What to Do When You Don’t Have Time for Photography

Photography Tips

Time waits for no one. All of us have twenty fours hours in a day and we will never have more of it. Thus, it boils down to how we manage time and allocate a bit of it for something that we love. As a person who has to allocate his time for many daily rituals, photographer Andrew discusses how to handle the issue of time working against you:

Ideally in photography, you’d plan your shoots for the best locations during the best lighting conditions. But here is what you can do when time is scarce. Instead of waiting for a big chunk of time to indulge yourself in photography, use whatever smaller chunks of time you get. Any chance that you get, be creative and dive into photography. There is no need to keep waiting for the golden hour. See what you can make out from even the worst lighting condition and even in the worst shooting locations.

“Instead of focusing on what I don’t have, I will focus on what I see.”

These are some things that you can focus on when you have a small window of photography time:

• textures and patterns
• hard shadows and the shapes they create
• symmetry and variation
• balance and contrast

Such exercises force you to see creatively and bring out the best in something that you see on a day-to-day basis while allowing you to keep practicing photography.

Andrew also shares the following two tips if you’re stuck with shooting in boring or lousy conditions:

1. Use a variable ND filter and shoot wide open. This will allow you to get some pleasing bokeh and make the image soothing to look at even though the lighting might be bad.
2. Start looking at your surroundings like a tourist or an alien. Look at things from a new perspective and examine matters that you would take for granted on other days.

One thing to consider while following the tips shared in the video is that this kind of photography won’t win you awards. You might not even include these images in your portfolio. But the point of the exercise is to keep you active with photography while developing your skills. You’ll be ready when you’re face to face with a real world challenge one day.