Photo posts on this blog are a common sight. I’ve put up 78 different posts tagged with “photography” in the past year alone. Sometimes it simply because I don’t have anything creative to say with words, and I want to share something I have found to be beautiful. Other times, it’s because I’ve worked hard at shooting an event or a place and I want to share what I’ve accomplished. No matter how, it’s obvious that photography is a big part of who I am, and has been for decades.

In 2017 I managed to do a few different races, and shot a lot of great photos for those. I really enjoy getting shots of runners out on the field and offering them up to them at no charge. When I was a beginning runner I loved seeing the photos of me out on the course, only to get a sinking feeling when they would ask for a ton of money for a single digital shot. I realize I could charge for this, but I enjoy doing it enough that I’d rather just keep giving it away for free.

My wife’s love of birds means that I’ve also gotten a bunch of good bird shots this year. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get a nice pic of a moving object. Often times I don’t know if I’ve gotten anything good until I get back and get a chance to analyze the shots. I usually can also get some good landscape shots at the same time while we’re hiking around in the woods.

Over the past year I’ve learned a bit more about what I need for equipment. Namely, I want a couple different lenses. To start I want to pick up a nice prime lens with a nice wide aperture. Sony currently has a nice 35mm f/1.8 that would be amazing for getting good action shots of runners. On the other end of the spectrum, I really would like something closer to a 450-600mm lens that I can use for shooting wildlife. Many of these lenses are very, very expensive though, especially with a nice wide aperture.

I’ve also been playing around with where to store and share my photos. I’ve experimented with Flickr and Smugmug, and I’m not 100% sure where I’m going to land. Adobe keeps upgrading it’s Portfolio option, which comes free with my Lightroom subscription, so that is another tempting option. I think one of the first things I need to do is get a DNS name so I can move my pics around to different sites without always having to notify everyone I’ve taken pics of before, where their stuff has moved to.

Needless to say, I’ve had a great time shooting in 2017, and I’m excited to get out there right away in 2018. In fact, I have a special shoot that I want to do close to the new year. I’m hoping it turns out and I can post it very soon after taking it. We’ll see if weather and time are on my side. Until then, hope your photo dreams all come true, and you get perfect shots every time.