What Changed This Year?

[Kphoto]

I just finished 3 years of Photoshop classes, workshops & tutorials! My favorite discovery this year was Lucis Art software for selective sharpening. My goal for 2011 -working with daylight balanced fluorescent continuous lighting.

Karen

 

[boBQuincy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by boBQuincy
This year I bought *no* new equipment...

Then why even bother with photography?

Good question, but don't worry, I heartily subscribe to your philosophy and my employer is paying a bonus early next year so open the (B&H) floodgates, we're goin' shopping!

And if *that* doesn't improve my photos then it's Canon's fault for not keeping pace with Nikon!

 

[hjd0411]

Well, 2010 was my first foray into dSLR photography - I bought my Canon 450d, which I love. I got a couple of extra lenses to go to WDW with in May, and enjoyed my photography there. I feel that my photos this year were better than in 2007!

I also discovered the Summer scavenger hunt (Thanks Pea n me!! You did an awesome job with that!) That got me out a lot more as a tourist in my own city.

PS Elements 9 will be my biggest learning curve for 2011, I think. I have just purchased it this week.

I thank all of you for your help through the year - whether you know it or not! Your thoughts and musings have made for interesting reading and learning.

I look forward to 2011 - I do hope to purchase another lens or two - perhaps a wide angle - we'll see what happens.

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and happy and healthy New Year.

 

[wenrob]

I've had several "aha" moments when it comes to seeing the light. Also "seeing through the lens" has become an instinct rather then an exercise in frustration. My composition has improved 100% as long as I'm not in a hurry. That's something to work on in the coming year; taking my time and not worrying about making people wait. I also need to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to processing. When I started I went WAY over the top then went to not enough to plain and simple. Got to find that little pop and put in the effort.

No new gear this year but I'm hoping that will change with 2011. Have some that I actually need to get rid of. Nothing wrong with it, just not the right fit for me.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

I thank all of you for your help through the year - whether you know it or not! Your thoughts and musings have made for interesting reading and learning.

I would like to take a moment and second that thought. This forum has been a wonder of inspiration to me. Thank you to everyone who posts here. It has been a real eye opener.

 

[Groucho]

As I prepare my gear for our upcoming trip (leaving in 8 days!), I realize that I will not be bring any new lenses with me. I think I may have picked up a Craigslist lens or two, but ultimately, due to selling some, I believe that I actually have less lenses than I did a year ago!

Of course, that is tempered some by yet another new DSLR. I realized that I've never taken the same DSLR to WDW more than once, excepting the short Star Wars Weekends trip earlier this year. I'm on my fifth body now, not counting my wife's K-x. I had planned to keep the last one for a while, but obviously that didn't work out. Now, I have no expectations of upgrading this one for a long time!

Even before it, I've been feeling the photography urge more for this trip than the last couple. I don't know why - probably just normal cyclical interests. Of course, chasing a 5-year-old and 1-year-old will probably make photography more challenging than ever, but hopefully I'll be able to make something work.

One thing I did do new this year was start using Flickr. I generally put all my photos on my own website, which I like because of the control that I have... but let's face it, we all like getting feedback on our work, and you just don't get that much when running our own gallery. Plus, the limits of quality web hosting meant that I had to be conscious of how much space I was using, and I started uploading smaller photos.

So, I tried the free version of Flickr and quickly hit the limits. I hemmed and hawed then paid for the Pro version, and have slowly been uploading my non-family photos to there. As part of this, I've been re-exporting the photos from Lightroom in a larger size as well as tagging them with the lens used (and using LR3's new raw engine.) Fortunately, Lightroom's metadata filters make this mostly a pretty easy task, except for the manual lenses. The shake reduction feature means that on my cameras with SR, it stores the focal length in the exif for manual lenses... which is fine, except that I've got or have had at least three lenses each of 28mm, 55mm, 105mm, and 135mm lenses, plus some other duplicates. What I've started doing now is, when mounting a manual lens on the camera, I will store some hint as to what it is in the copyright field so that I'll have some documentation of what lens was used.

Another thing about Flickr is that you have to name your photos... and I'm sorry, I just can't be bothered coming up with creative names for a few thousands photos. So, most pictures have very dull names. Oh well! At the end of the day, it's pretty interesting watching the stats and seeing what pictures get views and what don't and reading the comments that are posted. (Their stats feature is woefully limited, though, and with a very short history. That's an area that they could definitely improve.)

So, to sum up, 2010 meant no new lenses of note, one awesome new camera, Flickr, and a renewed enthusiasm. 2011 will probably again bring no new lenses of note (nor any interesting gear of any kind) but hopefully an improvement in shooting and post-processing - but still no HDR.

 

[wendydarling826]

What changed for me this year was realizing that I really am ready to take it to the next level and getting (finally) a digital slr camera for Christmas. Santa brought me a Nikon d3100 - billed as an "entry level", but I know it's going to change my life!

 

[AndrewWG]

Changed? In terms of equipment I guess the upgrade from the 30D to the 7D made a bit of a difference. The 100mm f2.8L IS Macro was a fine addition too. Did they change my photographic life any? Not so much. Upgrading bodies isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, there are some major improvements such as noise levels being greatly reduced, but it doesn't make a photographer a better photographer by any means.

The biggest change I had was taking on a job as the photographer for a local newspaper. I am always using the camera now. No time to put it down for extended periods of time like I did before. I have also made it a point to use my external flash as much as possible where I was more afraid of it screwing things up for me before.

 

[shawn68]

A lot changed in 2010 for me when it comes to photography. I went from semi pro to pro when a second knee surgery ended my job with the county where I live.
I opened my own photography studio, and went from enjoying photography, to loving photography.
A new camera, lighting system, lenses and a lot of BILLS came with the business, but so did the satisfaction knowing that I use my love of photography to feed my family. I truly went from a job that I went to as a way to feed my family, to a career I love.
I am so thankful to God for what has changed for me in 2010 when it comes to photography, because for me, photography is part of who I am.