not to print when i would like to, and again, I usually will not.

If we travel soemwhere, and depending on the length of the trip, I simply find little projects that I can do and are accessible, and make the best of it. Sometimes I might have one full day to photograph, sometimes it might just the evenings or early in the morning.

Sometimes I will be taking care of my daughter, but at 20 months she has already become a fine assistant, helping me carry the film bag--ok actually I put film in her backpack and she does not relize what she is carrying, but thinks it is cool that she gets to carry a small backpack. She will help in other ways, but I have to be patient, and sometimes she really needs me to be her father and be there for her.

I also use to put carry her in one of those baby backpacks and phtoograph, or stroll her. My wife has accpeted it now, and still complains a little, but not as much.

I think as a couple there needs to be some independence in the relationship, and it is healthy to have outside interests or hobbies. At least for me, i have found that I am a happier person, which makes our marriage better, and I have found that by her going to her classes, she feels like she has some independence, which makes her happy, and our marriage better.

I hope it works out for you. My situation is not perfect, and there are still some arguments from time to time about this same issue, but much less, and the arguemnts are also more discussions about what is frustrating her or what she would like me to do, etc . . .

I hope this helps, and I hope it works out for you. It is possible to do both. On the extreme end of things, you could be like Eugene Smith, find a house keeper, who is willing to get a second job to help support the family, and just move somewhere to photograph for three years. I am not sure if that would work today, but he made it work for him--lucky *******!

 

[shadowfox]

Getting some time for yourself is key to get yourself balanced. You'll be a better dad, and husband if you have time to reflect on things by yourself for a while, and photography is one vehicle you can use.

Film photography (for me) is especially a good vehicle. Not only you are forced to slow down, but the different directions it can take (larger formats, or self-development/printing) provides endless source of rewarding excursions that can be had without the things not all of us have access to.

And family can actually be a catalyst to do these things. My daughter (a toddler) enjoyed her time "helping" me out loading 4x 5 films into the holders in the dark. That is something that I wouldn't be able to come up with in a million years had I to imagine it before. 🙂

 

[bsdunek]

Sometimes getting older has advantages (tho not many!). Now that my kids are grown, I'm retired,although working part time on contract, I do get more time to do my photography. My late wife was somewhat interested in photography, so that was not a problem. My second wife has been into photography since a child, so we really 'click' together (pun intended) on that account.
Just give it about 30 years and hopefully you'll have time. Of course by that time photography may have changed so much you won't like it. Who knows.