The art of doing too much

The tl:dr is this is just a random waffle about some things I’ve been up to with photography and where my head is currently at. Potentially not very insightful, but it might still be a good thing to read about the perils of doing too much!

I have so many great ideas. Or at least they seem like great ideas at the time. Then reality hits and what seemed like a great idea turns into a good idea, but not quite possible.

Take me doing 365 days of photos for example. It’s a great idea. Take a new photo every single day for 365 days and make a little post about it. Brilliant! Originally I decided that using my mobile phone was allowed. It’s perfectly capable of taking artistic photos after all. But this soon gave way to me using my fancy mirrorless camera because I can get the shots I like with it more easily. All was going well until the realisation set in that I had to set aside about an hour every day for this. My own fault by admission, because I wanted more than quick snaps. I saw this as an opportunity to learn new things. So now we’re talking idea forming, scene setup, actual shooting of something, processing the photo, posting it online and sharing. Small things on their own, but still time consuming. I would love to say I have all the time in the world to spend on my photography. But unfortunately between the 9-5 and other commitments this great idea was doomed from the start.

So after 27 days of photos I had to call it a day for my own sanity. I would have loved to continue, and stopping wasn’t something I chose to do lightly. The good thing is I did learn something from all of this.

I’m one of those people who has too many hobbies. I like to think I major in photography. It’s my main go to and has been now for many years. But like many others there’s a lot more that fill my time. Reading, video games, board games, RPGs, learning the piano, drawing….and so on (There’s probably more, but that’s the main few). I find some comfort in knowing when it’s a rainy day the camera can sit on the shelf and I can do something else. But it also means there’s not so much room for anything new. So I need to be a lot more careful with my time.

So why do it? Why take on more? Why do we think we’re capable of fitting more things into our hectic days (I’m actually asking here because I don’t have an answer!). I recently read a topic on going deeper into hobbies, rather than wider. I’ve definitely tried to do that with photography, but the itch for other things is always there. Maybe it’s just in our nature (or at least mine). And that’s something I have to accept.

Where am I going from here? Well, I’m going to try and take it easy a bit more and not take on too much.

YouTube will happen when it happens. I think anyone watching already knows this. When I started I tried to commit to a video every week, then every two weeks. And that’s just because somewhere I read that’s what you have to do as a ‘content creator’. I say ‘pah’ to that. Videos will happen, but I’ll take my time over them to make sure that I’m happy with them, and what I’m producing. Hopefully you mind a few gaps in time, but they will come eventually.

The other thing. Twitter. This is still going to happen (although Twitter annoys me, more on that another time though). I try to post something daily from a reserve of photos I have taken over the week/months. I’m sure people still want to see them, but for me it’s also the best way to throw something out into the world and be seen.

And if you have any tips on how not to take on too much put them in the comments below. I’m sure myself and others will love to hear them!