An End of Year Retrospective for 2010Posted by drfl on December 30th, 2010

Since the text from last year (An End of Year Retrospective for 2009) still applies:

At the end of every year there is a deluge of “Best of” lists.  Wholly subjective and different for every person, these lists hopefully celebrate the successes and identify the failures so that the next year can be even better.  It is during the cold wintry months I sit down in a warm location and review my previous year. I look at my work, look at how I grew and changed artistically and ask myself a few key questions (summarized):

1. Did I accomplish my artistic goals that I set last year?
2. Were my business efforts met with success?
3. What images did I fail to capture the mood/scene/emotion that I wanted? 
4. Did I surprise myself?
5. Do I still enjoy what I am doing? (Most Important)

If #5 is a Yes! (and it has been year after year), I look to next year and ask myself a few more key questions:

1. What artistic goals do I have for this year?
2. What locations should I focus on photographing?
3. What types of lenses/filters/techniques should I try?
4. What business ideas should I implement or push this year?
5. What hasn’t been successful and what should discontinue?

So what have I found by asking myself all these questions?  To follow the lead of others, here is my ”Best Of” list to illustrate my triumphs and to help answer those questions.  This is a collection of my favorite images, perhaps not the most profitable, but the ones that I feel exemplify my artistic growth.

#7 Mist and Melancholy

Although one can rarely go wrong with grand sunrises and sunset images, I felt I needed to get some images that exhibited a more moody feeling. This was perhaps my favorite foggy nature image from the year.

#6 Sunstar Sunflower

I had visualized an image of a sunstar through the petals of a sunflower for sometime so I was excited when I accomplished that goal.

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The JudgementPosted by drfl on December 29th, 2010

For a melancholy winter day.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 19mm, f/10, 1/30 sec.
Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

The Art of the Follow-UpPosted by drfl on December 28th, 2010

One of the most important sales items I have learned through the years is the follow-up.  If someone shows interest in something follow-up and do it quickly.  If you don’t get a response, follow-up again.  I usually wait a week between the first and second follow-up, but sometimes I follow-up more quickly, depending on the prospect.

So often we get busy working on something else or our contacts do that we don’t connect.  If you don’t respond or follow-up you can be almost certain it will result in lost business.  Keeping in contact with old customers and follow-up with them on a consistent basis can bring additional business.  By following up you not only send a gentle reminder, but you show that you are organized and care about their needs.  This can go a long way.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 CM, f/10, 1/80 sec.
Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska

It’s Not Too Late….Posted by drfl on December 20th, 2010

Fortunately, it has been a very busy month for me.  Unfortunately, for me that has meant less (actually near-zero) shooting and for both of us this has led to no postings. 

Today, however, I am sending out an unabashed marketing message telling everyone that it is not too late to order prints and receive them by Christmas from my print store @ http://store.journeyoflight.com. 

On the blogging side, I do hope to have a couple new blog posts by the end of the year.  I will definitely be adding an end of year retrospective as I did last year so look for that next week.  Until then, I might have an image or two pop up time allowing.  If I don’t I wish everyone very happy holidays!

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/4000 sec.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado