A fresh start! Here’s to Twenty Eleven. It already has a great ring to it, don’t you think? I wanted to begin this year by looking back as well as also looking forward. A couple of my good friends (and even better photographers) I’ve come to know during 2010 on the twittersphere, Brian, Bob & Mike recently posted their own 2010 memoirs and I’ve wanted to do the same but with a slightly different perspective.

These types of posts aren’t uncommon at the end of one year or at the very beginning of another but they’re nearly almost 100% reflective. It’s a lot of looking back which to me, on its own, doesn’t seem like a great way to move forward. That said, I believe the contemplation of what has happened is a crucial predecessor to the next step – setting & achieving goals. You can’t set out to achieve something without a line in the sand to start you off as well as a known line in the sand to end at (with maybe a couple of dotted lines along the way for milestones).

Metaphors and all jokes aside, it’s pretty interesting to step back and look at my catalog of photographs from 2010. A major realisation was that I had the great fortune to travel to a lot of incredible places in our world. However, Personally I believe some of my strongest work was seen this year in amongst a lot of cruft. A lot of my images were simply throwaways. Wasted CF card space. Poorly composed or over-exposed. Simply put, they sucked… but they are a means to an incredible end for me and so I keep a fair chunk of them to remind me that it’s not all glory that comes from a D700! I have to work for it.

Goal #1: Cut Back On The Cruft.

I kept 30,701 images from the places I photographed during 2010. Lord only knows how many on top of that got deleted. I shoot a lot of HDR when I’m on location, on average I’d say 5 brackets per image. Not all my work is HDR, but a fair majority is. Accurately, this number doesn’t equate to final images produced since a lot more RAW files go into making one image. Dividing that number by 5, gives just over six thousand images. Excluding the thousand or so I just haven’t processed yet, I certainly haven’t posted that many images on my site this year. That’s a lot of cruft.

Here are some fun stats:

• Approximately 24% of images were taken at f/11.
• 5844 images were captured at speeds slower than a third of a second. On the opposite side, 13998 images were captured at speeds faster than 1/500s.
• 13,730 images were taken with my 16-35mm f/4 wide-angle lens.
• 73% of my images were captured using my Nikon D700. The remaining 27% were captured using my Nikon D60.

What does this tell me? Two things. One is that upgrading my camera body didn’t cause me to shoot more by any considerable margin (take that for what its worth to you). The other is that I’m getting too comfortable with one lens, in one lighting environment, with one camera body. This is the big point… I want to shoot more scenes that are outside of my comfort zone. I love my landscapes and always will… but there’s always more to see and other angles in other kinds of light.

Goal #2: Step Outside The Box.

In March, I had a fantastic opportunity to share some of my work in a local coffee shop here in downtown Seattle. It was an incredible experience to be able to share my artwork with my city. It was a lot of work getting the images framed and hung in just the right way, but mate, it was worth it! Aside from getting my stuff out there it was really fulfilling to be able to share my work in public with the people who live in my town. I want to do it all again in 2011.

Goal #3: Share, Share, Share.

The frequency of my blogging has been pretty good, but I’m not up at a daily basis for one reason or another. Life’s little nuances sometimes sideline me for a day or two and in so doing sideline the blog posts, and when I’m travelling it’s pretty hard work to queue up posts to drop while I’m gone. I truly enjoy sharing my work with the Internet audience and little insights into how I view the world. I want to step this up a notch.

Goal #4: Give More Blog, Give More Insight.

There we have it… four goals for 2011 and a blog post to keep me honest.

I’ve got to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped made 2010 the year it was for me. I’ve met some wonderful people and some even more wonderful photographers. In no particular order, I’ve gotta give a shout-out to David, Brian, Lew & the APC crew, Bob, Chase, Clane, Sabrina, Trish, and all of the folks who keep to up to date with my blog via twitter & facebook. All of you helped make 2010 awesome for me and without going into exactly why (you guys know why) – I can’t thank you enough.

I’ve achieved some pretty incredible things personally as a photographer that I never thought that I would. Most importantly, I’ve found an art form that truly allows me a creative freedom that I intend to completely explore as much as I can as often as I can going forward. Cheers to 2011!