What hobby do you pair with photography?

[Pál_K]

You'll need to strategize: Ms. OtL has an orchid addiction which I strongly encourage...

You can combine hobbies. There is the newly identified Bulbophyllum nocturnum: the only orchid known to open at night and close when daylight returns.

On another photo forum, someone captured it open at night. The photo itself looked like a daytime photo, but that was due only to the high ISO setting and long exposure.

 

[boojum]

Orchids? Find the rare one. The green one. ;o)

 

[Out to Lunch]

You can combine hobbies.

I'm afraid my intentions are entirely Machiavellian: Ms. OtL's spending on orchids allows me to continue spending money on my shenanigans. Cheers, OtL

 

[Pál_K]

I'm afraid my intentions are entirely Machiavellian: Ms. OtL's spending on orchids allows me to continue spending money on my shenanigans. Cheers, OtL

How does this "marriage" thing work??? It's so confusing. After decades, I have been able to deduce only two rules:

1. The wife always has a say on what the husband is allowed to spend money on, but not vice-versa.

2. Whatever the husband spends money on, the wife is allowed to spend an equal or greater amount.

Case in point:

A co-worker's second daughter had a wedding; they spent $20k for it (this was in 2007). Apparently with money left over (!), he bought a chopper (motorcycle) - American Iron Horse, customized to his liking. That was about $16K. The wife, not to be left out, got a trip to Italy and brought a girlfriend along.

I can't afford that marriage thing. I'd be thrilled with just a Rolex Explorer.

 

[JoeV]

Well, at least the husband didn’t go to Italy with a girlfriend!

 

[agentlossing]

It's pretty subjective. For me, it's an exercise in taking the time to observe situations which are fleeting, or easily overlooked, with an emphasis on those which I found pleasing, or which made me stop and ponder for a moment. And it's probably best that there is no universally agreed-upon definition of "cool" because that would be, uh, uncool, as it would leave little room for surprise and discovery.

I started taking photos of my meals simply as a way of remembering what I had been doing. But at some point realized that if I put a little more effort into reducing surrounding clutter and finding the best possible light, the result was way more memorable than if I had simply grabbed the nearest available seat and started slurping my soup.

Arrangements of stuff (top center) had been vaguely on my mind for some time, inspired in part by the "idea board" trend, the discarded-items photos of Hong Hao and the supermarket scenes by Andreas Gursky. Mine are arrangements of everyday items, but they also serve as a snapshot of what was on my mind at the time.

That's a better definition than the ones I found which were basically "research what the kids are liking right at this moment so we can make a product for that." Which itself is very uncool. I'm going to have to try out your idea!

 

[JeffS7444]

That's a better definition than the ones I found which were basically "research what the kids are liking right at this moment so we can make a product for that." Which itself is very uncool. I'm going to have to try out your idea!

I suppose if it's conceived as a cynical money-grab, it's likely to suck, but otherwise I think the sometimes-ambiguity between cool and commerce can be part of the fun. For instance:
Book - Rizzoli New York
Can you imagine what it'd be like if camera stores had amazing installations like those shown in the Anthropologie book?

Happy hunting!

 

[rfaspen]

Wow! So many cool hobbies among y'all. My problem is I find so much interesting and I have to very intentionally not start new hobbies. Ask my wife. She tries to keep me in check.
Current hobbies along with photography are designing and building vacuum tube based audio gear. Mostly amplifiers and preamps, including phono... I'm also doing a little gold panning lately. It's just for the fun of it. Always stunned when I find a tiny fleck of actual gold after all the work of hiking to a good spot on the stream, then digging down to where gold settles (and being conscious of not destroying the stream ecology), then panning and panning. My technique is not good so I'm slow. Sometimes I get a flake or three! of actual gold. Absolutely not getting rich....gad no! If I put an hourly rate of return on it, I'd say maybe 0.30/hour. But fun.
I've done shooting as well. I eventually settled on silhouette targets and air rifle. I got an FWB124 and I rebuilt it for smooth consistent accuracy. A joy to shoot. In stock configuration it has rather harsh spring recoil. Grew up with a cheap Daisy and ended up with a several hundred dollar "BB gun" in my old age.
And yep I do the birding like Vince...and woodworking and...
But never became proficient with a musical instrument. I'm truly envious of those of you that are.

 

[JeffS7444]

Not a full-blown hobby, but I recently increased the size of my Matchbox car collection by a third:

I came across a stack of the 1969 catalogs in an antique store nearly 30 years ago - so many memories of long-ago toys contained in it's pages! Of course the manufacturer always encouraged collecting, but a quick survey of today's collecting scene on YouTube revealed extreme levels of collecting which my younger self couldn't conceive of.

A miniature Citroën Ami seemed like an improbable thing to find in the aisles of a USA hardware store. I'll open the package at some point.

 

[agentlossing]

I suppose if it's conceived as a cynical money-grab, it's likely to suck, but otherwise I think the sometimes-ambiguity between cool and commerce can be part of the fun.

Agreed! I really enjoy, for example, superimposing creative shop windows in the city with pedestrians, buildings or other street details. The cooler the window display, the better they come out, in my estimation.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Not a full-blown hobby, but I recently increased the size of my Matchbox car collection by a third:
View attachment 4825384
I came across a stack of the 1969 catalogs in an antique store nearly 30 years ago - so many memories of long-ago toys contained in it's pages! Of course the manufacturer always encouraged collecting, but a quick survey of today's collecting scene on YouTube revealed extreme levels of collecting which my younger self couldn't conceive of.

A miniature Citroën Ami seemed like an improbable thing to find in the aisles of a USA hardware store. I'll open the package at some point.

Mmm I see an Iso Grifo.....

 

[x-ray]

I'm also doing a little gold panning lately. It's just for the fun of it. Always stunned when I find a tiny fleck of actual gold after all the work of hiking to a good spot on the stream, then digging down to where gold settles (and being conscious of not destroying the stream ecology), then panning and panning. My technique is not good so I'm slow. Sometimes I get a flake or three! of actual gold. Absolutely not getting rich....gad no! If I put an hourly rate of return on it, I'd say maybe 0.30/hour. But fun.

There’s gold in an area about an hour south of where I live. I did an article for a magazine on an outfitter in the area, Tellico Planes Tn, that rents primitive cabins to people that want to pan and hunters. He took the writer and myself to the creek with a pan and within ten minutes he was finding flecks of gold. He said there was a guy in one of the cabins that vacations there every year for a week and finds enough to pay his trip and some extra for fun.

When my son was small he and I went to Dahlonega Ga just three hours south of my home and we panned for a day and he found a nugget almost the size of a pea. It was enough to finance our trip and was a lot of fun.

Dahlonega was the site of the first gold strike in the US. The deposits were so rich that all you had to do was kick nuggets up off the ground. And the US treasury established a mint there as well.

There’s a gold museum in the town with a nugget about the size of the palm of my hand. My wife and I go down there every few months to just get away and spend a few days. We’ve not panned but I believe there is still some done and a few companies renting and selling equipment.

 

[Glenn2]

Many years ago I knew people who combined diving with prospecting. They wore wet suits and diving gear and used water jet suction devices to vacuum up fine gold from crack in the rocks. Understand it was quite profitable, this was in the BC interior somewhere.

These days my main hobby or should I say obsession is gardening. It's gotten a little out of hand lately, but I can usually find homes for excess produce. My garden is mainly of the food producing kind. The tie in to photography are some of the creatures that like to use my trees to build their nests. And yes they seem to have a preference for pear trees. This year it was Annas humming birds, other years robins. When I spot birds disappearing into a tree multiple times in the same place it time to check for nests. If there's a nest I try not to disturb it and will avoid pruning or spraying around them. In exchange I get some interesting photos. From tiny little blobs that fit under the mother to fledgling size that barely fit in the nest.

Nikon D800E 70-300mm

 

[rfaspen]

Hummers are just amazing. Had a nest in my giant rose bush a few years ago but haven't located any other nests in my yard. I do look for them from time to time They are always welcome in my yard!! So many at the feeders I can only imagine some stick around and set up house. Mostly Anna's for me too...and Rufous for part of the year.

 

[Pál_K]

If you have an oscillating sprinkler, they will drink from the top of the spray.

 

[MrFujicaman]

Some guys hot rod cars...I hot rod electronic flash units. My home built power pack for the Vivitar 365 drops the full power recycling time down to 2 seconds. The best I've ever gotten out of the LVP-2 with fresh batteries was 8 seconds.

I also like photographing Hummingbirds- I have a setup of 6 Vivitar 283's with the VP-1 Vari-power modules that I use and home-made light stands made of old disc brake rotors, plumbing parts and EMT conduit. I didn't set up this year as it's just been too hot this year.

 

[wrs1145]

I like to collect/wear vintage watches. I've got 16 now.