Here’s a brief catch-up and checklist of some ‘unofficial’ progress I’ve made this year, up to and including efforts from this past week. I’m not starting from zero, but it’s pretty close. List is ordered from most recent to least, all progress is from 2024.
- Got a website up and running! WordPress, domain/hosting, all the administrative bells and whistles that come along with that
- Ordered and received a Nikon and two lenses. Initially, I wanted to call this website “One Camera, One Lens, One Year” but after some thought, it felt needlessly and preemptively restrictive. I’ll be able to shoot from 14mm to 120mm.
- I tested/rented various Nikon combos and this was what I liked best, so I purchased it and plan to keep this a long time.
- From the spring through the fall, I went on around eight weekend photo excursions – by myself and with friends. I never shot RAW before this year, so I used a lot of these photos to test out photo editing.
- I also went out frequently (at least monthly) in and around my city, mostly on night walks, to test out night photography. And some weekend walks too. But it was putzing around, not super intentional.
- I downloaded trials of various photo editing software. Before I knew anything, I bought the Affinity suite of applications including Affinity photo.
- I trialed Capture One, On1 PhotoRaw, DXO Photolab, Hasselblad Phocus, Pixelmator, Adobe Lightroom
- I took several courses in person, locally. So that’s like … 12-15 hours of instruction on camera operations, photography basics (composition, exposure triangle), and basic file management and editing. For the editing class, I used Adobe Lightroom Classic on a MacBook Pro, and I liked that combo and will probably stick with that. It’s pretty user friendly.
- I subscribed to a few weekly photo prompt emails, and tried maybe like 6-7 weeks of that. This was before I took a class, or knew how to operate the camera I bought in February which was a Canon. The photos from that camera were honestly stellar, but I sold it for nearly what I paid and got that Nikon instead. Canon ergonomics weren’t great for me. Maybe I’ll return.
- I got some initial camera gear (Canon, kit lens, astro lens – again, I didn’t know what I was doing!) and sold most of it back, kept the backpack, tripod, and some accessories. I got about 8 months of shots, some that I’m really proud of.
Before this year, I shot on a Sony a6000 kit. Mostly for national park trips. I liked it! But because I wanted to get serious, I thought I needed a better camera. I realize now that I could have still worked with that, but I had it a decade, and it served a purpose. Glad for it, glad to move on, glad to be shooting with what I have now.
So I mentioned I’m not starting from zero. And that’s a good thing! That means I did something. I think what I gained: a new vocabulary, some confidence with camera operation and menus, facility with changing exposure, shutter speed, and their relationship, and their effects on a camera’s images, and some basic editing workflows. Before this summer, I didn’t know what white balance was. I’m proud of this year but it was really unfocused. I think it helped me identify what I was lacking, and what I need to start putting into place, which is structure. So next week I’ll post a preliminary 2025 plan, at least for the photography practice. And I’ll try to post a timeline of goals.
This leaves about three full weeks of real time that I can use to organize my 2025 well. And I think that’ll serve as an analogy to being a good photographer – the importance of planning. Well, I better get to it!
-Jojo