I finally got around to looking at my images from 2023, trying to pick four to share in the four best of 2023 thread, and noticed some things I’d like to improve for this year about my habits.
Be more productive in the summer. 2023’s summer was hot af here in Southern California. I generally do not go to the desert (my favorite place to shoot) in the summer, but I’d like to get out to nearer surroundings.
Get out in the city more. When I switch over to map view in darktable, it is hugely apparent that I shoot in 3-4 very tight regions: within walking distance of my house, the outskirts of Victorville, Joshua Tree area, and Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. Why am I not in downtown LA or out by the beach more? I don’t have a good answer for that.
Shoot more infrared. This generally means getting out on the middle of the day to shoot, where as usually I’d be out more towards the beginning or end of the day.
Shoot more at night. I started a series of interesting signage, only to sort of fizzle on it. I should keep going and expand the search area, which would also help with other goals.
What do you think? What are some things you hope to improve on in 2024?
Good list. If you can stick to it, you should be happier this time next year.
I already blathered on about my goals for 2024 on this other thread:
But specifically on the subject of things to improve…
Get out promptly when an opportunity presents itself. I missed quite a few opportunities in 2023 because I said “tomorrow” or “next week”, and then the opportunity was gone. For example, I have no shots of what the city looked like when it was blanketed with wildfire smoke, and unbelievably I have no shots from the fall at all.
The corollary to the first one is to not let work take over everything.
Get out of the city more. The best versions of what I like to shoot are out in the country, so Be There.
Get to locations earlier so that it isn’t a mad scramble to be at the right place when the right light occurs.
Sort of sounds like a general “get out and shoot more” list!
That is simple for me. I want to get my new Canon R7 with its 5915 focus points to focus as reliably as my Nikon D7100 which was set to a single focus point. It turns out more is not always better and despite having thousands of focus points it is near impossible to lock the Canon R7 to a single focus point because if your nose touches the back screen it selects a new focus point despite the touch screen being disabled. I guess Canon could either do a software update or I could have my nose cut off.
Get out promptly when an opportunity presents itself. I missed quite a few opportunities in 2023 because I said “tomorrow” or “next week”, and then the opportunity was gone.
The same goes for me
From tomorrow, I’ll stop procrastinating…