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. ;-)

[austin granger]

Edward Weston once lamented that if he had enough free time and sufficient funds (at the time he had neither), he could make a significant image every day of the year. While I'm not sure I have quite the confidence of Weston yet, I'd sure like to TRY and make a significant image every day! Alas, I only get out about 70 days a year.

And that number is going to plummet I'm afraid; recently found out my wife is expecting TWINS...

Well, ol' EW did have four sons (after the twins I'll have three children) so maybe there's hope for me yet... ; )

[Robert Musgjerd]

If the weather Gods are with I shoot Monday thru Thursday .Friday and part of Sat. I run my negs I usually do this for
several weeks befor I do any printing.I do this all year. I do however take a one month vacation every year As my old
scout master once said , All WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK AN ASS.

[Ralph Barker]

Congratulations, Austin, even though it will be a while before the twins will be tall enough to be trained for darkroom work. ;-)

[Struan Gray]

Austin, my twins used to sleep for up to a couple of hours in the middle of the day. As a paid up member of new-men-anonymous I generously offered to take them for a walk in their pram, with a camera outfit stashed in the base. I had to take pictures quickly before the lack of movement woke one or other of them up, so I mostly worked in 35 mm or MF, but LF wasn't out of the question. Not much time to shoot, but lots of time to see, to think, and to wait for the right conditions. It's amazing what turned up, both externally and internally, as I got to know an area well and had the chance to really study it photographically.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

So which grocery store does David Muench shop at?

[Kirk Gittings]

Muench of course has alot of support people to take care of all the crap that eats up the time of us lesser photographers except maybe buying groceries at the Sunflower Market in Corrales N.M.

[Mike H.]

What I find interesting, and in most cases the limiting factor, is the shooting days to printing days ratio. I can find myself working in the darkroom for up to one or two days per worthwhile image shot. If I have a really productive day out, say 10 to 12 images that I might like to experiment with after I check the negatives, then that means that I would spend 5 to 24 days in the darkroom playing with them, depending on the complexity of the printing required. If someone has all their images developed, scanned and printed by someone else, that gives them lots of time to travel around making images. If I'm lucky, I average a two to four days a month out in the field. Not much, in my opinion.

[austin granger]

So true Mike. My shooting is always way ahead of my printing; I have an enormous collection of negatives that I have never explored in the darkroom. I figure that someday if I'm suddenly not able to lug the big camera around than maybe I'll still be able to shuffle about in the darkroom. Unless of course, the eyes give out..

Struan, it's funny that you should mention shooting from the stroller. I've been thinking along the same lines; considering picking up a MF setup (used to use a pentax 67) for this purpose. I've long wanted to explore my own neighborhood photographically. To paraphase a Zen master; "if you can't find what you're looking for right in front of you, than you're not going to find it anywhere else."

Any advice on twins? Well, I suppose that would be another forum...

[Struan Gray]

I'll email the Dad stuff :-)

In general, my kids were a great way to force myself to slow down and stay close to home. It helped that Swedish statutary and voluntary parental leave gave me lots of time to be with them, and coincidentally to be with myself and my thoughts. The mainstream world of photography, even amateur photography, tends to be very goal directed, with the images often pre-determined both conceptually and visually. At its worst this can be very arrogant and at best, it's limiting. Walking the same round every day gave me a chance to see my local world on its own terms and to reap the rewards of contemplation and familiarity. Slow Photography if you like: humbler and less directly productive, but deeply rewarding nevertheless.

I still long to go back to Snow Lake with my monorail, but for now the vicious, silent battle between the feral goldenrod and the municipal gardeners has me entranced. My number of days acutally shooting has gone down, but my photographs are better for it.

[Diane Maher]

I looked at my notes for last year, and I shot 21 days last year. I would like to increase the number of days spent shooting too. I'm like Brian in trying to find stuff to shoot. Oh well, I'm making it a priority to get out and do more shooting this year, even in the colder months, which is when a lot of us don't get out and take pictures.

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

Diane, I am the opposite of you. I do much of my shooting in the winter. In the summer I am too busy doing yard work/gardening. You would think that with all the flowers my wife grows I would take some pictures of them but so far I have only used the cheap digital to email pics to her parents.

[austin granger]

Funny, I hadn't really thought of if before, but geographical location must have a lot to do with one's shooting days.

Out here in California, we generally have weather so good (to steal a line from John Muir) we know nothing of it!

Then again, being as I didn't even SEE snow until I was eighteen years old (when I went back to Great Lakes, Illinois for Navy boot camp), when I'm in it now I still don't know quite what to make of it, photographically speaking. ;-)

Sunny and near 70 in Santa Rosa.

[Graeme Hird]

In LF, I'm shooting about 50-70 days a year, depending on the weather.

In 35mm, it's only about 30-40, and 22 of those are race days at the horse racing club. The rest are mostly the workshops I run.

[Paul Metcalf]

20.

Oh, with film, I thought you meant with shotgun.

20.

Hmmm.... that's weird....