No friends of mine like photography.... :(

Lightsped

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I love photography. None of my friends do. Now, that is not to say they are against it, they just don't understand why I am willing to spend lots of money on bodies, lenses, and miscellanious equipment. I love to do nature walks or explore urban locations. I'm, always looking for any excuse to press the shutter release button....

Pretty much the only people I can discuss photography with are random people online whom I do not know or by posting my work on my online portfolio. The fact that I work graveyard shift (11pm-9am) and sleep during the day prevents me from joining any local clubs.

Anyone else find themselves in a similar situation? How do you deal with it?
 
With hours like that any social activity is going to be curtailed and its likely that getting yourself working hours during more normal hours would leave you open to socialise with local photographers a lot more - you could join up clubs and the like.

In the end we can all end up like this with hobbies - most of my family and friends don't understand why I'd more happily spend as much as good new car on a lens than on a car!
 
I love photography. None of my friends do. Now, that is not to say they are against it, they just don't understand why I am willing to spend lots of money on bodies, lenses, and miscellanious equipment. I love to do nature walks or explore urban locations. I'm, always looking for any excuse to press the shutter release button....

Pretty much the only people I can discuss photography with are random people online whom I do not know or by posting my work on my online portfolio. The fact that I work graveyard shift (11pm-9am) and sleep during the day prevents me from joining any local clubs.

Anyone else find themselves in a similar situation? How do you deal with it?

How do I deal with it? TPF, Flickr, and to a much lesser extent the occasional facebook. Granted it's not face to face but it does the trick. If I need to talk camera's or lenses or technique or whatever, I jump online. I work a full time job (during the day for me) so if I'm not there, or doing something with wonder teen, I'm generally out taking photographs of some sort if I have the free time. I don't discuss how much I spend on lenses or other equipment with family or friends because they really wouldn't get it, at all.. lol.
 
Be careful what you wish for! I complained about a similar thing on another forum a while back and people told me the same thing. I didn't listen! Then I met a friend who I ADORE Who is also into photography. We end up butting heads on a lot of photography related issues and have actually had to kind of back off that part of our friendship a bit. in fact for a while we took a complete break on even mentioning the subject.

So I say enjoy being the only photographer in your group of friends. Keep shooting- ask them to model and then enjoy it when they say you're shots are awesome. Otherwise you'll end up like me.....jealous when you hear people say how awesome (your friends) shots are because they had the gusts to be asking for shoots and you didn't!!
 
Along with what Jazzie is saying, I think it could be boring if all of your friends did the same thing as you. You wouldn't have your own thing to add to the mix, you wouldn't stand out. This way you know you are the best photographer in the bunch. I have ran into this situation before where none of my friends wanted to go out hiking with me. When it came down to it I decided that enjoying something that I really like to do is much more fun even if it was by myself.
 
As a hobby it's great for me. I really haven't met other people into photography. There are local clubs around but I haven't had a chance to visit them. I spent alot of time this past year photographing my kids soccer, and posting the pictures online for other parents. That was fun and enjoyable and I learned alot of new techniques etc. Of course, I also splurged for a nice 80-200/2.8 lens.

I have two other hobbies which I'm heavily involved in too and it's just another release for me. I wouldn't worry too much about what people say. Everyone has their own vices .. such as some people who go to the bar and spend tons of money on liquid based products that have no value after the fact, or boats, jetskis, 4 wheelers, expensive car stereos. Everyone has their vices and many people only understand "their" spending habits and don't understand other peoples habits.
 
I don't even try anymore. As long as they are understanding and patient with your hobby (for an example, wait for you to finish your shot before moving on during a trip), it's pretty much the most you can hope for. Actually, I don't proactively share my photos anymore. I just post them to my own blog. Which ever unlucky dude sees it, that's his problem.
 
I belong to a local club and have a couple of friends who are photographers but their interests and style are completely different then mine and we don't talk about photography much, if any. The club is strictly social for me also, there are a couple of people who shoot street stuff, but badly, and I try not to engage with them.
 
I get my fix here. Talking about gear and techniques in person is incredibly boring.
 
I am not you, but I really quite dislike talking to people about photography in real life. Most people who want to talk photography want to talk about things that bore me to death (equipment, for instance). Online, I can just silently wander away, or nor take part, or otherwise drift off to find a conversation I might enjoy. In real life it's a lot harder to get away from the enthusiastic fellow who's so very very boring.

So, I am actually at some pains to not let on that I am "in to" photography.
 
Friends are as you find them. They are often fickle, and only occasionally will you find someone who shares a passion in a hobby. Even then, your photography friend will grow out of photography, or became a Canon shooter, or some other change will cause the two of you to drift apart. Don't stress over not having somebody to talk photography with.

Some of my favorite people are into the same politics as I, and I enjoy talking current events with them immensely, but I never talk photography with them.

On the other hand, one fellow that I met through photography turned out to be not such a good friend after all.
 
These days, my boyfriend and I share photography as a hobby, and it actually works out quite well. We're both fairly solitary creatures, so when we are out together shooting, it's not uncommon for us to lose track of each other for a little while as we're both off taking the pictures that we see. It's interesting to see how our pictures end up different from each other even when we are shooting the same thing. If we're out somewhere and one of us needs to stop for a while to get a shot, it's no big deal because we both understand what it's like to see a shot and become slightly obsessed with it.

If it weren't for him, I'm sure I'd be out shooting alone and I would be totally fine with that. I like seeing the results from other people and talking about photography. For those purposes, I've joined some forums and it's a lot more satisfying than I thought it would be, but I don't have any particular desire to have company during the actual process of shooting.

And photography clubs...I joined one about 9 years ago and went pretty regularly for probably about a year. It was fine and I met some interesting people and saw some really good photographs, but it ultimately felt a little too...I don't know, almost clique-ish, like high school. And like amolitar, I hated feeling stuck in conversations or discussions when the subject matter turned to things that bored me. At that time, there was a mix of film and digital shooters, and some of the film shooters were in the process of going digital. If I had a dime for every time I heard the word 'pixel'...where's the cross-eyed smiley??
 
I love photography. None of my friends do. Now, that is not to say they are against it, they just don't understand why I am willing to spend lots of money on bodies, lenses, and miscellanious equipment. I love to do nature walks or explore urban locations. I'm, always looking for any excuse to press the shutter release button....

Pretty much the only people I can discuss photography with are random people online whom I do not know or by posting my work on my online portfolio. The fact that I work graveyard shift (11pm-9am) and sleep during the day prevents me from joining any local clubs.

Anyone else find themselves in a similar situation? How do you deal with it?

Deal with what?

While some of my friends are photographers, the vast majority are not. They don't understand why I do what I do, or how, and they just don't care to know.

I guess I just don't see it as something to "deal" with. Outlets such as TPF are perfect for conversing with other photographers and, I would submit, actually better because you're exposed to a wider variety of people and styles...
 
I love photography. None of my friends do. Now, that is not to say they are against it, they just don't understand why I am willing to spend lots of money on bodies, lenses, and miscellanious equipment. I love to do nature walks or explore urban locations. I'm, always looking for any excuse to press the shutter release button....

Pretty much the only people I can discuss photography with are random people online whom I do not know or by posting my work on my online portfolio. The fact that I work graveyard shift (11pm-9am) and sleep during the day prevents me from joining any local clubs.

Anyone else find themselves in a similar situation? How do you deal with it?

Deal with what?

While some of my friends are photographers, the vast majority are not. They don't understand why I do what I do, or how, and they just don't care to know.

I guess I just don't see it as something to "deal" with. Outlets such as TPF are perfect for conversing with other photographers and, I would submit, actually better because you're exposed to a wider variety of people and styles...


Agreed, the vast majority of my friends are scratching their heads working why I would spend $2,500 on a camera and $2,300 on a lens vs buying another 50 BMG rifle….@$5.00 a round, the camera is cheaper to shoot :lol:

Anyhow, it's true that you can pick your friends but finding friends with similar interest doesn't always happen. All I can say is, if this is something that is important to you, than place your self in a position to meet people with similar interest like local clubs or maybe take a photography class or 3. In the mean time, enjoy the friends you have, no matter how different your interest maybe, they value your friendship despite you having different interest than they have.
 

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