What do you do to get out and photograph?

Robert Brummitt · May 7, 2008

For a month I have been wanting to go out and play with my LF gear but the weather and family obligations have kept me from this.
What do you do? I have pulled out my photography books both technical and photo collections by Edward, Brett, Stiglitz, Cunningham, Bernhard and of course Adams.
I hang around at the usual websites to get inspired but what I really need is a swift kick in the booty to go. What do you do?
I have emailed or called some photographer friends to get something going but I either miss or can't go. I have my camera out and have followed my daughters cat for some images but he's getting annoyed with me.
I'm in the dulldrums I guess.
What do you suggest?

David A. Goldfarb · May 7, 2008

I keep the camera packed and ready to go, so when the light is good and I've got a little time, there's no barrier to walking out the door.

I also try to leave a camera set up on a tripod at home, so I can also stay in and photograph.

arigram · May 7, 2008

I remind myself that time passes, I am getting older and the photographic opportunities out there don't wait for me.

david b · May 7, 2008

I have to get off the couch.

Ian Grant · May 7, 2008

It's not always easy. I'm sure David will concur on this, other people think they have control of your time. Sometimes you won't admit they do

Ari - your young free & single - make the most of it.

Ian

brian d · May 7, 2008

Think about what my dad used to tell me when I was young;
Hell boy, any dumb*** can NOT do it!

David A. Goldfarb · May 7, 2008

Ian Grant said:
It's not always easy. I'm sure David will concur on this, other people think they have control of your time. Sometimes you won't admit they do

I took Melchi (17 months now) and the 8x10" camera out at the same time a couple of weeks ago, and he was okay harnessed to my chest under the darkcloth. I was shooting 8x10" Polaroid and I got light leaks on a couple of sheets, and I thought it was because I wasn't paying close enough attention when I was pulling the darkslides, but I went out again yesterday and realized that I just need to be more careful with my 8x10" Polaroid holders. I hadn't noticed the problem before, since I usually only shoot 8x10" Polaroid indoors.

I have to say that part of the impulse for experimenting with monobaths is to make the most of what little time I do have to process film.

dianna · May 7, 2008

With two small children and a full time job, I'm short on time too. I keep the 4x5 and gear packed up in a bag and ready to go, like David does. I also have found interesting subjects around the house and yard. I load film holders, mix chemistry, and work in the darkroom either late at night or early in the morning when everybody else in the house is sleeping. My camera is small and light, so when we do go out as a family, I can carry everything in one backpack and have my hands free. For studying a subject, I use Polaroid (soon to be Fuji when I use up my Polaroid supply) pack film in a 405 back, for instant feedback.

PeteZ8 · May 7, 2008

I need to stop reading photo websites like this one when it's 75* and sunny and I have the day off of work!!!

phaedrus · May 7, 2008

I combine family and work obligations with work on photographic projects. E.g. when I drive my son to and from his boarding school, we often combine this with a photo excursion. Or, every wednesday afternoon I pay house calls (I'm a MD) and afterwards I go hiking and photographing in locations near my patient's homes.

Doubrovsky · May 7, 2008

For me the location is the key. Sleepy Toronto suburb where I live does not inspire me. I take pictures only when I travel. Fortunatelly my job gives me that opportunity. When I bought Toyo 45 I took it first to zen temple Daitokuji in Kyoto and then to taoist White Cloud temple in Beijing to introduce it to places spiritual. But switching between business and photography with jet lag and navigation in unfamiliar places is exhausting. I wish I could travel just for creative inspiration.

Les McLean · May 7, 2008

When I'm ready to make photographs I just go out, it is my first priority and nothing stops me. In my view you have to be single minded and even selfish by changing plans if the conditions are right for you may never get the same conditions again. When making landscape photographs I prefer to go out when the weather is inclement, even stormy, and wait at a location for the weather to break.

I know that I am very lucky in having a wife who understands my need to do what I do and encourages me to do it.

David Brown · May 7, 2008

Signoff APUG ...

Mahler_one · May 7, 2008

Well, I am very lucky. Retired, living near some lovely state parks in Northern Florida, and near the ocean. When the notion strikes, I simply say good bye to my wife, and go out to photograph. Many times I can find isolated paths where I am not disturbed. Occasionally I'll have a person or two wander down the same space, and I will invariably offer them the opportunity of looking under the dark cloth to see what I am doing.

Here the weather is often a factor because it can get so hot and humid. Indeed, last year in late summer -while taking some photos in the back of our golf club house- I noted that I was having trouble focusing the camera, and even turning some knobs was becoming an issue. I quickly realized that I was developing heat exhaustion, and the ground started to rotate. I was getting ready to crawl to shelter when a maintenance worker drove by, and took me into air conditioning where they gave me lots of fluids. I recovered after about an hour, but was a bit dizzy for several days. Mind you that I am a retired MD ( I enjoyed phaedrus's post quite a bit ) who should have known much better. However, the episode occurred so quickly that I was really, in retrospect, quite surprised. Now I always take along a few bottles of water and gator aide, and I force myself to drink. We have the opposite problems than our friends in more Northern climates experience: When it's too hot, no photos unless one is out before 9, of after 5! I guess my story is more then most of you wanted or needed to hear....however, sometimes it's good to get some practical updates that are only peripherally related to taking photos!

mabman · May 7, 2008

That's easy - I buy another camera Urge...to...take...test...shots...rising....

Seriously, it's amazing what interesting 35mm and 120 format cameras and/or lenses can be had in the neighborhood of $100. However, it was a cold winter and thus far a cool and very windy spring in my neck of the woods, so I haven't been out much lately, so the cameras are starting to pile up (and, of course, there are the cameras I keep coming back to, which need exercise as well...)

It's starting to become a defining characteristic - I joined the local camera club last fall, and I'm developing a minor reputation as the, well, odd younger guy with all the film cameras

jovo · May 7, 2008

Until it gets too hot, I leave the 4x5 kit and tripod in the trunk of the car. I bring the film in when I'm at work to keep it at an even temperature. This gives me the opportunity to stop on the way home (and sometimes even on the way to work as well.). In fact, my most recent post was taken on the way home a week ago, and there are several other shots in my gallery made under the same circumstances. As Les said above, when the light is right, and you've "seen" what you want to photograph, it won't wait, and almost certainly will not repeat itself. The whole idea for this came from my reading Chip Hooper's account of his Pacific coastal photographs and how many were made during breaks from his commute. It sometimes even makes the drive something to anticipate eagerly.

Christopher Walrath · May 7, 2008

I drive to work, take a lunch hour and then drive home. 'Course, I do perform tasks in between the aforementioned photographic opportunities.

ctscanner · May 7, 2008

I like to keep a list of photo projects that I would like to do. The items on the list are usually something that I have seen when I don't have the camera. Sound familiar? By making the list, and leaving it around where I can't help but see it, it serves to remind me, and get me thinking about going out, particularly when I get a little lazy. Also, I try to combine our, wife and I, exercise walks, with shooting what I might see along the way.

George

mwtroxell · May 7, 2008

I just recently turned 51 and have been working in photography for 33 years now. Two years ago I decided to go back to college and finish the BS degree I started about 25 years ago. I've been working full time and going to college at night and haven't had my 8x10 out of its case in the last two years. I just graduated last week and one of the things I've been looking forward to is getting started back in photography. The only problem is, I can't seem to get going either. Somewhere during those two years I seem to have lost the drive to get out and photograph that I used to have. Reading photography books and looking at photographs seems to help (I just started rereading Edward Weston's Daybooks). I've also found that just getting out and making photographs (even if I'm not getting as excited about the process as I did a few years ago) helps.

Anyone else have a similar problem when they return to photography after a relatively long break?

Kent10D · May 7, 2008

mwtroxell said:
Anyone else have a similar problem when they return to photography after a relatively long break?

Sure! Even a few days qualifies a relatively long break. Good habits -- like going out to shoot everyday, or practicing the guitar everyday -- die fast and easy in glaring contrast to the bad habits that seem to want to stay with us for a lifetime. All it takes is a few days, and then the inertia begins to set in.

I find that I often have to force myself to do things that I know I'll enjoy and that will be productive once I get going. And once I get going I almost always do enjoy whatever it is, and end up feeling a whole lot better for having done it.

Breaking out of the inertia is absolutely the best habit to cultivate. And I always try to remember that I only have a limited time to do all the things I want to do (I just recently turned 53).

jp80874 · May 8, 2008

If you have the energy, change web sites to a mail order shoe store. Find a pair of Nike shoes that fit. Have them shipped to you. When they arrive have someone open the package, remove the shoes, and put them on your feet. Tell them not to forget the socks. Then by the miraculous works of the NIKE gods, you will get up off your pudgy fanny and
JUST DO IT.

John Powers

David A. Goldfarb · May 8, 2008

Abelardo Morell went through a period of having to stay home a lot to watch the kids, and produced some of his most interesting work that way. One of my favorite photographs is this one--

http://www.abelardomorell.net/otherphotos07.html

jovo · May 8, 2008

David A. Goldfarb said:
One of my favorite photographs is this one--

hehehe.........that black hole of a bag is where half of my income goes now.

Kvistgaard · May 8, 2008

1. Keep a list of things / places you want to photograph.
2. Keep your gear ready at all times - and don't let the bulk be an excuse for not going.
3. Acquire a spouse who doesn't put up with your constant moaning about how you don't have time or energy to get out of the house to photograph, and who will keep nagging you until you leave. I did that, and I credit her for at least half of the photographs I make. (no, she's not for sale, but I can arrange for her to call you and give a free motivational speech (in Danish)).
4. Make sure you resist procrastination opportunities like apug or your library of photo books. How much inspiration do you really need, honestly?
5. Memento mori! You live in permanent danger of being flattened by a passing cement truck, so make the most of your day!

Robert Brummitt · May 8, 2008

jp80874 said:
If you have the energy, change web sites to a mail order shoe store. Find a pair of Nike shoes that fit. Have them shipped to you. When they arrive have someone open the package, remove the shoes, and put them on your feet. Tell them not to forget the socks. Then by the miraculous works of the NIKE gods, you will get up off your pudgy fanny and
JUST DO IT.

John Powers

AH... I walk 5 to 6 miles a day/4 to 5 days a week and what's funny is I walk by Nike's World Campus some of that time. So getting out and doing it isn't the problem. It's finding time for my photography. It's finding something to excite my eye.
As Stiglitz wrote:
"Seeing needs practice--Just like photography."

What do you do to get out and photograph?

Robert Brummitt

David A. Goldfarb

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arigram

david b

Ian Grant

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mwtroxell

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jp80874

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What do you do to get out and photograph?

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