Review of My Past Photographic Year

Saguaro National Forest, Arizona (click to enlarge)

As I have written in the past, I think it serves us well to review our recent past in order to better understand the good, bad, the successes and failures and then utilize that information to improve in the future.

In that vein, I have looked over what i did photographically, throughout 2014, and here are some of the things I found.

I will call my image making a success.  After looking back on my images for the year, I didn't miss any that I set out to make.  I didn't miss focus on any, didn't have any bad exposures or real failures in composition.  Huh!  Maybe after 45 years of doing this, I'm finally getting the hang of it.  I probably need to credit the wonderful gear I use as much as I credit myself.  I have to thank the technology for making photography easy for me.

Also, I really don't see any significant mistakes I made.  All of my images turned out the way I visualized them before I pressed the shutter button.  Again, I think the current technology in cameras is part of the reason.

I bought some gear that I needed to accomplish things I set out to accomplish and I sold some gear that I could no longer justify keeping.  I also rented a lens for the first time and that turned out to be very easy and painless.  I can recommend that if you need a lens or camera body that you don't have and only need it for a single occasion or short period of time, renting seems to be the way to go.

I also tested some gear, then sent it back as I found it didn't meet my needs at the time.

I learned a couple of lessons.  Test all the gear you buy so you can immediately assess whether it not is working properly or meeting your needs so you are within the window of returning it.  If you don't, it may cost you significant money.

I took two major road trips last year.  Both about three weeks.  On the first, I left SE Virginia, drove west to St. Louis, then loosely followed the trail of Lewis and Clark to Ft. Clatsop on the Oregon coast.  From there, up to Seattle, then SE through Washington state, Idaho, down through Utah, then across Colorado and the midwest back to Virginia. Wonderful trip of 7900 miles.  On this trip I made 2210 images.

The second was in October.  We drove from SE Virginia to western North Carolina.  Then west over the Smoky Mountains, and continued west all the way to the Grand Canyon, loosely following Route 66 from Oklahoma on.  We drove south and spent time in Sedona, Tucson, then into southern New Mexico with a visit to White Sands National Monument, Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns.  From there, east to San Antonio, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, New Orleans and then northeast back up to Virginia.  On this road trip I made 1537 images.

To put things in perspective, most European countries are about the size of most of our states.  So, when I drive and visit 20 or so states, that probably would be the same as visiting the same number of European countries.

There were several Virginia excursions as well as one to Florida, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Virginia and other closer places.

I did notice that I made more images of people doing things than I have in the past.  That is one area on which I am working.  I love street photography, although I don't get to practice it often, so when I see people living there lives in a very interesting way, I try to make a few images to add to my collection.

All in all, my wandering was very satisfying.

For all of 2014, I made 11,723 images.  Compare to 2013, when I made 12,371, I remained pretty consistent and only made about 6% fewer images.

As for the cameras, lenses and focal lengths I used, here are some rough stats.  I need to do a bit more analysis work for some of the focal lengths to determine if the focal lengths represent full frame lenses or M4/3 lenses or a combination of both.

All in all, I had a very satisfying photographic year and I look forward to another one this year.  I have set some photographic goals and intend to meet them.  I hope you meet yours also.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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