A Personal Blog: – How to manage time – Photoshoot vs Spending Time with Family featuring images from Days Bay Wellington

Winter's Night Days Bay Wellington Photographer Blogger

 

I have never had a hobby before…

 

NOTE: This post is a personal blog a thought an experience and maybe a conversation. One I felt inspired to share…

 

For me I am 34 years old and I have never really had that thing that I’ve had to make time for other than work, wife, kids and some time for myself, generally just to blob and not do too much.

Approximately two years ago I got into photography, this was when I would intentionally go out to take photos on my own and play with settings and create images to share online, and since then photography has been a big part of my life, always on my mind and always something I wish I would make more time for.

Therefore as someone who works full time, commutes, has family commitments (wife/kids) and needs downtime during the week, this leaves me my weekends.

Maybe I’m not prioritising photography enough or not pushing myself hard enough but truly I don’t want this thing to kill me or be stressful in any manner, because right now, I love anytime I spend behind my camera.

This is where my photography can cross over into important family time, ie, weekend outings with wife and kids, and our small dog.

This was the case this weekend, we had a stunner of a day happen right smack bang in the middle of winter! where up until this day the weather really had not been desirable.

So we packed up and went out, taking the dog also.

After a brief visit to one location (where the weather wasn’t so good) we then went to Days Bay, towards Eastbourne, Wellington. It was Gorgeous, warm, sunny, kids were playing in the water and plenty of people were out and about. It was late afternoon and getting into that beautiful optimum time to take photos.

This creates a challenge, I am bursting to spend a few hours taking photos but then who watches the kids (they are older now so can fend for themselves but it’s nice to interact and enjoy these moments) and who minds the dog.

Historically I have had a great experience fitting photography into our outings I have produced some of my favourite images and experiences with my wife and kids around, or at times we are out together.

Until I have a foolproof solution I don’t think this will ever be easy, but I really enjoy having my family along for these things.

Winter's Evening Days Bay Wharf Wellington Photographer Blogger
Winter’s Evening | Days Bay Wharf Wellington

Then comes editing, at times which can also take up some hours, I generally do at night. Oddly for this set of images the editing process was not long. For this set of images I really enjoyed quite a raw, soft style. Which in one case you are seeing a shot straight from camera, with zero editing!

P

Do you have this challenge?

How do you manage your desire to be one with your camera?

 

Winter's Night Days Bay Wharf Wellington
Note: This is the raw shot straight out of camera! Winter’s Night | Days Bay Wharf Wellington

 

4 thoughts on “A Personal Blog: – How to manage time – Photoshoot vs Spending Time with Family featuring images from Days Bay Wellington”

  1. Very heartfelt blog which I can relate to. I picked up a DSLR camera a year ago to get photos of my 9 year old playing rugby. I began to enjoy photography as a hobby and wanted to share my collection of images with others. Before I knew it, I was spending less time with my family and my obsession had grown out of control! Some days I can capture images and do very little editing which sounds like a win – Unfortunately, time spent sharing and responding to feedback diminishes my devotion to my family. At the moment, my wife doesn’t mind me doing astro photography (to a degree) and planned Meets with the local club. Astro takes a substantial amount of planning and typically I would only go out on the week of a new moon. Meet ups are once month so both require communication and support. I haven’t managed to figure everything out but hopefully continuing to discuss my outings and recognising when to stop will allow me to keep enjoying my passion for photography.

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    1. Thanks heaps Frank, and thank you for your comment, it’s a tough balance ay? And it does effect relationships because time spent is valuable. Keep going man, really enjoy seeing your shots come through on the social feeds 😎👊

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  2. Nice story Philip.
    I know the struggles of balancing family, work and photography.
    I work shifts which in theory should work out perfectly as I often have a few days off in the week to myself but always end up catching up with the stuff that needs to be done! My son is older so I don’t need to be there for him all the time (apart from being a taxi service!) and my wife is not interested in going out with me for photography.
    Most of my photography is spur of the moment stuff, but occasionally I’ll plan an astro shoot with a new moon or keep an eye on some Facebook pages for aurora alerts or head out with other photogs.
    I’m also in Wellington (Whitby) and appreciate what a great part of the world we live in!
    First time to your blog, some great entries here and an enjoyable read, keep up the good work!

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