Good morning everyone from Baker Beach in San Francisco.
That's the Golden Gate there
And that's the beach.
I am getting ready to go and make some images of the bridge and hopefully a few more around here
But before I go and do that
I just wanted to talk real quick about something that I was just thinking about because today is Wednesday, its
7:15 in the morning already
I am here and I'm gonna be here for half an hour, 3 hours, whatever
it takes me to make an image or at least realize that there are no images to be made here
But you get the point. I don't do anything else. This is my job. I'm doing this full-time
I've been doing it full-time for the last year and a half and that has given me a lot of flexibility that
Has pushed my photography to the next
Level if you want to call it that way
It has improved my photography because the odds for me to catch
a good sunrise, a good sunset, the right conditions at the right
place are much higher now
it is much more likely for me to be at the right place at the right time
And I believe thats key to photography. You see the best photographers aren't necessarily the ones who are the most talented
but the ones who spend the most time working on their skills on their craft and out there taking and making images
I'll always remember this quote I found on a book
I don't remember the name of the book or the person who said this
but I will try to find them and put it around here somewhere, but the quote went something like
Talent puts you on the starting line
effort will take you to
put you in the race
but insane dedication will put you in front of everyone else
I completely agree with that
of course having a 9-5 job can be a big problem because it limits us
It limits us to photograph on the weekends or whenever we have days off
It is really important when we have a job to make the most of our time when we are not working
I'm going to talk about my experience,
what I used to do, what I did to actually still be able to take photographs
while having a job but this of course will vary a lot depending on your case
if you are single, if you have a family, if you have kids
if your job is next door or if you have to commute and depending on the place where you live, of course
But my case was as follows: I used to live in Portland in a tiny apartment
But that apartment happened to be very close to the highway
So for me, it was very easy to just get the car and leave the city
what I used to do is to wake up very early
a few times a week just before going to work. That means that I'd have to go to sleep early
That means that sometimes I would have to say no to some
compromises the previous evening like meeting with someone or going for a drink. I would rather go to sleep
Wake up early and go on a drive to somewhere or go on a hike
I did this a few times. For example this video that I made from the Tom Dick and Harry mountain
That day, I don't want to lie, but I think I woke up at 3:30 or something like that
I drove like an hour and a half to Mt Hood and then I hiked for another hour to be there just for sunrise and
then I was done by 8:00 in the morning and I was still able to go back and
drive back and go to work and work the full day with no problem because I was rested from the day before
and I was ready for a day like that. I was very lucky because my hours were very flexible
so I was able to go a little bit earlier like at 7:00 in the morning and leave earlier or
go a little bit later like 10:00 in the morning and leave a little bit later that day
Most of the times though there was no hiking involved, the drives were a little bit shorter and closer to the city
so I had a list of places and spots, my go to places around Portland, 1 to 2 hours away
and depending on the weather of the next day, I could just choose this one or this one to make the most of that location
It's not about getting out a lot. It's not about getting out 4 to 5 times a week, even though that would be awesome
It's more about making the most of every single time that you do go out
It's about if the right conditions are gonna happen on Tuesday morning
It's about being able to be there on Tuesday morning. When you have a day job
of course, you are usually limited to the weekends or any other day depending on your job
But it's usually 2 days a week, 2 out of 7
that is 25% to 30% of the time. If your photography
depends the slightest on the weather and the conditions
Well, you know that expecting the right conditions to happen
just within that 25% to 30% of the days is a lot to expect, because
the weather usually has other plans and it doesn't really cooperate most of the time
Ideally, you'd be able to say "okay, this Saturday morning doesn't look that good, the conditions are not gonna be that good"
"So I'm just gonna stay home, gonna take care of this business and do whatever. But Tuesday morning, Tuesday morning is gonna be awesome"
"So I'm gonna go to bed early on Monday night"
"I'm gonna wake up, get the car or"
"Just go by bike, go running or whatever and make some images on Tuesday morning because it's gonna be incredible"
So yeah for me it was mostly about getting up super early. I did go out sometimes during the week for sunset
Traffic is usually worse at least in Portland at that time
So it was much easier for me to just get up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and go somewhere at that time
But yeah, I would love to hear about you guys
If you do any photography during the week while having a day job
What are your tips and tricks and things like that?
to actually be able to do it, if you do it in the morning if you do it in the evening
Or if you do photography just on the weekends and you are just fine with that
I'd love to hear your opinion and your experience on this
and that's about it, now it's time for me to go and actually make some images happen
Thank you so much for watching, see you in the next one