New Year's Photography Resolutions

I'm not normally one for New Year's resolutions, but there are a lot of photography-related goals that I want to set for myself this year.  The This Week In Photography blog had a good post about resolutions that every photographer should adopt, most of which apply for me.  Using that post for inspiration (and a similar post from Digital Photography School), I came up with the following list of goals/resolutions for myself:

• Learn how to use every feature on my Sony a200.  Like the first resolution listed by TWIP, I am definitely guilty of only learning a couple features on my camera and using them all the time.  I really need to READ THE MANUAL and learn how to use everything on the camera.  After owning the camera for a year and a half, I have no excuse.

• Learn how to post-process my photos.  Another resolution from TWIP, learning how to process my photos after I take them is something I've been putting off for a long time.  Currently I only do a minimal amount of editing with Faststone Image Viewer, mainly consisting of cropping and adjusting contrast, brightness, and color saturation.  While I don't think Photoshop should be used as a crutch to manipulate bad photos, it is definitely something I need to use to take my photography to the next level.

• Start and finish a new photography project.  I've attempted two real photography projects over the past couple years.  The first was a 365-day self-portrait project that I abandoned about half way through.  The second project was taking 365 pictures of the same object every day for a year.  I used a WALL-E action figure for my project, which I just recently completed after dragging it out to fifteen months.  I definitely don't have the drive or interest in doing another 365 project at this time, but I definitely want to do at least one new project this year.  I'll be looking for new ideas soon.

• Read at least 10 photography-related books.  I've been reading a lot more books for pleasure the past few years (not that I'm out of college and don't have all that assigned reading hanging over my head--not that I did it anyway), but this year I'm going to make a concerted effort to read more books relating to photography, whether that's instructional books, to books on the history of photography, to biographies of photographers.

• Create a new photography book. I recently put together a photo album from MyPublisher of some pictures my fiancee and I had taken for our engagement as a Christmas present to my fiancee, and I had a blast putting it together.  I realized I would love to put together a photo album or two of some of my better collections, such as my road trip to the Southwest, my WALL-E 365 project, or the Nine Inch Nails concert that I shot.  The big hangup for this is that I don't want to spend too much money, so I'll probably limit myself to only one or two books, as my financial situation allows.  I may also put this off until I learn how to post-process my photos.  If I'm going to pay to put a book together, I want the pictures looking as good as I can make them.

• Continue to expand this blog.  I'm creating this blog as an outlet to share my thoughts and progress as a photographer, and to motivate myself to continue to improve.  I think maintaining this blog will be an important part in my development.

• Learn to shoot film.  This is probably the most ambitious goal on the list, and honestly the one that I'm least concerned with accomplishing this year.  I inherited a number of old film cameras from my grandfather, who was a photographer, that have mainly sat around in a closet since I got them.  I'd love to learn to shoot and develop film (other than the Polaroid camera I use), but I think developing my skills as a digital photographer is the more immediate priority.

• Get published again.  So far I have had two of my photos professionally published: once in Elle Girl magazine in South Korea, and again in the 2009 edition of the Capture Cincinnati photo book.  I want to get a minimum of one picture published again in the Capture Cincinnati 2010 book, and I'll look to find a way to have my work published in at least one other manner.
  

Those are my big goals for the coming year.  I'll be sure to update my progress throughout the year.  Hopefully posting these goals here will keep me committed and working hard.  Here's to 2010!