For studio work, I plan to repeat my now regular routine of having a spring shoot, a Halloween shoot, and a late fall shoot. I'm going to learn how to use my CyberCommander to control my lights this time. I'm also going to do more with props.
In addition to my regular spring studio shoot, I'm going to try to organize a Friday outing to an arboretum with a bunch of pre-schoolers to practice my non-studio portrait shoots. I'm going to get a speedlight softbox (probably an Ezybox) to give me a little lighting control.
I'd also like to take a lighting class this year. My ability to learn on my own and from reading isn't progressing as well as I'd like. I think taking a class will help.
On the subject of classes, I'm finally going to get around to teaching a few neighborhood photography classes. I've been asked by several people but never have gotten around to it.
I plan to buy a new printer this year and start working on my printing. Actually, I have a friend that just bought a new printer. I might play with his a bit first to see whether I think I'll really use it. As far as I can tell, you have to either commit to printing a fair amount or not print at all as bad things happen to idle printers. I think printing is an interesting part of the art of photography, but thus far, I haven't done too much of it.
I'd say that I'm going to revamp my Smugmug site, but I always say that and rarely do.
I plan on buying some interesting lenses this year that should provide a good opportunity to learn. The most exciting is a Tilt/Shift lens. I'm also thinking about getting a fisheye.
I'd also like to concentrate on improving my video work. I'm going to try to integrate at least some video and audio into all of my slideshows from now on. I also plan on going to a three camera setup for our next school play video. This time, I'm going to concentrate more on focus accuracy and do more closeups.
I'm also going to do a weekend of video interviews with kids. I haven't decided the particulars (use a set or go on location, all video on the kid or split between kid and interviewer, etc), but I know I want to do it. I think that having a nice interview with my kids talking about their hopes and dreams, the fears, their friends, and whatever else is important to them will be extremely valuable to me some day. Once I ramp up the production with my own kids, I'll run a bunch of the neighbor kids through the mill.
I have a few other projects I want to undertake this year:
1) A home/life tour. I want to produce a mini-documentary on our current lives, with a lot of video and pictures of our house, the school, my office, the neighborhood and neighbors, etc. I want something that my kids and their kids can look at many years from now to see what our lives were like back in 2010. It would also be fun to send to relatives that never visit (which seems odd because Houston is such a big vacation destination).
2) Pacific Coast picture. We'll be in Pacific Grove again for spring break. I love shooting their. The challenge is doing something different from my usual shots. I think that the T/S will help. I also plan to do more shots with off-shoe flash using gels and/or softbox. In the past, I've tended to do landscape shots and people shots. This time, I want to do more people on location shots.
3) Canoe trip. I want to take a multi-night family canoe trip at the start of this summer. I'd like get creative in telling the story of that trip with still shots, video snippets, and audio.
I've got other plans, but that's more than enough to write about now. As always, reality will fall short of my plans, but it's fun trying to do as much as possible.
I definitely don't want to get into a 365 or 52 program. My shooting tends to be spotty. I'll take thousands of shots in a couple of weeks and then not touch my camera for several weeks. I'm happy with that. I don't want photography to become a chore.
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Maybe a 52 week would be better...? Or anything thing like 30 Secrets in 30 Days, that was fun to do, and not as hard as 365.
But its not impossible. And to keep this on topic ......Wouldn't that be an awesome opportunity to learn ... bouncing photo ideas around with another photo/Disney enthusiast in the most photographed place on earth? A most excellent Photo Plan for 2010 if you ask me.
