Shooting days per year?

[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.