Photographic Down Time and the Future

November seems to be the worst time of year for outdoor photography around Vancouver, rain has kept me in just about every day that I've had off work. All the rain is one of the reasons I do not like this time of year. Thankfully the weather drys up in December most years, which is good because I like to go out and get exercise by walking. Some might say it is a photography walk, but that really is not the case, at least not in the traditional sense. Most of the time I go to a specific location, and walk around looking for birds. I would call it more of a subject hunt, if anything, but I'll call it a photography walk for the sake of simplicity. There are two good sides to my photography walks, first walking is healthy outdoor activity, and secondly I get to take photos of subjects that I find interesting.

My interest in birds is not just photographically, although photographing birds inspired me to learn more about them. As soon as I started photographing birds I wanted to know what type of bird I was photographing, the type, and more interestingly about their habitats and migration patterns. One of the best parts of photography is that it makes you more aware of your surroundings, which is something I have mentioned here before. Whenever I go for a walk, I see things that would be interesting to photograph, and some of those subjects are things that I would have completely ignored in the past. While out on camping trips during the past summer I saw and heard wildlife that I had either overlooked or not seen before. I simply noticed more ground on around me because I was actively interested in what was happening.

The upcoming year looks like an interesting, as well as challenging for me. I am going to start taking some photography classes, and hope to be doing some work in the field within the next 8-12 months. I know one of areas of photography that I need to work on the most is portraits. Although the classes I am looking at are not just focused on portraits, there will be plenty of opportunities for me to get practice working with some models. The other advantages is that I will have some work to put in to a portfolio, as I am looking to work for companies as a photographer professionally. I am hoping to at least do a few jobs by the middle of next year, and within a few years have photography as my primary source of income. Bird photography may be the hobby part of my photography, but I cannot see that being my source of income so I am looking at doing family portraits, and maybe some weddings, although that would be a challenge for me.