The Beginner Photography Podcast

Photo Q&A: How To Juggle a Day Job and Photography with Automation

• Raymond Hatfield

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#586 In Today’s Episode of the podcast I chat with YOU as I answer the questions that matter most to photography beginners and enthusiasts who are eager to grow both technically and creatively.

This episode is all about addressing real-world challenges that come up when you’re starting or growing a photography practice. I share my personal experiences, insights, and favorite tips—especially about balancing a day job with a budding side hustle in photography. I open up about my own journey of building a wedding photography business and the practical strategies I used to manage my time, keep clients happy, and avoid burnout.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. Starting a Photography Side Hustle & Workflow Automation - Raymond shares his early struggles balancing a day job with building a portrait and wedding photography business. He highlights the time-saving power of using tools like CloudSpot Studio for automating bookings, contracts, invoicing, and client communication. Key takeaway: automation prevents lost opportunities and allows photographers with limited time to provide a seamless client experience.
  2. Editing Style Evolution & Managing Creative Ruts - Addressing questions about losing confidence in editing style, Raymond emphasizes that evolving tastes are normal and even healthy. He encourages experimenting with new edits and using past work to develop a style that feels authentic. Takeaway: feedback is useful, but personal satisfaction with your work is crucial for creative fulfillment.
  3. Equipment Choices for Travel, Studio, & Technical Mastery - Through specific gear-related questions, Raymond discusses how to weigh camera options for travel and studio documentation, advocating for a minimalist approach while tailoring choices to the context and desired output. He also offers a deep dive into understanding depth of field and autofocus, demystifying how they interact to produce sharp images. Takeaway: deliberate gear selection and technical competence empower photographers to adapt to any shooting situation.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Depth of Field (DoF): The range within a photo that appears acceptably sharp, determined by a combination of aperture, focal length, and subject distance. Raymond explains how understanding DoF helps photographers achieve their desired focus in different scenarios, especially when combined with autofocus settings.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How might automating your business workflow free up time for more creative pursuits? What steps can you start implementing now?
  2. Have you recently felt dissatisfied with your editing style or creative output? What strategies could help you refresh your perspective?
  3. When preparing for a travel or studio shoot, how do you decide what gear is essential versus what might be excess baggage?
  4. In what ways has understanding (or misunderstanding) depth of field affected your photography?

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Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

raymond-hatfield_2_07-09-2025_084606:

You want to speed up the process and make it as easy as possible for them to give you their money and their business. So then they would sign the contract, right? Once that is signed, then they get an invoice. They just pay it and then it's done. You can start like these workflows that automatically start sending them more emails. Automating out all of these things saved me so, so, so, so much time so that I didn't have to let the ball drop on potential clients, because I was working my day job, the conversation would automatically start because I had a pre-written email go out. Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and today we are doing our monthly photo q and a episode. This is your opportunity to ask me any of your burning photography questions, and I answer them here on the podcast because guess what? If you have a question about photography, chances are. A million other people have the same question about photography. Maybe they're stuck somewhere. Maybe they're just looking for some advice. So I figure why not just answer them here on the show to share the information with you. So if you have a burning photography question, guess what? You can ask me by heading over to beginner photo pod.com/qa. That's just two letters, qa, and you can submit your question and then who knows? You might just get your question answered here on the podcast. So again, if you've got a question, head over to beginner photo pod.com/ QA. All right. With that, let's go ahead and get on into today's photo q and a questions. The first question that we got here today comes from Steve. Hey Steve. Steve says, I'm starting my first steps into trying to make a little money in photography, a little side hustle. I have a full-time job as a truck driver. When you first started out earning money with photography, do you have any tips or tricks that you learned during those hard few years? My biggest issue is trying to balance my day job with photography. All the backroom stuff. The area of photography I'm starting, my side hustle is with portrait photography. By the way, I've listened to a lot of your podcasts and they are great. Hey, thanks Steve. Appreciate that, man. Yeah, I have a lot of tips and tricks, that I learned in those first few hard years about balancing a day job with photography, as a truck driver. you may remember, or know of the company, Sellon. they were based here in Indianapolis. That's who I worked for when I first started my wedding photography business. And, I did have to manage the day job along with photography as well for. two years I believe. And there were times where it was really rough and specifically it was the back end, right? It was making sure that all the communications were taken care of. It was making sure that, the contracts were done, the invoices, the making sure that everybody had all the information for their shoot. It was the marketing, it wasn't the shooting itself,'cause you can't do both at the same time. So it's like while you're shooting, that's the easy part. But things like scheduling, like that sucked as well. So first of all, I would applaud you for, taking on both at this time. That's a smart move. I've seen a number of people just quit their day jobs and go all in on photography and realize, oh my goodness, this is not as easy as just pressing a button and collecting thousands of dollars. What do I do? So the first thing that you need to take care of is obviously all the administrative stuff. And this is gonna sound like an ad, it's gonna sound like a plug well, honestly, like part of it is, but the other part is that I've used it and I love it, and it's, it's cloud spot. Taking care of all the things like, the scheduling, the invoicing, the contracts, the communication, all of that. Well, not the communication, or making sure that people have the information that they need. All of that can be done within Cloud Spot Studio. So, just as an example. I would have a client reach out to me and say, Hey, I want you to shoot our engagement session. that information of their name. maybe where they were thinking about having it, what their estimated budget was. They would send in a lead, and then all of that would be captured. From there, I would then, have email communication with them. The first email that I sent out would be the same for everybody because the rate of people inquiring is much higher than the rate of people who actually book. So trying to save time there is important. So I would have an autoresponder set up. When somebody would inquire about my services, they would automatically get an email that says, Hey, Raymond, here, just got your inquiry. I'm really excited to get back to you. In the meantime, here's some more information that you may want to know. And it would include a little PDF that I designed with things like my price list with, ideas of where they could shoot with some sample images, just so that they could get an idea of, What it's like working with me and what it is that I can deliver. And then, it would end with, something to the effect of like, are you still interested in working with me? Once I would then get an email back from them saying, yeah, this all looks great. Then I would give them a personalized response, but if they didn't respond back to that email, well then that's one less email that has to waste my time. And again, like I said, the amount of inquiries you get is far greater than the amount of jobs that you book, so that can save a good amount of time. Once they then responded back, I would have more information to give them. And again, that would pretty much be a templated email. From there, it would say like, great, if they didn't already tell me, were you thinking about getting married? What is your date? Things like that. Once they would reply back to that, I would then have more information and say, great. Now you know, this all looks fantastic. Let's hop on a quick call so that you can determine whether or not I'm the right photographer for you, which also was a phone call for me to determine if they were the right client for me. We'd have a quick call. Again, I just learned more about them. It's kind of just a vibe check, see if I think that we're gonna get along. And then from there, I would say like, well, what do you guys think? Like, are you guys interested in working together? If they said yes, I'd be like, fantastic. If they said, we need to think about it, I'd be like, fantastic. I have a templated email for both. One of'em is a quote right on the phone call. We'd talk about the different pricing options that I have. They would usually choose one. If not, I would send them all three of my different packages for them to choose. But if they had picked one, I would send them a quote that says, here's what it is that you chose, essentially, and here's the price. that would just go out automatically and then they would just view and accept the quote. Once they accepted it, they would then be given a contract to sign again, all automatically Cloudspot studio does all this. The contract was pre-filled out. With their information, they already gave me their name. They gave me their wedding date. They gave me the location of this place. They chose a package. All of this is in the contract and automatically, inputted through Cloud Spot Studio. whereas in the past. I would have to like write these things out manually, create a PDF, and I'm not even kidding. When I first got into it, what I would do is I would write up essentially A PDF. It was a custom contract for every single person. I would print out two copies. I don't even know if this is legal. I would print out two copies, and then I would mail those two copies to the couple. I'd mail them in the mail. In the mail, it would cost me a dollar'cause it was so much paper to send to each client. I would have them sign both contracts and then they would send me back one so that I had the contract and then they also had the contract. That's so inefficient. That's so time consuming and costly with the amount of contracts that you gotta send out. So again, like having that all digital is a huge time saver because what you don't want is for them to agree. You send them the contract and then they're like, oh, actually I forgot that we have a friend who does photography. We don't want your services and then not book you. You want to speed up the process and make it as easy as possible for them to give you their money and their business. So then they would sign the contract, right? Again, through Cloud Spot Studio, they can do this. Once that is signed, then they get an invoice. And the invoice is where they get to pay the deposit. From there, like the package is already inputted, the payment schedule is already in there. They just pay it and then it's done. From there, you can start like these workflows that automatically I. Start sending them more emails. If it's a wedding and it's a long timeline out, they're gonna get information. What do we do if it rains on your wedding day? What are some things that you can do with your photos? Here are some tips for a stress-free wedding day. If it's a portrait session, maybe it's just some clothing inspiration, right? Outfit inspiration. Here's how I'm gonna pose you to. So get ready for things like this and then 24 hours before their portrait session, I would have a reminder that says, Hey, send them an email with the location. Include a Google Maps screenshot of like exactly where you're gonna meet them. Include your phone number. All of the relevant details maybe does it cost to get into wherever you're shooting? Maybe it's a national park or a, a state park or something, and then you go from there. But like automating out all of these things saved me so, so, so, so much time so that I didn't have to let the ball drop on potential clients, because I was working my day job, the conversation would automatically start because I had a pre-written email go out. All of the work that I really had to do was, if they responded back to that first email was I would, you know, the email template was pretty much done. But I would just add things like, Hey, Sam and Alex or whatever. Like, sounds like you got a great wedding planned. This is gonna be awesome. and then looking forward to hearing from you. Like, those would really be the only things that I would add based on the information that they gave me. And then just ensuring that it would take a minimal amount of my time was super important. And having a strong CRMA customer relationship manager like Cloud Spot studio was a way that I was able to, get it done, was able to kind of scale, the business. Quickly enough to where I could leave my job at sellan and go full time as a wedding photographer. And again, man, super, super, super helpful. So, the biggest thing is keeping all the information together, having it all in one place, not in a binder, not in multiple different calendars on your phone, in the paper, post-it notes, but having it all in one location. And again, cloud Spot Studio does that. and. I think that it's even included in their free account. Like you can have up to, I think three projects going at one time. So like if you're just getting started, you're dipping your toes in, give it a shot. You literally have nothing to lose. And if you like the way it works and you start getting more than three clients at a time, then you can upgrade. But I would highly suggest if you haven't tried it out already to do so and you can even grab your free account over@deliverphotos.com. Again, that's deliver photos.com. That felt like a big pitch. And again, like. In a way it is because I know of the service that I love and I'm trying to share it with you. But they also sponsor the podcast, but they sponsor the podcast because I believe in them and they're great people, people. so we live in this weird time where like, that feels weird. But honestly, no, I don't feel weird about it because. I truly believe in the people behind Cloud Bott, and I believe in their product, and I know that it can be helpful specifically in exactly what you're asking for here. So there you go. There's my recommendation. Give it a shot and I hope that you enjoy and that it helps you save time. Okay, next question comes from Melissa. Melissa says, photography has been an off and on hobby of mine for about 10 years, mostly shooting for friends and family. I recently started taking on paid sessions and felt confident in my editing style that I had developed. But after working with several clients, I'm finding that my edits no longer feel quite right. Hmm. even though the feedback from others has been really positive, oh, I'm stuck. Between wondering if I just need to tweak what I have or explore an entirely new direction. Have you ever experienced this kind of creative disconnect, and how would you suggest navigating it? Wow. Great. Very insightful question, Melissa. And actually, yeah, I have, I've been right where you are. If I look at some of my earliest weddings, I no longer like them. I do not like the editing that was done on those weddings. Even though at the time I thought that they looked fantastic. Today I can see, oh, this is not my style. So just to give you, an idea, It was, you know, the highlights were too bright. There wasn't a lot of contrast, there wasn't a lot of latitude, so there was, it was heavy highlights and heavy shadows, but my shadows, I would lift the shadows a little bit. So like they just looked muddy. But my highlights were like too bright. So it kind of had like this weird zombie look to it, not what you're going for when it comes to love and getting married and a wedding day. You don't wanna look at your photos and think, wow, I look like a zombie. But that's what I did at the time and I thought that it was fricking awesome. and then also my greens were like this, neon fluorescent green rather than more of a natural subdued minty green. so. Yeah, there came a point, and this was probably two years into being full-time that I thought, I don't love this. I would look at the photos of other wedding photographers who were friends of mine, who I looked up to, who I admired. And I thought, these photos look more polished. They look more natural, they look true to life. They look timeless, and that is what I really want to go for. And I think that in the beginning I just wasn't exactly sure what my voice was, what my style of photography was. So I created something that I thought looked interesting and I liked it. For a period of time, but when I realized, oh wait, these are really gonna look dated. I wanted to change up my style. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you'll know that I give away 52 free Lightroom presets over@freephotographypresets.com. And guess what? Those 52 Lightroom presets came from me trying to find a new style of editing that I liked, that felt authentic to me, that felt stylistic enough to feel creative, but also not too heavy handed. And some of them really worked well for what I wanted. Some of them didn't work at all, but yet other people love this image style. So again, I compiled them all into 52 presets. But I finally found one that I liked. I still love to this day. Now, over the years, I've tweaked it a bit. I've tweaked my shadows and my highlights a bit to, again, be more natural. I've added a certain amount of sharpness depending on the lens that I use, so that they all match. But overall, editing has stayed consistent pretty much since then. But yeah, so to answer your question, I have gone through that and I think that the way to answer it for yourself is if you're getting good feedback from the photos, I mean, here's the thing, I was getting good feedback on my wedding photos as well. People said, thank you so much. We love'em. And I have to assume that that means they like every aspect of it, including the editing. But if I wasn't happy with the photos. Genuinely, this wasn't just like, I saw one video that was like, Hey, you gotta do this to improve your editing. And I'm like, yeah, I gotta do it. But like, I genuinely thought, oh man, there's things about my editing that I don't like. then yeah, then go ahead and test it out, and use some of your old sessions to test out new things within your editing, but try to find a photo that you do like the editing on, and then try to emulate that. Try to see where the edit takes you. Is it in the color, is it in the, the effects, like a vignette or a de haze or, texture? Is it in the exposure? Is it in the highlights? Is it in the shadows? Like is it in the tone curve? Where are the photos that you like at when it comes to editing? And then try to find a way how you can make that fit your voice. So that is how I would suggest navigating this, experience that you're going through right now. Give it a shot. But yeah, try something new for sure. All right. Next question comes from Brian. Brian says, Hey, Raymond. I'm going to Spain for two weeks. Oh, that's fun. with a singer songwriter in the studio. Very cool. I'm worried that I will over pack my gear, which I do. I have three camera options, plus my iPhone. A Sony a seven three with a 28 to 70, and a flash an X 106 and a Fujifilm XE three with a 27 millimeter, a 35 millimeter and a 50 to 300 millimeter lens with a flash. I've traveled to Europe before with the XE three and 27 was fine for that trip, but this one is more studio oriented. Yeah. My question is what kind of studio are we talking about? Are we talking about like a recording studio or like a photo studio because that does kind of change things a bit. But if you're saying, I'm going with a singer songwriter in the studio. I would imagine recording studio. Okay, so I'm gonna go based on that. I've never been in a recording studio, but I've watched a bunch of videos and stuff that are in recording studios, from various documentaries of like, musical artists and stuff. And what it looks like is that it's very low light, and you have to be quiet. There's an amount of energy to it, but also the person is there for work. So you have to respect that. Okay. So if that's the case, if you're in this situation where you kind of have to be a fly on the wall, but still be able to create a portrait, then yeah, your camera gear's definitely going to matter. And here's the thing. Yeah, I'm looking at the gear setup here. It also depends on like where these photos are going. Are these photos going, in a publication? Are they gonna be used for promotion? Is it just yourself? Let's assume that it's gonna be used for promotion. I want to err on the side of bringing the Fuji film cameras. Yeah, because that's what I know love and I'm comfortable with. I know that the ISO performance on Sony cameras is phenomenal. I know that the auto focus on Sony cameras is phenomenal. But I feel like having a large camera like that can just kind of change the dynamic, can change the feel of being in the studio. From, again, what I've seen in documentaries and stuff, this is a place of like, you're trying to get work done in a creative sense, and you kind of have to be in the zone. So being taken out by a distraction could be a thing, that you might have to consider. Using a camera like the X 106 is a fantastic performing camera, but you're limited by the focal length of just 35 millimeters or 23 millimeters rather on a crop sensor. You have the XC three, which is an older camera, like the ISO performance is not as good, but now you have the flexibility of different lenses. Probably what I would do, I'm assuming that the 35 millimeter that you have for the XC three is probably gonna be the F two and not the 1.4 version. I would bring the X 100 and I would bring the XE three with the 35 millimeter lens. That's what I would do. I think that you're gonna need something wider than the 27. So the 23 would be helpful on the X 100, but I also think that you're going to want to get more portrait style or more of that 50 millimeter look with the 35 millimeter Fuji lens. And therefore that's what I think would probably be best here. That's probably what I would do. I mean, even myself personally, I have an X Pro two and I also have an XT four. And oftentimes, I will bring both if I know that the images that I need to capture are, they're not just vacation photos, but it's, it's for work or something. And I'll do that because The X Pro two is my favorite camera of all time. This is one of my favorite cameras of all time, and it does really well with prime lenses like the 27, like the 35, but it handles like trash when it comes to using a Zoom lens, like my 55 to 200 or my, is it 16 to 55? 2.8 lens. Why it feels like garbage. I don't know, it just feels awkward in the hands, like the camera just wasn't made for that lens. But sometimes I need the 16 to 55 and therefore. It just feels better in my hands with the XT four. So I will bring both, and it gives me that, that flexibility. See your X 100 and your XC three are great small cameras, but the A seven three may be more of a workhorse camera. So I don't think that it'd be a bad idea to bring two cameras. But I don't think that you need to bring three. I would say bring the X 100 for sure, and then either bring the XE three with a 35 or bring the A seven three with the 28 to 70 zoom lens, and that is just gonna be a personal choice based on what your style of photography is. So there you go. I, I don't know if I made that more complicated or if I helped you out with that, but that's what I would do. I would definitely bring the X 100 and then make a decision between the A seven three with the zoom lens or the XC three, with just the 35 and then you make it work. So Brian, I can't wait to see some of these photos, from your trip to Spain. That's gonna be fun. That's gonna be awesome. And that is how I would approach it. So I hope that helps, and again, can't wait to see those photos. Alright, next question here comes from Tom. Tom says, I understand how focal length and aperture define depth of field, and that means that things within the depth of field should be in focus. Yeah. So what am I focusing on? Does that mean that I should be able to turn off autofocus and just use depth of field? I feel like I'm missing how depth of field and autofocus are supposed to work together. I just want to take good pictures and have fun doing it. Ah, okay. Tom? Yeah, really technical question here, and I think the breakdown is. Is that you think that auto focus and depth of field are two separate things and that they're not compatible with each other. Okay, so, great question. What am I focusing on? You are focusing on your subject. Whether you're using autofocus or not, you want your subject to be in focus. Right. Let me take a step back. In the film days, there was this phrase, F eight and be there. And what that means is that you set your aperture to F eight because your aperture helps dictate how much depth of field you have. Depth of field being how much in front of your camera, how close and how far away is in an acceptable amount of focus. When you're shooting at f say, 1.4, your depth of field is extremely thin. It's narrow, it's a few centimeters at times. If something's really close to your camera. Now, if something's far away from your camera, It's much greater because the other element of how much is in focus is not only focal length and aperture, but also your subject's distance to the camera. If your subject is really close to the camera, your depth of field is really thin. If your subject is really far away from the camera, it's great. So try to imagine this in your head for everybody who's really confused right now. There's an invisible wall in front of your camera, directly in front of your camera. You're looking at a flat wall. It's invisible. How thick that wall is, is your depth of field. Everything within that invisible wall is in focus. Anything closer than that invisible wall is out of focus. Anything further away from that invisible wall is out of focus. At F1 0.4, this wall, this invisible wall of things that are in focus may be just a few centimeters. At F eight, it could be this invisible wall of things that are in focus, could be a few feet thick. And again, anything in front of this wall is outta focus. Anything behind the wall is in focus, but anything that can fit within this invisible wall is in focus. So what are you focusing on? You're focusing on whatever your subject is, and wherever it's, if you're shooting a portrait, they may be pretty close to you. If you're shooting a group of people or a building or a landscape, it may be further away from you, but whatever that distance is, however far away your subject is, that is what you're focusing on. So this term, F eight and B, there was a term that was popular before auto focus was. As prevalent as it is today, and where all the lenses were manual focused lenses. So let's say that you are a news shooter or an event shooter. You're taking photos of people and most of the time the people who you're taking photos of are within somewhere about between three and 10 feet away from you. So what you would do is you would set your aperture to F eight. And then on your lens on old school manual film lenses, you would actually see a depth of field chart. It would show you that if you set your focus to, I don't know, a foot and a half or five feet in front of you, everything from three feet to 10 feet would be in quote unquote acceptable focus at F eight. So by F eight and be there meant set your aperture to F eight and then be where the action is within three to 10 feet. And then you would never have to worry about focusing your lens once you set it to that setting. Now, if you took a photo, if you didn't change your focus and anything, you took a photo of something further than 10 feet away, they were gonna be outta focus. Or if somebody popped in front of your lens and they were only a foot and a half away, they weren't gonna be in focus. So then you would have to move yourself and be really good at judging those distances. I would do this at weddings because nine years ago the EX Pro two had really good auto focus, but it really struggled in low light and receptions are notoriously low light. It's a party, it's dark. There's crazy like lasers and wild colored lights and stuff. The camera's auto focus really, really, really struggles. So what I would do is I would set my aperture to something like F 5.6 or F eight, and then I would set my focusing distance to about five feet. And then I knew that everything between three feet and 10 feet was gonna be in focus. So if I were to go to take a photo, I would make sure that I was within three to 10 feet of that person, and then I could just take the photo. Auto focus off, no autofocus needed. And I knew that everything within my depth of field from three feet to 10 feet would be in focus. So how did depth of field and auto focus work together? Well, auto focus is not part of the equation when it comes to depth of field, right? It doesn't change your depth of field. What changes your depth of field, your focal length, your aperture, and your subjects distance to camera. So if you have autofocus on on your camera and you autofocus on something that is a foot away from you, well, your subject's distance to camera is a foot away, and that number changes your depth of field. So maybe everything between 0.9 and 1.3 feet in front of your camera will be that invisible wall of things that are in focus. But using your same settings, if you're focusing on something 12 feet away, well maybe everything from your depth of field now changes because your subject's distance to camera changes as well. So now that invisible wall might grow from something like, 0.9 to 0.1 or 0.1 0.3 feet away to now three feet to 45 feet. So everything within three feet to 45 feet away is now in focus. That becomes the size of the invisible wall, simply because your subject's distance, the camera changed, and that's where auto focus comes in. Whatever you focus on becomes the subject's distance to camera. Now for those of you listening who are like, wait, what is up the field? How do we figure this out? How do we know how much is in front of our camera? How far away things are? How do we set our lens to a specific distance? Yeah, this doesn't happen as much as it did back in the day, but there are plenty of calculators online called depth of field calculators. There's even an app. I would say don't go too far deep into this. If you're shooting something like film, if you're shooting with a manual lens, if the size of the depth of field is incredibly important. Then yeah, look into these things. But I also think that worrying about depth of field is something that somebody new to photography doesn't have to worry about right now. It's like as a car example, learning how to heel, toe is not something that you need to figure out while you're taking your driver's test, it's something that you can figure out, down the road when it becomes important to your style of driving, or in this case photography. If you're having issues where certain parts of your images are in focus and other parts aren't. You want both of them to be in focus, then start looking into depth of field calculators. But if you're at this point where you're like, wait, I'm taking photos that are fine. I could be better at auto focus and stuff like that. But generally, you're not thinking to yourself, why is this focus all crazy on your camera? Then don't worry about a depth of field calculator right now. Focus on learning your auto focus system first. There was a big, there was a technical question. There was a lot of invisibles that we talked about there. There was a lot of numbers. Hopefully I didn't lose you. If you have to go back and listen to it, do so, I will think nothing less of you. In fact, as I was saying it, I was trying to make sure that I was wrapping my head around it so that I could accurately describe it. And it's, it can be hard sometimes. That's why hosting a podcast can be difficult where you're talking about a visual medium over audio. So if none of that made sense and you're like, wow, there's way over my head, don't worry about it. But if something I said in there was like, wait a second. Yeah, I've been in that situation. I've wished that I could have done this or wondered why that happened. Then maybe go ahead and look into it. But it's not something that you have to know before, even considering calling yourself a photographer. So, Tom, I really hope that that made sense and that you're able to pull something from that and that that missing piece of how depth of field and auto focus work together has been given. It now makes sense. Whew. Okay. Last question here for today, and it comes from Jeremy, which by the way, again, if you have a photography question that you want answered here on the show, don't hesitate. Just head over to beginner photo pod.com/qa to submit your question. And again, you might hear it on the show. Okay. Last question here comes from Jeremy. Jeremy says, I'm just curious if you have any tips to make a shift to get out of a photographic rut? Ooh, do I? I find myself being well-intentioned about making time to take photos, even going so far as to bring my gear with me when I'm driving around for work. Great job, but I don't seem to allow myself the space to stop for a few minutes if I see something interesting. More often than not, the bag stays closed and no photos get taken as I bustle along to my next appointment. Feel that,. I want to make space for this creative outlet, but often end up pushing it to the back burner in lieu of whatever else is clamoring for my attention. Any pointers would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Jeremy. Yeah, Jeremy man. So, I found myself in this situation here too, especially with young kids and a wife and just family and, and household activities. It can be difficult to carve out time for photography, like specifically dedicated to photography, and that is one of the reasons why I stress so much. Like, Hey, just bring a camera with you wherever you go, because photography is less about one or two hours of dedicated photography time per week, and more about a few pockets of a few minutes here and there. I truly believe that that is the fastest way to learn photography and to become more creative in what it is that you capture and how you see the world. So first of all, kudos to you for just doing that step. 99% of people listening right now. As much as they've heard me say it probably don't do that. So, again, for you to have at least brought the camera with you places is a huge step in the right direction. The other thing is, but I don't seem to allow myself the space to stop for a few minutes. If I see something interesting. You gotta change that. That's it. That's it. So, I'll give you some insight on myself, is that I will often drive for work as well. And just for context, maybe one day I will have, I'm not even kidding, like eight hours worth of driving on top of the actual job that I'm doing myself. And I will bring my camera with me as well, and I have noticed that, when I first brought my camera with me to these, I guess, work trips, you'd call'em, going to these different facilities and whatnot. If I just brought the camera, it would just sit there in the back. But if I brought the camera and told myself as I took off, Hey, I'm going to look for anything interesting. I'm going to be on the lookout during my drive for something interesting. I was in work mode. Now I'm in photography mode while I'm driving. I'm simply going to look for interesting things. If I don't find anything. Hey, that's fine. I brought the camera with me. And now I was more present and observed the world around me. That's great. If I do find something, I'm going to allow myself five minutes to just pull over, take a few photos, explore it for a minute or two, and then that's it. If you take four photos, I mean, that's great. It takes so much work to build the habit of just bringing the camera with you, it takes immensely more work to actually pull over on the side of the road to photograph a super old, dilapidated fuel station that has been abandoned for years. Doing that however, is the only way that you can actually take photos. Bringing the camera is great. But it's not till you get out of the car and take the photo that it frankly, actually means anything. It sounds to me like you're creating the environment for the creative outlet, but you're letting, as you said, other things that are clamoring for your attention. Steal the time for that creative outlet. You gotta work on making that shift. I get that sometimes you're gonna be in a rush. You gotta get from place to place to place as fast as you can. Some days taking photos isn't gonna happen. That's fine. In fact, I would say more often than not, that's gonna happen, but allowing yourself, putting yourself in that mode, in that mental mode of, I'm gonna look at the world around me and if I see something interesting, I'm gonna allow myself just a few minutes to get out, take a few photos, and get back in the car. That that is that next step. That is where you go from being quote unquote well intentioned about taking, making time to take photos to actually bringing this creative outlet to life. Don't just drive from place to place. Do your job at the place, and then think of the journey as a photo hunt. And in the same way that you know, I don't know if you're into fishing or birding or whatever. Some days you go out and you get nothing. That's gonna happen. Don't expect that just because you have a camera, you're gonna create things all the time, every day. But you can't catch a fish unless you throw the rod in the water, no, you don't wanna throw the rod in the water. You want to keep the rod on in your hands. You wanna throw the lure in the water. You can't catch a fish unless you cast a line into the water. There you go. Keep the rod in your hands. Don't throw a camera at an old dilapidated film or, uh, fuel station. That's also a bad idea. Keep the camera in your hand. Keep the rod in your hand when you're fishing. And there you go. And I also think that knowing that photography is a long game is helpful. Every drive that you have, don't expect to get some banger of an image. It's a long game, man. got years to do this. If you get like one great photo a month, guess what man? At the end of like, two or three years, you got a bunch of great photos. But on top of those great photos, you also have a lot of just personal time of being present, of looking at the world differently, of getting out, of taking a deep breath, of being in nature, fresh air, unless you're at an old, dilapidated fuel station, in which case you probably shouldn't be breathing in that air. But the point is you're not taking photos for today, you're not taking photos to amass as many photos as you can in a week. You're taking photos for it to be a part of your life, to enhance your life. Don't steal that from yourself. Do allow yourself the space to stop for a few minutes if you see something interesting. It's just a few minutes, and I promise. Whatever your next appointment is, I won't. I won't tell them. In fact, you can tell'em that there was just a lot of red lights, you know, whatever. Traffic was bad. You're not spending two hours out there wasting their time. It's five minutes. Five minutes. That is gonna feel like the most amazing breath of fresh air. A reset for your mental energy, for your cognitive ability, and to be able to perform your actual job even better'cause now you don't have this weight of, man, I didn't see anything on the way over here. Oh, now I gotta get back to my job. Things like that. So Jeremy, just do it, man. Allow yourself the space to stop for a few minutes. If you see something interesting, you gotta do it. It's good for your camera, it's good for your health, it's good for your soul. It's good for your job. I hope you do it, Jeremy. I really do. And if you do send me some more photos. I like the ones that you included in the email. So that is it. That is all that I got for you today. Remember, if you got any burning questions, feel free to submit them over@beginnerphotopod.com slash qa. There you go. That is it for today. Until next time, remember, the better of a photographer you want to be, requires you to take more photos. I really got that backwards. Wow. Total mental hiccup there. The more photos you take today, the better of a photographer you'll be tomorrow. Talk soon