Time in the field??

Question: How much time do you find yourself spending with one particular subject?? Hours, days, weeks??? And I'm speaking of one subject, like one in individual subject.

I know this is a subjective question, as a subject might be considered by some to be an entire forest, but others to be a single bird, but others to be a single species, but please give your best or most thoughtful answer. I really am interested in these responses.

It depends. Pretty much all of the above for me. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to see what I want right there and then. Other times I plan repeat visits year after year (I have 2 images that took 3 years to get "right" and others I still have not gotten right after first finding them years ago).

Then there are times when I find an area that fascinates me and I can work it for hours and hours, or even camp there so I can continue to explore for a day or two.

Guy

My subjects lately are mainly flowers - I thought I had pretty much exhausted the cosmos in my yard after a couple of hours one day. I found though that I could spend many (many) more hours on them though.

Nathan

it depends

sorry, but it's true.

Pete D.

One thing is certain. There is not one approach fits all but rather each type of subject and the situation of a photographer to subjects will dictate what they might do. Obviously subjects that are near where one lives and locally travels are more likely to be more deeply and more often the subject of work than even more worthy subjects that are simply more difficult to access, more costly, or time consuming to travel to. More interesting and worthy subjects will be worked over more than less interesting subjects. There are many landscapes of modest aesthetic potential I've shot once sort of for the record and not bothered with any more. If one is in the business of selling images, those image subjects that are more marketable are going to be worked more than those one might simply personally enjoy shooting.

I have a rather large body of landscape work since that is what I've been working at for 26 years. And as such there are some familiar subjects that I've already spent enough time shooting such that I've managed to get a great shot of. After getting such an image, I tend to check that subject or location off as something I need not work on more. In some cases like Valley View in Yosemite Valley, I've yet to get a truly great image that rises above that of myriad other photographers shooting that same icon. So when weather conditions are extraordinary and I just happen to be thereabouts, I'm game to take another whack at it. And there are other more unique images that simply require some extraordinary weather conditions like fine clouds to raise their aesthetic up to a level that makes a shot worthwhile.

I like many others have through our photographic journey moved up in equipment format. There are a number of fine image subjects that I've shot with smaller formats than the 4x5 I tend to use today, that I have renewed reasons to go back and work again in order to capture something that can be printed with more detail and larger. That is especially true for subjects that are wide landscapes with lots of detail foreground to background. On the other hand there are some subject types like closeups of wildflowers that really don't work well blown up to huge images sizes. In such cases one might as well shoot with smaller formats and print at more reasonable sizes. Wildflower closeups are a good example. One does not need a 20x30 inch print of a poppy even if it shows more detail. An 11x14 will usually display much better with a more lifelike size people can relate to. Thus some of my small format work for some subjects is already adequae so I need not return to again. And with some of those I may have got the great shot the first attempt while others took time.

I especially like to take images of trees and spend considerable effort hunting great specimens down. After I locate a great tree, it might take a number of visits before seasonal conditions and weather provide the opportunity to capture the tree at its best. After doing so I won't feel a need to capture like images of that same species. In other words after one makes a great image of a particular type of subject, given the enormous choice of subject types, one is apt to move onto something else in order to broaden the body of one's work. However some species tend to have a great many interesting forms like valley oaks, while others like willows tend to be more limited. Thus I might always keep an eye out for good subjects of the former while tending to ignore the latter if I've already got a decent image in my body of work. ...David

I have one bird that I spent a year trying to find his home area. I finally nailed him down about four months ago. On some days I have spent 4 hours watching him and never gotten a single keeper photo. On other days I have spent maybe a half hour and filled a 4 gig card. I have watched him in hot, humid, sticky weather. I was up before daylight a few weeks ago at 16 degrees with the wind doing 25 mph just to get a shot of this bird having his morning coffee. Its not only the (SHOT) but all the wildlife you see and the inter action of critters that makes the day. I have ma-by 100 hours into this bird and that is but a small fraction of what I am willing to spend to get that once in a lifetime shot.---For years I have used vacation to go to Florida to photograph the space ships as they leave Earth. I have yet to see one go! Bad weather, bad parts, and just plain old bad luck. I have a photograph in mind that I would like to shoot---ma-by next time! So we are talking thousands of miles of driving and a pile of money spent. O, and that bird I`m spending so much time on, look at my avatar.

Interesting question and replies. I certainly agree with those who say, "It depends !" I have several places where I take landscape photos that I have gone back to at different times of the year for 5 years now. In particular, I find that lakes have quite definitive personalities at certain times of the year. So, yeah, it ranges from a couple of minutes up to hours and hours spread over years!!

I like subjects that change over time. My first project along those lines took two years of roaming around Mt. Tamalpais. I'm currently taking a picture of one small plot of ground once a week and will do it for one year.

I normally spend more time at home than in the field... maps, books, internet, telephone... the 6 P's. This can sometimes take months.

As to "time in the field", normally no more than a week at a time as I usually find more this to be counter productive as other things start to take precedence in my mind - if it is very close (say upto 150Km away) I would normally do a day at a time - and pick the day carefully.

I have to admit, I'm an impatient photographer. Since I only have vacation time and weekends to take most of my shots, I tend to make surgical strikes on locations. But I spend a lot of time planning, and I try to scout new areas during longer trips to compensate. I do admit to spending a lot of small doses of time returning to locations in hopes of catching "that special image"...

Unfortunately I'm in the same boat as Les, timewise, and use my time much as he appears to. Over the last four years, I've become intimately familiar with several discrete areas within the wilderness around Ely, and I keep coming back to them again and again. Partly it's because of the wildlife and wildlife sign I keep seeing there, partly because the backgrounds are so good that I'm willing to wait until something moves in front of those backgrounds, and the sign tells me that happens. So far, it has only happened a few times, but the more time I spend there at key light periods, the more likely it will happen again. So I guess I've spent four years coming back over and over again to a certain number of spots, as well as hitting many other places. Sometimes it's worth a bit of dogged determination for just the right light. When I'm shooting wildflowers, I confess to less patience, and a diffusion tent helps me get nice light during harsh sun periods.