Views Infinitum

On this last day of 2010, it’s a good time for looking back to see where this blog and I have been over the past twelve months.  Since I listed my photographic goals back in January, I will do a recap of those in a bit.

First, 2010 brought a few surprises.  Opportunities were presented which I grabbed on to with both hands.

I was the event photographer for two sporting tournaments.  As those who read here know.  I enjoy sports photography at all levels.  I covered two this past year.  One for Mite Ice Hockey for boys and girls ages 6 to 8 and the other being Baseball for under-16 and 18 aged players.  I hope to do more of this kind of work in the future.

A photographer friend of mine introduced me to the owner of IthacaStock.com which is a photo stock agency concentrating on upstate New York with emphasis on Ithaca.  It was a good introduction to the microstock photo industry for me. Still learning the ropes and I am thinking of branching out into other agencies.

After the New York state budget was approved this summer, I was contacted by an editor from The Conservationist magazine.  A monthly periodical for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.  She was interested in a few of my photos I had taken of Lake George, New York back in the Fall of 2008. She had seen them in my flickr photostream. After I showed her a few more photos, she purchased the rights to publish a couple of them in an article about Prospect Mountain near Lake George.  I was thrilled as this was my first sale to such an organization and my first publication of one of my photos beyond my town’s weekly paper.

The third opportunity I dove into was the social media and networking applications of FaceBook, Twitter and flickr.  Yes, my friends, flickr is part of the social media fabric though it could be much better.  I am still learning how best to use these tools to define my “brand”. I know I need to do some infrastructure work on the backend to pull them all together.  If anyone has figured it out, let me know!

On to those goals I was talking about.

1. Purchase a Nikon Full Frame Digital SLR Camera in 2010. Purchasing photography gear is an easy goal.  I wish I could say this was easy but it took a lot of saving and restraint.  Finally, this past August, I upgraded to the Nikon D700 SLR full frame camera.  I am glad I waited as Nikon surprised a lot of people by coming out with a full frame version of my favorite DX lens, Nikon’s 18-200VR, the Nikon 28-300VR lens a month later. The D700 has been a dream machine of mine for a long time and it has not disappointed me one bit.

2. Six (6) Photo Assignments. I know myself pretty well and I needed to set this as a goal.  To set up a schedule was the best way for me to follow through with it.  The enthusiasm of a lot of you for these assignments helped a lot in the planning, participation and review of each of them.  As they are some of the most popular posts, I will continue them into 2011.

3. Read a photography book a month. I fully admit I dropped the ball on this one.  I started out fine but then the Mite Hockey tournament assignment came along and then the Baseball tournament.  I will be addressing this next week.  One book a month turned out to be a little too ambitious.

4. Take monthly photo walks/adventures. I believe I have fulfilled this goal very well this year.  With the help of the Syracuse Photographer Association, my family and my enjoyment of finding new things, places and people to photograph, I have taken readers of Views Infinitum to places near and far, warm and cold and happy and sad. Look for more in the coming year.

5. Follow a regular photo blog-posting schedule. Except for a few Friday fumbles, I have kept to my three posts a week schedule this year.  Again, this is something I needed to do.  I like planning and it helped me a lot in keeping to my schedule.  Deadlines are a good thing. 🙂

6. Build a  website. Oy, I have not done much with this one.  I spruced up the Scott Thomas Photography Smugmug website a bit but I am not close to calling it a professional presentation.  More work needs to be done in this area for sure.

7. Promote my work in an online Gallery. Kind of goes hand in hand with number 6 above.  I have pointed out my promotional work in the Social Media area and I believe that is the key going forward.

8. Take a workshop. Totally missed out on this one.  As the year unfolded, vacation travel plans and expenses made this goal unattainable.  However, I did locate a group in New York which does frequent photo workshops and tours so this goal will be carried over to 2011.

I rate myself a B in the photographic goal attaining department this year.  There are things which need to be addressed.  I will be doing so next week as I present my goals for 2011 just as my friend, Mitch, has done on his blog this week.  I might even add some stuff of my own. 😉 By the way, I highly recommend reading Mitch’s blog.  He will make you think, laugh and go “hmmmm”. Always a good thing in my book.