A New Year, New Opportunities

With the start on Friday of the 2016 calendar year we are faced with new opportunities as photographers. This is a good time to reflect on the past year and what worked, what didn’t and what you can do to change things up in the New Year.

Maybe you have an idea for a new personal project, or want to have your first exhibit of your work in a local gallery. Now is the time to be making those plans and working on making them reality.

As photographers, we must alway be learning new things, trying new things and challenging ourselves to be better, more creative and more business minded if we want to do this as our chosen career. Don’t let yourself get caught up in the hype of new camera gear coming out in 2016 with new bells and whistles, remember my earlier blog post about it not being about the camera.

Build on the the skills you know, become a master at what you do, but also learn new things. Don’t let yourself become stuck in a rut only doing one or two things when it comes to photography. You need to learn to be versatile and ready to tackle anything new head on.

One of the things I want you to avoid in 2016 is changing gear unless it’s absolutely necessary to your business. I have read article after article on pros who have started out on Canon or Nikon and sold all they had and switched to the other, or to Fuji, or Sony, only to eventually switch back. It’s a total waste of money to do silly things like this, so unless you have tons of cash to burn, don’t do it.

Generally, you are better off once you choose the system you are going to work with, to master it and stick with it. If you invest tens of thousands of dollars in bodies and lenses and then decide to switch systems, you have to sell all your gear at a loss because it’s used and buy all new again. Stick with what you have and learn to make it work for what you need.

You did’t originally choose the platform with the best high ISO, low light capabilities, then get better glass, like F/2.8 or wider lenses to compensate for that. Better glass is always a sound investment as you can use it over and over again for years on body after body.
For me personally, since I was side-lined by a bad car accident in October, I am dedicating my time and energy into drone photography for now. With my back messed up, I cannot walk a lot or stand for hours shooting right now, so I am learning and studying drones as a platform. I have already been working with three different systems to learn and train on and will be buying my first DJI Phantom 3 this coming week, so look for more articles and posts on my work with this new aerial platform in the coming weeks and months.

I can work with the drone platform, especially the Phantom 3 platform as it has the most intelligent systems of any drone on the market for photography. It can be set to basically fly itself so I can concentrate on operating the camera to capture great stills and stunning videos. All while sitting fairly comfortably in a chair, allowing my back to heal from my surgeries.

So, for 2016, I want you to get out there and take the bull by the horns and move yourself forward as a professional photographer and business owner. Expand your horizons, learn new skills, make your clients happy and LOVE what you do!

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