Checking Back In

I haven't written anything here in the past four or five months.  Every now and then I keep trying to push myself to get back into writing, but the motivation has been nonexistent.  At the very least, I thought I could check back in with the goals I made for myself at the beginning of the year and see how I'm fairing (not well):

1. Create and follow a budget. - Haven't created any kind of formal budget yet.  Just trying to keep unnecessary spending down.  We are tracking our spending on Mint.com, but we need to do more to keep our finances in order.
2. Continue exercising regularly -I'm doing a little better with this one.  I typically do some combination of yoga and bodyweight exercises (pushups, pullups, situps on the Bosu) three to four times a week, and cardio at least once a week.  I played some outdoor soccer in the spring and will be doing so again in the fall.  I would like to get the cardio to at least twice a week consistently.
3. Learn to cook more healthy recipes -Most of my cooking either involves the same few recipes repeatedly, or Jess giving me a recipe to cook.  I'd like to find more recipes on my own.
4. Write regularly - Nope.  Obviously.
5. Meditate at least once a week regularly - Not at all.
6. Get surgery on my gums and schedule a routine annual physical with a doctor - Finally had the gum surgery done in June and am making visits with the doctor.  It's about time.
7. Read at least 40 books - Not on target with this goal so far.  I've only finished fourteen books so far, although I am currently reading three or four different books at the moment.  Still, I need to step up the pace if I'm going to make this goal.
8. Visit Hawaii or the Pacific Northwest -There will be no Hawaii this year, but we are going to Oregon and Washington in the fall.  We also have bonus trips planned for Chicago and New England.
9. Pay off my student loan -I've been dragging my feet on this one and need to get moving.
10. Use my camera regularly -I've only done slightly better with this than I have with my goal of writing regularly.  I got a nice macro lens for my birthday that I haven't used much.  Jess did buy me a nice external flash for our anniversary that I have started using.  Took some great photos of our nephew last night.

 I hope that this will jump-start me into writing updates regularly again.  We'll see how it goes.

Shift in Focus & 2011 Resolutions

The idea of using this purely as a photo blog fizzled out last year, so I'm going to shift the focus and turn this into a more open blog.  I've wanted a fresh start from my old all-purpose personal blog, and I've decided to use this blog for that.


With that in mind, I'm going to re-post the resolutions I'm making for myself in 2011:

1. Create and follow a budget.
2. Continue exercising regularly - Increase the frequency of bodyweight exercises and yoga, and add aerobic exercises.
3. Learn to cook more healthy recipes.
4. Write regularly.
5. Meditate at least once a week regularly.
6. Get surgery on my gums and schedule a routine annual physical with a doctor - I've been dragging my feet on both of these for a few years now.  Time to start taking this seriously.
7. Read at least 40 books - Last year I read over thirty books, and I think I can do better this year.
8. Visit Hawaii or the Pacific Northwest - The wife and I are planning on going to Hawaii with her family this summer.  If that falls through we'd like to visit Oregon and Washington instead.  Either way I'll be visiting some of the few remaining states I've never been to before.
9. Pay off my student loan.
10. Use my camera regularly - A nice, vague goal to take more photos.

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!