This is an interesting question...never thought about it. After moving from California(Marin County) 7 years ago to St Petersburg Russia all my hobbies took a distant backseat to enjoying the fascinating city and culture. I gave away tons of hobby and personal items to move on the spur of the moment, only kept one car, one house and books and electronic test instruments. Everything else filling a 4 car garage and 14 room house was given away in a 2 week span. Some of my long time hobbies I have even thought about in these 7 years. I was an avid amateur radio (Ham) operator since age 10, flying for 20 years, collecting and restoring Italian classic GTs for 20 years, hiking and backpacking, long distance bicycling, electronic design and inventing, history, writing, etc. Only two years ago did I buy, on the urging by a girlfriend, to get another camera. For years shot with Canon, A1 with all the lenses Canon made at the time...but gave that away also. I went shopping for a first DSLR looking at Canon but found them to be cheap feeling and toy like in my price range. Ended up buying a D90 20 years ago, solely based on how it felt like a real camera. I knew nothing of it. Dug out some test gear, and computer and designed some studio strobes around some surplus flash tubes I found, built a whole studio full of softboxes, gobo, stands etc for my GF's fashion designs. Suddenly I was hooked, the D90 turned out to be a great camera for my limited skills and budget. I gradually bought lenses (17-55, 70-200, 85 1.4, 50, 35, 10-20 3.5, 10-24, etc), SB900's and forgot about studio work and started exploring the city with a different eye. Then started shooting events and clubs. The club scene got me hooked on that so spend Thurs-Fri-Sat late nights until dawn shooting once the floor gets too crowded to dance, by 02:30-3:00, I pull out the camera and shoot 400-800 shots for a private web site that allows the subjects to download their photos. The pros doing this get upset with me because I give it all away and get better images. I was in the music industry for decades at a high level back in the US so I am well known already in the clubs and music scene so the photo work gets me back to somewhat distantly related to the old days
My life it just too full of having fun for hobbies; weekly opera, ballet, museums, dancing, discos, concerts, English pubs, meeting the best ladies in the world in spectacular quantities, fine dining, socializing with friends. So I guess my real hobby is having a life and photography fits right into having a real life.
I can't say my photography has limited my other hobbies, since I dropped them 7 years ago from just getting too busy with new daily activities in a new country, but it sure has been an enhancement to whatever I do spend my time with.
