Better late than never.  A look-back at 2018 and the photos I took during that year, from a technical an analytical perspective.
I originally wrote this in February of this year, but never published it.  I’ve done light editing, but left the rest as it was.
In the second of my look-back posts, I’m going to try to cover the events of my last year in Photography.

The Technical Stuff

In 2018, I created 15,014 photos and 131 videos.  This makes 2018 my 5th most prolific year, behind #4, 2010 (the year I spend 18 days in Hawaii).

Unlike past years, 2018 did not have a single dominant trip.  There were 3 events in 2018, the National Cherry Blossom Festival in April, a week long trip to Utah in July, and the local Pennsylvania Christmas Celebrations at Longwood Gardens and Bethlehem in November/December.

For the cameras used per year, I clearly favored my D750 for the 3rd year in a row.  But for the second year in a row, the reason is somewhat clear.  I use the D750 for star trails/low light situations where only the D850 can come close.  Since the D850 is a purchase late in 2018, we’ll have to see what happens in 2019.  I still prefer the D750 for my first time exploring an area due to the weight.  I frequently combine the D750 with the 24-120 f/4.0 due to the high quality and lower weight.

My lens usage in 2018 wasn’t even close.  The 24-120 f/4.0 lens was by far the favorite, accounting for nearly half of the photos taken last year.  It really is a solid N-Series lens from Nikon, and it has really become a favorite, all-around, no-compromise lens for when I can only carry a single lense.  It is also the cheapest of my N-Series lenses, as it was sold in a kit with my D750.
The other lens I want to call attention to is the 28-105 f/3.5-4.5.  This is my oldest lens that I still use.  It was the one that Ken Rockwell once called the worst lens Nikon has ever made.  I love it.  It is far from perfect, but it has a macro mode that produces some great images.  These are from a D750 and D300 (itself a 10 year old camera) from 2018.


I have had this lens in constant usage since 2002, when I bought it as a pair to my Nikon N80, a film camera, for my college photography class.

The breakdown of Camera:Lens Combinations is:

D800/D850

D750

While my D850 is more or less a replacement for my D800, in November and December, I did find myself using the D850 in the very low light conditions where I would previously have used my D750.  I think the results for 2019 will be interesting.

The Good Stuff – New Stuff

As mentioned above, in 2018, I was finally able to acquire a Nikon D850.  Due to the release of the Z-series, this may be my last Digital SLR, but time will tell.

The Good Stuff – Travels

In 2018, I only had 2 trips.  The first was a long weekend to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival, something I hope to do in 2019 as well.  The second was a week long trip to Utah for the Milky Way.  This trip was somewhat of a bust, but it did result in one of my favorite trips of 2018 and one where I learned a lot about lightning photography.  I plan on going back to Utah in 2020 to try again.  My trip was with Enlighten Photography ( https://www.zion-photography.com/ ) out of Zion National Park, a company I highly recommend, and a company I will be using in the future.

The Bad Stuff

Knock on wood, there was nothing I would consider the ‘bad stuff’ in 2018.  I did get somewhat unlucky in Utah – in that I did not get my target images – but I still got some phenomenal images and the trip was worth doing.
I did not, however, accomplish my 2018 goal of getting great video produced.  I also was unable to make progress in making photography a side job.

2019

As of now, my plans for 2019 are this:
2 Trips – Cherry Blossoms in DC in March-April timeframe.  Faroe Islands in September timeframe.
My 2019 goals are: Generate income from photography that pays for the trips, and learn how to better produce video because video seems to be important.
My 2019 stretch goals are: Work with a corporate sponsor to showcase their gear at an amazing place.  I managed this image, but Eddie Bauer (maker of my jacket, I love this jacket) did not reply – https://www.instagram.com/p/BlZhrP5h3oA/ .
To the future-
-Brad