“I have no plans for my photography. It’s the only hobby I have which has no performance aspect at all (I even podcast about my reading), so there is no pressure to do anything at all. I’ll just keep carrying my camera, and keep improving my skills and artistry. ”
See that plan? The plan was to have no structure to this hobby. And it really worked. Overall I could do anything with my photography, and if you follow my blog, you’ll see that photography posts probably outnumber any other subject.
I have a lot more to say about my photography than I want to wrap up in a single blog post, but I do think it is the hobby which I improved that most of this year. This is probably because my other skills are generally higher than my photography skills, and I was making up ground, but I’m still very impressed with my progress.
I’ve written on this blog already about sharing photographs on Facebook and how that was a great inspiration to me to keep taking more photographs at juggling conventions. I also took part in the Berlin FotoMarathon in June, improved markedly at taking photos of people, and even shot a magazine cover photo! I’ll have to blog about the FotoMarathon some time soon.
I think this plan (not having set a goal) actually worked out pretty well. It will probably inform any plans and goals I set for 2011.
“But I will try to keep posting photos to my blog.”
Win.
” And I’m going to buy a new zoom lens, because the autofocus on my current (really shitty) zoom lens is broken.”
” And I’ll probably buy another two or three camera bags.”
Win and win. I bought a new lens and two camera bags.
I also bought a new camera. This is partially because I managed to throw my old camera out of a taxi, breaking it quite badly, and while it still worked it was held together by a white sticky tape. But also I got to the point where my camera equipment was limiting my improvements as a photographer. My current camera, the Canon 60D, will probably allow me to improve as a photographer for another two or three years at least.
Total winnings for this section: four out of four. Setting low expectations seems to be the trick here.