 |
| Happy New Year! |
Second, I hope next year is your best year ever. I wish you good fortune, good health, fulfillment and satisfying images.
This was a good year personally for me. I am the eternal optimist and try to see the good side of everything, despite my career thrusting me into the worst of humankind everyday for almost 40 years (I was a police officer, detective and police chief in two large Virginia cities for all those years and, in my younger years, worked over 100 death investigations) My attitude is that more blessings have come my way than I've ever deserved. Because of that, I try to live a grateful and thankful life, doing no harm to others and being helpful whenever I can. Unfortunately, for members of my extended family, we had two deaths this year, leaving me the only "grandpa" left for our three granddaughters. I plan to ensure our granddaughters never forget their other grandfathers.
All in all, I'm thankful to celebrate my 65th birthday next week. Many don't make it this far.
Now onto the important photographic stuff...
At the end of each year, I take a close look at my photography over the past 12 months. Not only a creative look but a look at the statistics to give me an idea of how my vision may have changed. For example, am I making more wide angle images than previously? Which camera am I picking up for what reason? Which lenses do I tend to use more than others.
Lightroom provides a really nice and easy way for a user to go in and do some statistical analysis of usage. Here is just a brief look at some of my statistics for 2016. I'll be looking at additional statistics in the near future.
Total Images 24,954
RAW Images 12,494
JPEG Images 12,460
I shot mostly RAW + JPEG this year due to Fuji's requirement to shoot that way so one can see a 100% crop of an image to check focus, etc. With all of my other cameras in the past, I just shot RAW. I would like for Fuji to provide a large JPEG embedded in their RAW files instead of a small one. That accounts for the large number of JPEG images. The number of different images made is really reflected by the number of RAW images shot.
Olympus E-M1 213
Nikon D810 850
Fuji X-T1 10,148 (Jan. 1—Sept. 11)
Fuji X-T2 12,884 (Sept. 12—December 30)
Fuji X-Pro 2 (rental) 613
Canon Powershot G11 457
Rest miscellaneous cameras
X-T1 Plus
10-24mm f/4 lens 675
16-55mm f/2.8 lens 1791
18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens 2046
23mm f/1.4 lens 689
35mm f/2 lens 40
50-140mm f/2.8 lens 1577
55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens 675
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens 2497
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens + 1.4x 158
X-T2 Plus
10-24mm f/4 lens 267
16-55mm f/2.8 lens 7030
18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens 266
23mm f/1.4 lens 0
35mm f/2 lens 46
50-140mm f/2.8 lens 2330
50-140mm f/2.8 lens + 1.4x 118
55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens 0
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens 1992
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens + 1.4x 716
X-Pro2 Plus
10-24mm f/4 lens 50
18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens 365
50-140mm f/2.8 lens 99
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens 99
Total for each lens
10-24mm f/4 lens 992
16-55mm f/2.8 lens 8807
18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens 2677
23mm f/1.4 lens 689
35mm f/2 lens 86
50-140mm f/2.8 lens 4105
50-140mm f/2.8 lens + 1.4x 118
55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 lens 675
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens 4588
100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens + 1.4x 874
Just looking at the totals tells me that I have used the 16-55mm f/2.8 lens the greatest percentage of the time. The 100-400 has been used almost exclusively to photograph wildlife, so if I eliminated wildlife from my photography, that lenses use would have been minimal. But that was the sole reason I purchased it. I'm a little suprised I used the 50-140 more than the 18-55, but the 18-55's usage went way down when I purchased the 16-55. The 23 f/1.4 was mainly used for photographing events indoors. I've somewhat neglected the 35mm f/2, as I like what I see from that lens. I like wide angle and used the 10-24mm lens more before I acquired the 16-55 as the 18-55 did not get me quite wide enough. After I acquired the 16-55, it seems the usage of the 10-24 went down somewhat. I guess I like that 24mm equivalent focal length (always have!).
I may have made some addition or other math errors with these numbers but I'm not really going to go back and check. All I'm looking for is an idea of usage percentage-wise of my cameras and lenses.
I haven't yet done any analysis on focal lengths most used for each lens, but in the past, it seems I tend to use either the widest or longest focal length for each lens most, with intermediate focal lengths used less.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be looking more closely at my photographic habits for 2016 and hope to gain some insight into my photography so I can learn and improve.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
All content on this blog is © 2013-2016 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
Dennis: This past year I took virtually all my photos with two lenses, the 18-135 and 100-400 (w/1.4 TC at times). I scarcely used my only other lens, the 50-140. Since I bought it from Best Buy during their crazy $599 sale last year, I could make some cash to buy another lens if I sold it! On the other hand, it's a great lens and maybe I should simply try using it more in 2017?
ReplyDeleteDoug, my first four years photographing was all with a 50mm f/1.7 lens. The only one I owned and could afford back then. Nothing wrong with using only one or two lenses as they evidently fit your style perfectly.
DeleteAs an exercise, you could take the 50-140 out and use it exclusively for a couple of months to help develop a different way of seeing. Kind of force some visual growth. Afterwards you may find you use it more.
Happy New Year and thank you for the comments.
That's an interesting idea, Dennis. Before I purchased my 100-400, I used the 50-140 one day to shoot some obliging shore birds. The results included more of the environment than I usually do, but were spectacularly sharp with great microcontrast and beautiful background blur. I'd forgotten that day and the great results. I'll be in the Bahamas in February for work and I'll have the chance to do a little photography. I think I'll try the 50-140 (w/1.4, also) and see how it goes.
Delete