It's That Time Of The Year; Don't Forget To...

The "Miss Arlene", the "Capt. Jody" and the "Rian Michelle" on a foggy morning. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 50mm; 1/320th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 400

It is the end of the calendar year and there are several things I do at this time of year that you might find helpful in ensuring your photographic success for next year.  Here are my suggestions as to a few things you may want to check and consider as the new year arrives.  You may have other things as well.  If so, share them with us in the comments so we all can benefit.

a) Pull out all of your gear, make an inventory of it in case of loss or theft, check it for good working order and clean everything thoroughly.  Examine each lens and look for any debris or fungus that may be attached to one of the internal glass elements.  If your lenses will allow, move the aperture blades and check for any excess oil on the blades.  If you feel comfortable doing so, clean you cameras' sensors.  However, make sure you have the knowledge and right tools to do so safely.  If you have any reservations about cleaning your sensor, send it to the manufacturer.  They will clean your sensor and check all functions and make sure everything is set to factory specs.  You might want to also check and reformat all of your spare memory cards and charge all of you spare batteries as well.

b) There might have been firmware updates for your cameras and/or lenses that you missed.  It is a good time to complete those updates so you now have the latest and greatest functionality.

c) Check and reset the internal clocks in all of your cameras to synchronize them.  I have found clocks on my digital cameras notoriously inaccurate, losing or gaining quite a bit of time over the period of a year.  If you use more than one camera when out photographing and want to keep your images in the order in which they were taken, time wise, in Lightroom or another editing program, it makes it much easier if your clocks in your cameras are synchronized.

d)  If your cameras have the ability to program a group of settings, usually designated C1, C2, C3, etc., you may want to review those to make any changes to reflect changing preferences you might have and also to ensure that they haven't been accidentally reset or unknowingly reset after a firmware update.

e) Change the copyright settings in your cameras if your cameras allow you to include copyright metadata and you use a specific year.  I do.  In all of my cameras I include the copyright symbol (©), the year and my name.  I then make sure that the information is "enabled" or "attached" to each image file as they are created.  Many cameras allow you to create a copyright but you also have to enable it or "attach" it in a different menu item.

f) Change your import metadata settings in Lightroom or your other editing software.  For all of my imports into Lightroom, I include my name, address, website, email, telephone number and the year with the copyright symbol so it is all baked into each file's metadata upon importation.  I then no longer have to worry about whether or not my images can be identified.  Since I include the year an image was made, I go in on January 1st and update that data with the new year.  I also create a new export preset to reflect the new year.  That way, I can include the date and copyright into the title of each photo I send to this blog or to Instagram.  There then will be no question who is the owner and the image is copyright protected.

g) Do an analysis of your photography for 2018.  How many images did you make?  Did you accomplish what you set out to accomplish?  Did you produce the images you wanted to produce?  Where do you need to improve?  What focal lengths did you use most?  What apertures?  What shutter speeds?  Has your vision changed, say, from wide angle to telephoto?  Was your gear adequate?  Ask yourself those types of questions so you can get a feel for what you have done to help you figure out what you may want to do in the future.

h)  Lastly, but something I think is important, take some time to thoroughly think through what you want to accomplish photographically for 2019.  What is it that you want to photograph, where do you want to go, what new techniques do you want to learn, etc.?  Set some photographic goals for yourself.  Have you been meaning to start a new project or complete an old one?  Now is the time to make plans with a road map on how to accomplish your goals.  Also, you may want to make a list of what gear you may need to accomplish your photographic goals.  You can save a bit of money if you know what you will need and wait until that gear is on sale.  Most of the time different manufacturers put their gear on sale the same months year after year.  That is when I buy mine.

To crowd source other tips of value, if you have something you do at the end of each year to help ensure future photographic success, please leave a comment so we all can benefit.

UPDATE:  I didn't think of this at the time I posted this, but it is also a great time of the year to thoroughly check your computer, run a complete virus scan, clean the registry of obsolete items, clean the trash/recycle bin of items, optimize or defragment your hard drives, etc.  I hope you regularly back up all of your images and documents.  If you don't now is a great time to do that as well.

To each of you I hope 2019 is your best photography year ever!

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

All content on this blog is © 2013-2018 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.