Shooting days per year?

[Kirk Gittings]

I ran into David Muench at the grocery store a little while ago and we got to talking about his travel schedule and he mentioned that at his young age he was still shooting 200 days a year!

I've got to say that I was amazed and jealous. I make my living in this business and my commercial work and personal work combined might approach 125 days a year shooting. And unfortunately only about 25 of those days are probably on personal work. Now granted I spend nearly 7 days a week in one way or another doing something photo related.

How many days a year are you folks shooting?

[Chris Gittins]

Probably 20-25. Frequency varies from season to season - winter being least frequent. Sometimes I'll go out once or twice a week for a month and then go several months without taking a shot. If I'm onto something in the darkroom sometimes taking a day off to shoot can feel like a distraction - breaks my momentum.

[QT Luong]

Used to be about 75 days, all personal. Now much less, or much more, depending onwhether a day when I have a photo session with my baby girl counts as a day of shooting or not :-)

[Leonard Metcalf]

Between 60 & 120 days per year... all personal depending on the year and the projects that I am working on. Living in the middle of a World Heritage Area helped as I have been able to take advantage of good light days, afternoons work and leaving work early, and some beautiful early mornings too... devoting my holidays to shooting has helped with the count... the count has also grown steadily over the years as my passion for photography grows. Was initially limited by my annual film budget.

[Neal Wydra]

Shooting? Only 25 - 35 days per year, but at least 2 printing sessions per day shooting.

[Brian Ellis]

What's a World Heritage Area? Sounds nice. My main problem is finding things to photograph locally (i.e. within a day's drive round trip). I've been at this for about 10 years now and I get tired of going back to the same places I've been to many many times hoping to see something different. I know quite a few photographers in the area and I don't think I've overlooked any great places. I probably photograph no more than 30 days a year, all personal and much of that while attending workshops. I know Ruth Barnbaum says you can find a whole world in your house and back yard and I actually have started doing more of that but somehow it isn't quite the same as finding a really nice location and working it.

[Donald Qualls]

In large format? Probably only about five days last year (and they were short days, with only three film holders for one camera and ten for another that was put into working order in August, then stored for four months after a move). I hope to better that this year; I have 100 sheets of TXP 320 and 50 of Fomapan 100 that I hope won't last the year.

[James Bleifus]

How many days a year do I shoot? Somewhere between 50 and 75. For me the holdup (besides my two jobs) is the darkroom. When I go shoot, particularly if I have to drive a distance to get to my destination, I take 10 film holders with me with the idea that I'm going to shoot until I'm out of film, out of light or exhausted. Usually I run out of film. But then I have a fair amount of developing and proofing time that follows. But, man, I sure hope I'll get up to shooting 200 days a year.

Cheers,

James

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

About 5-10 days a year. Each day I shoot four sheets of Provia 100f. I have some HP5 as well but I don't think I have shot any B&W in over a year. I don't know if I would go out any more but I would shoot more film if I would get off my ass and buy a couple more holders.

[Ralph Barker]

Wow, 200 shooting days/year is phenominal at any age, but especially for someone who has been shooting for 50+ years, like Muench. But, I suppose it depends on what you shoot, and how all of the peripheral activities are organized. For me, one full day of shooting might result in a week or two's worth of associated darkroom work. But, I don't do photography as a livelihood, so I have the luxury of being depressed over how few days I actually get to shoot. ;-)