[robgski]

So another suggestion: Make a photo book about anything. Find a theme

Great idea!

[atupdate]

You don't say how old your child is but I'm guessing pretty young. Now would be a good time to practice people shots with different lighting (single window, window with reflector, bounce flash +). Your wife will love having shots of the little one and it is great practice.

I didn't have a digital camera when my kids were little so now my indoor shots are of the puppies we foster.

Posed in a bucket - flash with a diffuser


Ground Level with a Wide Lens (Sigma 10-20) - flash bounced off the ceiling


Once your child is older, you will be going places, the zoo, the park, or an outdoor concert. You then have a whole new world of photo ops.

All these were taken when our kids were little (toddler to pre-high school)

Not my kid


Historical Farm


In summary, my advice is to shot where you are at (life wise).

Tim

[PJ1]

I read this book (Practice of Contemplative Photography)

I just ordered it. I hope it will do as much for me. Thanks for the tip.

[jasonwole]

I completely agree with the point "

Life is busy, and hobbies get us out of the "busy-ness" for a short while

[Winder]

I have job as well as a wife and daughter so I don't get a lot of time to go out and do something as selfish as my photography.

You have 2 models. Turn photography into family time. You can get cheap flashes and umbrellas... real cheap. Its not nature photography, but years from now those will be your favorite pictures, and you will be learning to really master light.

[TaoMaas]

...I'm starting to wonder if I don't get satisfaction out of my shots because I just don't put enough time into it.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. On another thread, someone was debating about buying a new lens to take on a trip and I suggested that getting up earlier, staying out later, and thinking and looking constantly would give more benefits than an equipment purchase. Photography isn't all that much different than most everything else in life. You're a student. Wouldn't you expect those who devote themselves to particular classes and put in more work on them to do better than the average student? Some things just come easy to certain folks, but for most of us, how much we get out of something largely depends upon how much we put into it. I tell folks, "If you want pictures that are a cut above the norm, you have to do more than the majority of people." As I said above...get up earlier, stay out later, think more, look more, etc...

...the only stuff I find around my house that would only take a minute to shoot is subject material for macro shots, really, and certainly not during the winter.

There are probably more things around you to shoot than you suspect. Still lifes aren't my cup of tea, but I know several people who shoot great things on their dining room table. I went to a workshop where one of the speakers' current work consisted of Polaroid shots he had made around his house...candid portraits of his daughter, the morning light shining through a collander on a cutting board, flowers on a windowsill...that kind of thing. At another workshop, a woman was talking to the instructor about her desire to break into the stock photography field, but worrying about her lack of time to get out and shoot. As it turned out, her job was working in a day care facility. The instructor told her, "Kid pictures sell really well and you've got access to kids every day! Get releases from the parents and shoot what you see at work." In your case, you could carry your camera to class and document student life. Dewitt Jones wrote a great article that talked about being receptive to what's being given to you. The basic message was that many times we go out to shoot with a preconceived notion of what we'll find. When we don't see what we expected, we shut down somewhat. But if we open up a bit, we may be able to see something we hadn't thought of before. And if all else fails...hang in there. Spring is just around the corner.

[amp]

As was mentioned earlier, you have a major opportunity to take tons of photos of your child. That's pretty much where I'm at with my 3 year old son. Shooting your child will get you prepared for bigger game, the type you could get paid for. Joking aside, that's probably your most obvious opportunity to hone your skills.

[W.j.christy]

I know its been said a couple of times but I agree with the statement to bring your camera wherever you go. You never know when the opportunity may strike to practice.


Like you I have a job, a very active 1 year old, and a wife who works more hours than I. I too find it hard to get the time to go out and take pictures and truly enjoy the art/hobby of photograph. There has been more than one day that I have thought I should sell it all and just stick with my cell phone.....


What I have done to help with expanding my knowledge and skills is to spend a lot of time taking pictures of my daughter. In doing this it has helped me to understand lighting better, composition, and has really helped me to get used to my camera and lenses.


I read some advice on this thread that you should always keep your eyes open and perceive your surroundings as if you where taking a picture. I also agree with this. I am constantly on the look out for places that I would like to take pictures of. Many times they are places that most wouldn't think would make a nice photo but we are artists and part of what we do is take the uninteresting and make it interesting. Or at least interesting to our selves.


Case in point the following pictures


The first picture was taking in laporte texas at sylvan beach (i live near here and go this way often). You can't tell from the pic but the water in not able to be swam in due to bacteria and the beach is pretty scuzzy the picture though, is almost serene (at least I think so). Funny part is that I was on my way to an offsite location for work and new I would be near the coast close to sunrise so I used google maps found a location and took the shot. All in all I think it took me about 30 mins to find the location and get the shot.


The second is a picture of a man made water fall in a housing development I saw when I was on my way to grocery store or on some other errand. I made a note of it then came back to it when I was on my way to dinner with my boss and coworkers. This took me about 30mins as well.


Are these pics great? No probably not, but I enjoyed the few moments of tranquility I got when I took them and I am pretty proud of the results. And for the photos of my daughter? I really enjoyed the time I spent getting her smile, that is what made it worth it and kept me going. Find something that makes you happy with photography and exploit that and enjoy it.

Try to find interesting photo-objects nearby your home

[Just1MoreDave]

A lot of great advice, especially getting up earlier/staying out later.

I would set up the camera to shoot decent JPGs, so I could skip processing. I'd shoot RAW+JPEG just in case I took an awesome shot, and because it's habit. Just save the processing for that awesome shot, and maybe the future when you have time to look back at the others.

[Nicolas06]

If you think of it, everybody has a lot of time. Basically all the time of their life.

What you do of it, you decide. If you don't find time for photography or whatever else for that mater is that you actually put a lower priority to it than doing other things. This is as simple as that.

There people out there that decided their life is going to be dedicated to photography and they spend all their time doing that. They may not have done advanced studies or they may not have a wife, still they do it. You may say studies are more important than photography. You may say the girl friend is more important than photography. You may say whatever else is more important. Not everybody make that choice and that why they get different lifes. Not necessarily better or worse, but different.

But you can for sure spend time for it if you wish, if you make it more important than other stuff you actually do. And if you don't honestly, is it really a problem? You can't be the best at school, be an accomplished guy in a dozen of sport, master 2-3 muscal instrument, contribute to a few open source programs, spend lof of time with family, contribute to charity giving food to people in need, go to parties on a regular basis, visit the whole world and start a nice political carrier all at the same time.

If you want to go on with photography you can decide how much time you want to spend for it, what else you'll stop doing or do less to make room for it and go on with that.

That could be, I don't know 1 sunday a month is devoted to it. That could be you wake up early to shoot things around you... That could be you manage to get money from your shots shooting things for the school, you do wedding on the saturday... so you can leave your side job... That could be you admit you work a bit less your studies ... That could be you decide to share your life with a person that love photography too so you can take photo and be together at the same time !

[micromacro]

When you graduate, nature still will be everywhere, and it will plenty of landscape as well. But every minute of daughter's childhood is unique. Her first smile, first walk, first day at school, all moments happen just ones. You can print family books, it will be something your daughter will appreciate for the rest of her life.