I don't have as much time as I'd like to develop my photography?
Q. I don’t have enough time to devote to shooting and growing my photography skills/experience as much as I’d like. But I can’t afford to leave my job just yet. What do you suggest?
– Steve Jackson, Portland USAA. I know it’s frustrating not being able to spend more time learning photography. But I guess lots of people would like to do more fishing/skiing/windsurfing etc and don’t have the time, because they have to pay the mortgage! It’s the same thing really. Imagine they decided they want to leave work and take up windsurfing professionally, or run it as a business – it would be hard work, and might take all the fun out of it – far more fun to just do it in your spare time and have no pressure.
The way I look at it is hopefully you might be able to cut down your days at work sometime in the future and plan your own “photography day” each week.
The best way to make these things happen is to put them in the diary. So if for example you decide that once a month you are going to allocate a Saturday to your own personal photography day (and let everyone else know so you can stick to this!) – you will do it bit by bit. Maybe you can have half a Saturday each week – I don’t know your schedule – but what I am saying is decide to do it, and put it in the diary – right through the year!
It will honestly help you to focus and do it, and you’ll feel a lot less frustrated because you will be doing more photography.
Use your “day” to go on a course, or just go out and play with your camera. You organise going out to work every day, so just organise a day for photography. If it’s planned, you’re much more likely to do it and get the most out of it. It’s also great having a photo day to look forward to and design while you’re on the commuter train!
Feedback
I used some of your advice and decided to allocate a couple of days to my photography on a recent business trip to Europe. I used the weekend and 1 days holiday to fly to Scotland and do several shoots in Glencoe. Loved the results, some of my best images yet. I’m going to stay creative and use any opportunity I can to shoot and invest in my future in the coming months…. So thanks for your advice… I just figured I need to take the opportunities whenever…balance is tough to get in corporate world and sometimes you have to be creative I think… Steve