We’re taking a little break from the South Africa blogs this weekend, as University is currently draining a lot of my time. Next week (hopefully!) we’ll be back with more adventurous tales. So today’s blog is about how I keep going photographically when I have no time to do much apart from study.

Being a wildlife photographer, it’s a rare occasion that I can get out to do much shooting during the semester. I’m limited to forays to the park to chase city birds, or the very occasional zoo trip. I get withdrawal symptoms!
So what do I do when I can’t do what I love to do? (That is a horrible sentence and I apologise)
It’s a constant struggle against becoming demotivated and irritated, but I try and keep my photographic mind churning along even when I can’t go out shooting, and don’t have time to do big sets of image processing.

I do a lot of internet trawling, mainly on 500px, for inspiration and just to see what other people are getting up to – I like to jot down ideas that I’d like to try.
Blogging is great as it gives me something that I have to do every week. I keep processing photos and writing about photography, and my huge stash of unprocessed photos keeps me well occupied. I will often keep one open and work on it between researching and writing assignments – the History tab is a wonderful thing. It’s a slow process, but any forward movement is good.

I try to keep exploring new creative avenues – the most recent one are my Steller books, but I sometimes involve my artistic side and play around with digital composites and painting.

Sometimes I’ll go back to old photos and re-process them, or try and critique myself. Critical evaluation is good, it keeps you pushing forwards and helps avoid complacency.

Eventually I will get really stuck, and then the only cure is taking my camera for a walk and getting back behind the viewfinder. It’s a challenge in the city because street photography is not my forte, so it’s a good exercise to engage in. And if it gets really bad, I can always photograph the birds that come to our balcony to keep my reflexes sharp.

I’m lucky that I can go home at least once every six weeks or so, and then I can get back into doing some wildlife. Unfortunately, for many reasons, I missed out on this over Easter, so now I’m scraping the barrel until exams are over at the end of June. It’s nice to have something to look forward to!