Finding time to enjoy your hobby

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keyrex

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Michael
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As a dad of two boys and a middle aged teacher working full time (all day mon-fri and most evenings) I am absolutely knackered at the weekends (after a few Friday nights pints especially)
I wondered if other members suffer similarly?
If so, when do you find time to enjoy your hobby and more importantly where do you find the energy?
I love spending time behind the camera but that's the problem, it is so time consuming. As they say - time flies when you're having fun, but what about all the other 'duties' as a husband and dad, where do you find the time?
 
I find time when and where i can. i have to as its a hobby not a job so the bills still need to be paid.
 
My favourite type is macro, pity my kids aren't smaller then I could use them as subjects maybe?
 
I also work in a school. I work till around 6pm, five days a week. I tend to wait till the weekend to do it. I'm not married, nor do i have kids so im pretty free most weekends.

You should set aside a few 'me hours' every weekend, maybe on a sunday or something.
 
@Andy turner - Six weeks to prepare for the next year and recharge batteries after looking after little angelic johnnies and Jennies who can do no wrong in their ****less parents eyes.
Trust me, six weeks ain't nowhere near enough.
Ever considered the extra cost of holidays too? Quadrupled price during the holidays as what they are during term time. Goddamn rip off merchants - still that's a whole different discussion.
One other thing, if you can photograph your heart bleeding then its a fair comment in a photography forum, if not, then please refrain from such comments even in jest.
We teachers can be a bit touchy after a long and very hard shift
 
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Problem I suffer from as well. Sometimes it annoys me, but then I think how lucky I am to have 2 beautiful daughters and a wonderful son.
Hopefully I'll live to a ripe old age and get plenty of me time further down the road.
 
Make the most of what time you can find now, sure as eggs are eggs you'll wonder where the time goes when you're retired. :D
 
Well i work in a school ,just had my 50th birthday ,up at 6.00 am and normaly not home untill 6.00pm 5 days a week, two teenagers still at home , i dont get the holidays teachers do ,i am up before dawn at the weekends ,travel around the country if the weather is fine ,sometimes a guest house if i want to get to my destination before sunrise,walk my dog twice a day,make the tea for the family three nights a week ,spend a couple nights at a farm helping out , serviced the car last week , at least one day dedicated to spending time with my wife ........and my camera is always with me just in case i am not to tired to take all the photos i get in the name of my hobby....good job i am not a teacher :D:D:D:D:D:D....Those that can do ,those that can't teach .......Keyrex don't take this to serious..i do know what it's like in the teaching buisness my reply is just tounge in cheek.
 
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I have a different take on the same problem, I work full time as a wedding photographer and for the last 6 months it's been full on with about a three week turn around on each set of photos.

The problem I have is that whilst I enjoy what I do, I am aware that I don't tend to find time to go out and shoot just for fun.

My season is drawing to a close, so maybe I can make time soon?

It's no good waiting until you've got a spare afternoon because it probably just won't happen. Maybe try experimenting with low light or night photography, that may open up new opportunities.
 
andyturner said:
6 weeks off in the summer? My heart bleeds lol ;)
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A popular misconception! OK, teachers don't have to turn up to their schools at a fixed time every morning but there's a lot of preparation of classes, coursework etc that has to be done over the summer. During the 6 weeks that the school is closed to students, there will often be meetings with department heads etc to sort out timetable clashes etc, so it's not all time off by any means! I know the comment was tongue in cheek, as is this reply intended to be! :p ;)

Like Den, my wife works in the education sector but isn't a teacher, although she is also a yoga teacher, teaching about 10 hour long classes per week on top of her proper job's 37 1/2 hours. She does try to keep weekends free, although she has to open up her studio on some of them to let teachers and students in to weekend courses. Her studio is doing extremely well with her classes and other teachers paying to rent the space. So well in fact that she earns rather more from the business than she does from the educational establishment! Distinct possibility of a change in main career before too long! :clap:

For me, personally, in recent times, I have been to lethargic and unfit to get out and do much and since the brain op, I've had to surrender my driving license! Should be able to get it back before too long though, and since I retired very young, I have plenty of time (just lucky, I guess and boy, do I appreciate my antecedents' financial accumen!) to get out there. Looking forward to my wife's career switch as much as she is - no more having to stay in the UK in late august/early september to sort out timetables and everything else the start of the accademic year brings with it... More and longer holidays, possibly even a month or so touring NZ in a couple of years to celebrate her 50th - we'll stick to Crete for mine - I don't like to make a fuss. :lol:
 
Thanks for all the honest replies, glad it's not just me. Maybe I was abut harsh with my first reply and should chill out a little. I'll take the advice on board and enjoy my free time more and perhaps make that little bit more of an effort.
Cheers all, remember tomorrow is POETS day :clap:
 
keyrex said:
@Andy turner - Six weeks to prepare for the next year and recharge batteries after looking after little angelic johnnies and Jennies who can do no wrong in their ****less parents eyes.
Trust me, six weeks ain't nowhere near enough.
Ever considered the extra cost of holidays too? Quadrupled price during the holidays as what they are during term time. Goddamn rip off merchants - still that's a whole different discussion.
One other thing, if you can photograph your heart bleeding then its a fair comment in a photography forum, if not, then please refrain from such comments even in jest.
We teachers can be a bit touchy after a long and very hard shift
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My heart is now bleeding to the sound of a tiny violin playing...

Try working in retail mate. 5 weeks hol a year and working every Christmas? At least I still have a sense of humour!
 
I work 8:30-5, then the wife works 6-11:30 3 nights week, add 2 young kids onto and I have little time to go out to photography. Unfortunately I'm not that fussed about people pictures and macro so most my interests mean getting out for at least a few hours at a time. So I totally understand the feeling, one day I will work out how to be a dad, husband and a worker and then also have time to get out for a few hours every week.
andyturner said:
My heart is now bleeding to the sound of a tiny violin playing...

Try working in retail mate. 5 weeks hol a year and working every Christmas? At least I still have a sense of humour!
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Sorry that just comes across as ignorant. Retail, shop closes you go home, customers are idiots but transient. Yes I have done the christmas retail gig, and my wife still does.
 
maninsuitcase said:
I work 8:30-5, then the wife works 6-11:30 3 nights week, add 2 young kids onto and I have little time to go out to photography. Unfortunately I'm not that fussed about people pictures and macro so most my interests mean getting out for at least a few hours at a time. So I totally understand the feeling, one day I will work out how to be a dad, husband and a worker and then also have time to get out for a few hours every week.

Sorry that just comes across as ignorant. Retail, shop closes you go home, customers are idiots but transient. Yes I have done the christmas retail gig, and my wife still does.
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If you read earlier posts you'll see my post is a reaction to an extreme over reaction to my first tongue in cheek post.

All my family are teachers, so I'm not "ignorant" about the stresses of the job, it just made me chuckle that a teacher had started a thread about not having enough spare time. No offence intended at all, but obviously taken.

Anyway, not trying to offend anyone so I apologise for any offence caused
 
maninsuitcase said:
Retail, shop closes you go home, customers are idiots but transient.
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If only that were true. Shop opens from 10am-9pm so even after leaving at 6-7pm still get calls from staff, also on days off. Someone rings in sick and have to work days off? Calls from security at 1,2,3am cos alarm is going off and you have to drive an hour round trip to switch it off? Customers transient? Even the ones who wait for you outside the shop to have another pop or throw things at you cos they don't get their way?

And my post was ignorant?
 
It's a bit different when the shop is yours though, Andy. Same as any job, if you're the boss, you need to put the hours in to ensure it keeps making you money (or at least not losing you too much money!).

And, how about bar staff? Christmas eve? one of the busiest nights of the year, only topped by New Year's Eve, both of which generally need all possible hands on deck until 2am, even if some of them have been on duty since 9:30 that morning (my wife used to manage a sports club bar some years ago - always swore that she wouldn't be a barmaid at 40 and wasn't!). A few (very few!) customers wouyld please and thank her but as I said, very few. Some would just wave their empty glass in the general direction of the pumps and would then get stroppy when they were ignored in favour of someone who actually tried to catch an eye.

Also, pub and club doorstaff, who face all sorts of problems from drunk sphincters who demand to be allowed in, despite it being technically illegal to serve one who is already intoxicated with more alcohol, to the truly obstreporous who try to fight their way past a locked door (ever wondered why many club doors open outwards? Well, a hefty kick on the door can often move a punchy drunk from the area. By accident, of course!!!). Then there are the upchuckers. Charming people. Often (here in Exeter and probably other university towns) students on their first excursion out from under mummy and daddy's wings and with absolutely no idea of the affects of drinking 10 pints of Lager. Some of them even overdo it so much that they pass out under bushes and never wake up. Not often but it has happened. The piles of pavement pizza left behind on a saturday or sunday morning is revolting!

Don't get me wrong, sometimes, I loved the job and made some good, true friends, both other doormen as well as a few customers. Hell, I even first met my wife there - she was a barmaid, I was a doorman - nearly 30 years ago.
 
I think anyone's job gets in the way of what they really want to do (unless of course you are lucky enough to be paid for what you love!)

Finding time for hobbies is hard, particularly when you have kids, no matter what line of work you are in.

There's been a few nerves touched on this thread, mine included! Suppose that is a reflection of how rubbish modern life is lol ;)
 
same problem for us all really , we all have the same amount of time we just have to prioritise how we spend it .
 
What an interesting read this thread is!

Employment issues aside, I wonder if anyone is experiencing the same issue as mine - if we go for a little family outing, say to the shops, taking my camera bag with me is treated the same as if I was taking along another woman!

Don't get me wrong, the camera mostly stays in the bag, I'm 'there' with them. I presume it's the thought that they just might have to occupy themselves for a few minutes whilst I try to get a good shot of something interesting I've spotted. I'll admit this has been the case once or twice, but honestly it's rare.

Maybe I need a point-and-shoot, and shoot discretely from the hip ;)

Mike.
 
i make time!!. i work full time in a realtively high pressure job, i don't have kids but i have 5 dogs and a husband with very little interest,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, so once a month or so, i drag my sorry ass out of bed at a ridiculous time on a saturday or Sunday to go and take some photos, i'm then back home for lunchtime to help with the woofas etc everybody is happy
 
All about making the time, few weeks back on a Monday my daughter and I travelled by train from near Cambridge to Edale in the Peak District to photograph something other than "big sky"

Left home at about half six in the morning and got back about half ten that evening, knackering day, but well worth it. Got there about 11.00 and caught the 18.30 train back, even found time for some tea in the pub (Ramblers Inn I think it was called)


Sometimes use a days leave to go out with the camera or just wander over the local bird reserve, before or after work is an option and doesn't have to cost a fortune

Easy to whinge about not having time, do It myself at times, just have to make the effort, plan the trip and get everything sorted the night before then go for it

Cheers
Rich
 
I have plenty of time on my hands for photography as I don't work. There's a downside to not working though, about 15 years ago I damaged nerves in my spine in a work accident and I'm in severe pain 24/7/52. I would love to get up in the morning and get ready for work, but in reality I don't know from day to day whether I'll even be able to get out of bed. I'm certainly not asking for any sympathy, just a warning to be careful what you wish for.
 
I know exactly what you mean. I am a single dad with 2 kids 15 and 9, working full time about 11 hours. I come home to prepare dinner, feed them, check their homework and play online games and then put them to bed. By 10pm I am exhausted. However, I still pull out my camera and play with it, experiment with light, close up, and all different settings and make notes. My children hate cameras and won't go with and I can't leave them alone :-) so I end up photographing the garden for macro, the cat, the kids, the TV, bathroom. Sometime I bribe my daughter to pose for me for portraits (expensive) and I play with different lights etc ... there are rare occasions when we go to the nearby park I am happy... Time will come (when my ex settles down and they can stay weekend with her then I'll have my revenge :-) ).
 
Turned my hobby in to a business... now I have no choice but to take photos.

Although I've only just started out so am still working the 9-5 and doing the photography on top of that, so until I build it up enough to go full time I have had to sacrifice a lot to do it.

So maybe don't go down that route :D
 
modchild said:
I have plenty of time on my hands for photography as I don't work. There's a downside to not working though, about 15 years ago I damaged nerves in my spine in a work accident and I'm in severe pain 24/7/52. I would love to get up in the morning and get ready for work, but in reality I don't know from day to day whether I'll even be able to get out of bed. I'm certainly not asking for any sympathy, just a warning to be careful what you wish for.
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Similar story here. It is because I am out of work that I have much more time for photography. It started out as a hobby, but I'm building towards it being a source of income.

I busted my back in work about 4 years ago, had major surgery, and that was the end of my 14 year stint in factories. I was told I could no longer do manual labour. To keep me sane I pushed my hobby, photography, to the fore. I've been pretty much shooting daily since. I can never get enough.

I'd love to get back into the work pool, but with this country in the state it's in, and not having the physical ability to just go get any old job, I need to look towards courses, maybe business orientated. That is on the cards.

It's funny, I envy people who are working day-to-day, I miss it a lot of the time. And they envy me , because I have all the time in the world to get out shooting!

Funny ol' world innit?
 
I work mon-fri, but am out the house early and home around 6.30pm. So the weekend is about the only spare time I get and with 2 teenage boys one in 6th form and the other playing football at the weekend theres not much time spare. So I now take pictures of my son at footy and try and make time to get out with my camera when I can. I like airshows and my eldest loves them as well.

Normally any days out I will have the camera with me and I have got the whole family interested so they bring their cameras with them as well. The only problem is trying to take pics that don't all look the same.

It's just a balancing act between home life and work.
 
I work 6 days a week in the motor trade, my evenings are taken up with speaking to clients (I sell high end collectable Porsches to clients worldwide) and taking them out.

What I do is keep my cameras with me at all times, in the car, out delivering cars, commuting into the office, wherever I am I have my cameras, my day kit is just a 5D3 with 17-40, filters and a Gitzo c/f tripod with Manfrotto geared head. It goes everywhere. Whenever I see some interesting light I'll stop and capture it, before work, after work, during work, whenever.

I manage to get 2 or 3 good landscapes a week in these times.
 
I don't have an issue with time as such for taking photos, but conversely do find it hard to sit in front of the computer at home to work/process (or even copy from camera) the pics I've taken.
I work with computers/in front of a monitor all day, and the last thing I feel like doing when I get home (or even weekends) is sitting in front of a monitor... hence 1000+ unprocessed/untouched RAW files in Bridge :D
 
A very good reason for shooting JPEGs! Having recently discovered that my D700 and HS30 both allow me to print to A3+ SOOC, from large, lowest compresion JPEGs, I see even less reason to play with raw images.

NOT saying my way is the right way, just reporting on what I've found.
 
Maybe this thread should come to an end!
 
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I think no matter what you do for a living or what your family life is time disappears so quick. I worked a full time job, 3 evenings ran a martial arts class then weekends worked as a nightclub doorman till stupid o'clock. I no longer do the door or teach martial arts, the children are grown up and left home but still I find it hard to find the time to get out with my camera.
I remember someone saying the older you get the quicker time goes, god how right they were.
 
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ajax_andy said:
Turned my hobby in to a business... now I have no choice but to take photos.

Although I've only just started out so am still working the 9-5 and doing the photography on top of that, so until I build it up enough to go full time I have had to sacrifice a lot to do it.
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Same as I'm planning to do!

I currently work 5 days a week in IT (boring as hell) and as my workplace is 30 miles away, I'm up at 6am and get home at 6pm.
I also currently run a mobile disco business which takes up most weekends. Thursday's I run a quiz night every week and Friday I do a resident disco in a pub in Goole. On a Friday I'm up at 6am and get home at 3am Saturday morning - 21hr working day - now that IS tiring! Couple all this with the occasional Saturday & Sunday disco's and come Monday morning I'm like a zombie lol.

My wife usually lets me have a lie in on Saturday morning and I usually get up between 10-11am, then go to the bank to stick my Thu & Fri disco earnings in. All the disco money is 'extra' income so I'm happy doing that until my photography business eventually starts paying.

Every 2 weeks I see my 15 year old daughter (who lives in York with my ex-wife). Luckily she is also 'into' photography so when my camera arrives (this week) we can go out 'shooting' together.

I think Sunday will be my camera day although some evenings I will have a play with low-light situations and experiment with my speedlight 430EX-II :)
 
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In the past, I've tried a couple of times to transfer a hobby into a money earner - I've found that it's changed the thing I love into a chore. The one that really sticks in my mind was when I spent a while as a motorcycle messenger - I found that when I wasn't working, I had little or no inclination to get on the bike for recreation.

I sincerely hope that none of those who are trying to turn their hobby into a job here have the same problem!
 
Nod said:
In the past, I've tried a couple of times to transfer a hobby into a money earner - I've found that it's changed the thing I love into a chore. The one that really sticks in my mind was when I spent a while as a motorcycle messenger - I found that when I wasn't working, I had little or no inclination to get on the bike for recreation.

I sincerely hope that none of those who are trying to turn their hobby into a job here have the same problem!
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Sometimes this is true although I still enjoy music even though I'm playing more-or-less the same tunes week-in week-out.

There's 3 main reasons I want to turn to photography instead of mobile disco's, they are:

(a) Less lugging around heavy disco equipment (speakers, amps, stands, lights etc). Not getting any easier the older I get lol


(b) More money to be earnt doing wedding photo's than wedding disco's. At the moment I couldn't possibly go as a full-time DJ as the pay is pittance fot the amount of work involved.

(c) I feel I can give a better service for the same money as some of the "pro's" I've seen at weddings - some of the work is diabolical.

I know there is a LOT of PP work involved with wedding photography but if I can do it full-time I'd be a very happy person. I also hope to do portraits and landscapes as a side-line.
 
Better join the SWPP post haste then!!!
 
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