Friends & Family
© Jerry Whaley

No, this is not an ad for MCI; this is about time management while traveling with your friends and family. If you want to photograph while traveling and still have a family or have any friends when the trip is over, you must learn to balance your schedule and your needs with the needs and desires of others. You may want to take photos all day long, but it is not likely that others on the trip will want to do the same. You may have to socialize, sight see and party a bit to keep the natives happy.

I study the schedule and look for free time I can utilize to go out and take photographs. Fortunately, early morning and late afternoon are often slow times for "normal" travelers. This is usually before breakfast and before dinner, a time many travelers use to rest. Being photographers, we don't need to rest -- we can just work till we drop. I also try to find out what family members "really" want to do on a given day. If I go out of my way to see that they get to do what they really want to do, they usually don't mind if I use some time to take photographs or if I sneak out for a photo session while they relax at the hotel. If you look, there is free time to be found.

If the schedule really gets tight, you will have to evaluate your priorities. Sometimes you just have to push it and endure the wrath of others. For a dedicated photographer, skipping a meal (or yet another dinner) to go out and take photos is not a terrible hardship. You might occasionally tell your friends and family that tomorrow's destination is a prime location for photographs and that you expect them to be patient with you as you pursue your art. Ignore the snide remarks and keep on shooting. On a smaller scale you might say that the hour before and after sunrise and sunset belongs to you, while the rest of the day belongs to the family. Find your own way to compromise.

You might also involve your friends or family members as models in some of your photographs. They might get into it and actually offer suggestions and encourage you to take more photographs (well it's worth a try!). In group situations, you will often be asked to "take-our-picture." Do so gladly and ask for the favor to be returned. Photographers need family shots too, but I find my heavy concentration on serious photography tends to make me forget to do the family shots.

Here is my strategic hint regarding this month's subject. I always carry two extra rolls of print film with me on any group travel (I call them my sacrificial rolls). Being known as the "serious" photographer on the trip and carrying lots of film, people naturally ask me for film when they either run out or leave it in the hotel room in their bags the day we go to some stunningly beautiful location. It is much easier to carry the print film with me than to explain why I don't use it or why I can't let them have any of my precious low-speed slide film.

Obviously, as a photographer, I regard traveling with others as both a challenge and an opportunity. If you, like me, do much of your travel photography on family outings or group trips, learning to manage your time and integrate your activity with that of others is essential. Unless your plans include turning professional and only going out on paid photographic assignments, you had better take some time and learn to juggle--time, that is.