Change, Fear, and a Brand New Year

Some thoughts about what I hope to do in 2022…

I love when a new year comes around. It’s always a nice time to sit back and consider what you have done and what you want to do differently going forward. Sure, you don’t need a change in the calendar to do that, but it’s a nice symbolic time to do so. It just feels right to me. So, I have been spending the last few weeks thinking long and hard about my photography, and YouTube, and all that. This blog is my attempt to “get it all on paper” and share what I am thinking regarding my future direction.

I love creating photographs, and videos about making photographs. I’ve been actively taking and editing photos for about 12 years now, and actively making and sharing videos on Youtube for about 4 years. Both are just so satisfying to me. I enjoy the heck out of doing both of these things. They give me a chance to express my creativity and compel me to get out and just do something. These days, that’s something. The fact that anyone even shows up and watches my videos, or reads my blog, is just icing on the cake. I often find it hard to believe anyone would listen to me.

The Need for a Change

But I will admit that over the last year or so, I haven’t been out enough. Sure, I get out and shoot some here in Austin, but I haven’t really been out shooting enough, and of course the amount of travel I have done has been severely restricted, just like for everyone else. I have come to realize how much I enjoy travel. Sure, I already knew that I loved to travel, but when you can’t count on several trips a year like you could in the past, that has an impact on things.

I have mostly spent the last year or so (well, I guess more like 2 years now, but the last year it seems like I have been here even more) sitting here in my office, making tutorials and working. Nothing wrong with either, but admittedly I am tired of it. I need to stretch myself a bit more, creatively and physically. I need to move around, with or without direction. I need to go new places and get stimulated. I just need to wander.

I made a video recently where I talked about my plans for 2022. It’s below. It’s a good summary of how I am feeling, and what I am thinking.

In that video, I basically say the same things I just wrote about above. The net-net of that is this: I plan to get out more in 2022. Sure, we still have some restrictions and travel isn’t even close to what it used to be (and likely never will be). But, I can get out, and I can take you with me via video/vlogs. I don’t even need some big overseas trip. Heck, I can just go to a city within a few hours drive (or a short flight) and have a good time taking photographs. I can just go downtown here in Austin. For me, it’s the change of scenery that matters most.

In fact, we took a trip for New Years up to Colorado, and I recorded the below video there. It was my first attempt at this sort of vlog in a long while. I have done some of these in the past, but it has been quite a while and I will admit to getting a bit of “stage fright” about recording them. 

I am very comfortable sitting in my office and making tutorials, but going out somewhere public, recording a video and sharing some tips and thoughts while wandering somewhere else has been hard for me. I am always embarrassed to do so in front of other people, but I am going to force myself to get over it. I simply need a change. It was easy enough on that Colorado trip, because I was walking in the woods and only saw other people every once in a while. But I don’t live among desolate landscapes - I live in a city. And thus, I am going to have to get out and record myself taking street shots and cityscapes, and make something of it.

Imposter Syndrome

The other challenge I face is that I often have a bit of imposter syndrome when talking about photography, outside of editing tips. I am very comfortable with editing and “how to get things done” in the digital darkroom (especially with some of those key products that I make tutorials about). I use them enough that I feel like my opinions there are valid and hopefully useful, and I feel knowledgeable about them. I’ve just been doing that sort of thing for so long that I feel like I can “hold my own” in terms of discussing that on a video, or live with another photographer.

But with general photography knowledge, I feel like maybe I don’t know enough about it, or maybe I am not good enough to really share that sort of thing. It’s difficult to overcome that sort of feeling. I don’t have a lengthy background in photography, nor do I have any formal training. I literally picked up a camera about 12 years ago and started shooting. I have learned a lot along the way, mostly through trial and error and dogged persistence. But I am essentially self-taught, which means that I don’t know what I don’t know. And of course I don’t know “everything”. How can you, really?

But I do have some knowledge that I think is useful to a lot of folks, and that is what I plan to share. I don’t feel like I have to be an expert in everything about photography (who is?). I can hopefully help folks advance their art and have fun in the process.

Plenty of tutorials on tap for 2022!

And no, I am not giving up on tutorials. I still really enjoy making them. And yes I am going to continue making tutorials for the products that I love to use, namely Luminar Neo, On1 Photo RAW, Topaz and more. So no change in that regard. I simply plan to mix it up a little so I can satisfy my need to create in other ways. It keeps me from feeling stale, which is how I have felt for the better part of the last year.  

For me, I feel like it is about adding value for those who follow along. Sure, I can sit here and make editing tutorials all the time, but I need some variety and some different forms of stimulation, otherwise I am going to burn out on that. I have had a lot of folks ask me to share additional tips and tricks about shooting in the field vs just editing tips for the photos themselves. In other words, some tips about how to capture the image while out there. In order to do that, it requires that I get out and bring you with me. So that is on the docket for this year, and I am really looking forward to it. The recent video from Colorado has been pretty well received, and I’m grateful for that.

Expanding my creative skills

I am also looking at expanding in some other areas with my photography. I want to do a little more work with portraits, for example. No, I don’t plan to chase weddings gigs or official portrait sessions. But I enjoy going to events here locally (assuming there are some in 2022!) and taking portraits. It’s a nice change of pace from my usual subject matter, and stretches me in terms of better understanding lighting and posing, and more. And I always learn something. So hopefully I can get some of that done this year.

I also just picked up a small light panel and a light stand, and I ordered some Replica Surfaces photo backgrounds. I plan to delve into some product photography this year, too. This, like the portrait work, is just for fun and for my own education. But it’s another, different avenue to go down and experiment with. I am sure I will learn a lot about this stuff while trying it out. How else can I learn it, anyway?

So that’s a quick summary of my plans for 2022. I am actively considering some other avenues too, that I may delve into in a future post here, or in a video. But the main goal for me this year is to inject a little more fun into what I do. The last two years have been tough on everyone, including me. I miss getting out and going places. I’m going to do my best to make that different in 2022. Thanks for following along.