Every year I try to do a lookback at the previous calendar year and how my photography went. It gives me a chance to reflect on what I managed to do, and get my plans together for the next year. Since I normally get these out around February/March, it really is an intended path for the next 10-11 months. For previous years posts, see the Year in Review category.
As it is now 2024 and the previous year was 2023. In 2023, like in 2022 and 2021, I didn’t use my cameras much. There are a variety of reasons, but I did use my camera more than 2022. Excluding 2022, it was my least-used years since 2008, again.
The Technical Stuff
In 2023, I created 6595 photos and videos However, about 1000 of these videos were dash cam videos. As mentioned above, excluding 2022, 2023 was my lowest year since 2008 (again). It is unlikely I’ll have a year under the 514 images from 2008 for a long time. 2023 is now my 14th most prolific year, 2022 is lowered to 17th.
I’ve managed to use this same screenshot 4 years in a row. Hoping that 2024 is a big enough year to add a new screenshot… again!
2023 was a busy year but not photographically. The photos of the year were dominated by 2 events – a trip to the airport overlook (hence the reason my 200-500 was used so much) and a road trip to Ohio and North Carolina.
Normally, this image has more than one camera used. This is quite unusual that I’ve only really used my D850.
For the fifth year in a row, the D850 was my most used camera. It was also my only used camera for the second year in a row.
My unused in 2022-2023 D750 is now 8 years old, and my unused in 2022-2023 D800 is 10 years old. While in normal situations I start to look to replace a camera body at 5 years old, I now have all 4 of my camera bodies at 5+ years old. I haven’t even used my D300 since 2019. I know I will say not to hold onto old stuff, and I should sell or convert to IR, the problem is emotional. I have a hard time letting go the camera that shot my favorite image. It is a dumb sentiment but I definitely attach the same emotion to a film camera owned by a parent as I do a digital camera I just liked. My friend Josh Holko (https://blog.jholko.com/) could not disagree with me more. He holds no more emotional attachment to a particular camera than he would a hardware store hammer. I probably have more emotional attachment to a screwdriver than he does his current cameras. I look at a camera as ‘the first time I shot <blank>’. I would like to be able to let them go, but, they were also such a stretch of a financial investment into something that enables a passion that it makes it hard. How can one simply dispose of something they spent $3000 on, even if it was 10 years ago making that $3000 probably $10,000 today. But I’m not a business and never have been. Josh is a business, and all of his equipment is funded from that. Perhaps that’s what is needed to detach the emotions from the hardware.
The Good Stuff – Completed Goals of 2023
Back in early 2023, I set out some goals.
I made money off of stock sales! Around $2 for the year. But I still don’t have enough to cash out. I need to move off of Adobe stock, the sales are just terrible.
The Bad Stuff – Missed Goals for 2022
Goal: Actually make money with photography. What happened to NFTs? They just dropped off of a cliff in the last year, so that was a less than useful effort. I still have my account at OpenSea (https://opensea.io/bradleymolnar) but that ship seems to have sailed.
Goal: Even more posts! — Oops, that really didn’t happen. I am finishing the year with more unfinished posts than before. Is that good or bad?
Goal: Continue to improve the website. I have a new theme and I like it. — I was able to add some items to the portfolio section, but it is so far from complete and something that I forgot about.
Goal: Travel and take photos when possible. — I went on some trips! That’s an improvement. I didn’t go on as many as I wanted, but, can you ever go on too many trips.
I hope 2024 will be better. At least for now, I’m hopeful of a successful year with many photos.
To the future-
-Brad