129: Do This One Thing To Grow As A Photographer In 2019

For all of December I like to do these personal episode where I
talk about things I learned throughout the year or things I think
could help you in the new year and as usual I had a blast. But
this is the last episode of 2018 so next week we will be back to
our regularly scheduled interviews. Which I’m sure is welcome
news to those sick of listening to my voice.


The end of the year is a perfect time to reflect on the past year
and look to the future. Last year I made a list of 5 way to jump
start your photography in 2018. And although I called it a
jumpstart, I felt like the tips were more foundational.


Last year I suggested to


Share your photos

Experiment more

Be the dumbest person in the room

Don’t buy any new gear

And print your photos.




 all this last year I think I did really well with this
list.


Share your photos


The idea here is that you’re a photographer, you should be taking
and sharing photos. But I think I took less personal photos this
year than most. I started using an app called 1 second a day
which is short 1 second video clips which you can compile into a
month long chunks and then year long videos too. I love it. But I
realized too late that I really don’t have to put in a ton of
effort making the videos great. I use it to document my kids and
just hearing their voices from a year ago has been a crazy
progression. I don’t have to worry too much about lighting and
composition and making it an event to get the 1 second because
then its kinda fake. I should spend that energy in 2019 to create
more family photos.


Experiment more


I did do a lot of experimenting this year. From video with a
GoPro on top of my camera, to trying out new lighting techniques,
and even with the core of my business. In this area I really
excelled this year and will not be stopping in 2019


Be the dumbest person in the room


At the beginning of the year I was in a mastermind group with
some other photographer and it was doing great things for my
business and just having some support. It fell apart and through
the chaos of the summer just kept myself busy. Once weddings
slowed down I was asked to join a 1 day in person mastermind with
business owners of other fields (fitness, automotive, real
estate, copy editing) and I even though they didn’t have any
knowledge of photography the had practical tips for my problems
and I felt like I had some helpful tips for their problems. It
really ignited an excitement in me and I will be putting more
value to that in 2019.


Don’t buy any new gear


I aced this. I didn’t buy any new gear in 2019 except for like
batteries or expendables. Pens, memory cards, I had to replace a
flash. But no new cameras (well except a GoPro that I bought for
our trip to Iceland which was so worth it). I really fell like I
became much better acquainted with the abilities of my camera and
lenses by being forced to stick with them. I wanted to upgrade to
an xt3 but I didn’t. I wanted to get a 70-200 but I didn’t. I
made what I had, work. My bank account thanked me too as I was
able to bring home more mon


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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!