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Goals for 2020 /  by Todd Henson

Contemplating the future

I’ve never really been into “New Year’s Resolutions,” but I am a believer in always having goals to work towards. Sometimes I create small, very achievable goals if I think I’ll need that feedback, that feeling of accomplishment. But other times I’ll choose a very challenging goal, even one I’m unlikely to achieve, because in those cases it’s not specifically the accomplishment of the goal that matters to me, but the idea of pushing myself to accomplish as much as I can, and pushing towards an almost impossible goal keeps me looking forward and striving for more. With those goals its more about the process and self-improvement than achieving something specific.

But one thing all my goals tend to have in common is that they are most often just in my head. I rarely formalize them or put them in writing. Because of this I lose track of some of them, forgetting or endlessly postponing. This year I decided to change that, or at least begin moving in a more formalized direction, perhaps one I’ll be better able to track, and maybe one that will result in my following through with more of my goals.

I don’t know that I’m ready to jump right into the process of creating S.M.A.R.T goals, meaning Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. These are popular with businesses and the self-help community, and for good reason, they do work. And perhaps one day I’ll go this far. But for now I’m just starting a list of goals I’d like to work towards in 2020.

Below is what I’ve come up with so far:

Get Out More Often

Walking a wetlands boardwalk

Over the last year or so I haven’t gotten out nearly as often as I once did. I miss getting out every weekend, sometimes multiple times on a weekend, and sometimes in the evenings during the week. Granted, life can get in the way, but I’d like to make more of an effort at photographing more often, perhaps 3 or more outings a month.

Print My Photos

Printing photos at home

A number of years ago I purchased a decent photo printer, but I haven’t really used it much. I’d like to change that. I’d like to begin printing at least 1 photograph a month. This will help me better learn the art and craft of printing, but also hopefully help me improve my photography, and encourage me to get out there creating new photos to print.

Start a Project

Just what is a project?

I’ve always admired photographers who work on long-term personal projects. It gives them something specific to work towards and keeps their vision sharp as they’re always on the lookout for that next element of the project. And it focuses you on creating a body of work, something greater than any individual photograph. One example is a Japanese photographer, Eiji Ohashi, who travels around his country photographing the amazing array of vending machines as parts of these incredible landscapes. He has a book I’d like to find, titled Roadside Lights. I don’t know what project(s) I would work towards, but I’d like to begin considering this.

Read Photography/Art Books

A stack of photography & art books to read

As I’ve written about before, I love reading books for inspiration, learning, and pure enjoyment. But last year I didn’t read nearly as much in the photography and art category as I’d have liked. So this year I’d like to read more, with a goal of at least 1 photography/art book every other month. I’d like to read both instructional books and also pure art books, what I sometimes refer to as portfolio books.

Read Non-photography Books

A selection of fiction and non-fiction books to read

My reading habits include genres outside photography and the arts. I love reading fiction, most often speculative fiction such as science fiction, fantasy and horror. But I also enjoy reading non-fiction on a number of topics. For several years now I’ve participated in the goodreads annual reading challenge, where you set a goal for the number of books you’ll read in any given year. I try to up this each year, knowing the number I read will vary depending on the time I have and the length of any books I read. That’s why I also use their statistics features to see how many pages I’ve read in a year. For 2020 my goal is to read 50 books totaling over 11,000 pages.

Education

It’s time to learn

I’ve mentioned before some of the CreativeLive classes I’ve watched. I really enjoy these classes and I think I’ve learned quite a bit from them. Granted, it’s easy to put more time into watching the classes than stepping back and implementing what I’ve learned, so there’s always room for improvement here. But I haven’t watched as many this past year as I’d have liked. So, as with books, I’d like to watch at least 1 class every two months, and I’d like to put some effort into implementing some of what I learn.

Visit a museum

A hallway in the West wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

I haven’t been to a museum in some time, and I miss that. I live not that far from Washington, DC, which is home to an amazing array of museums of every kind, many of which are free to the public. I’d like to make an effort to get to at least one of these museums this year. They can be a great source of inspiration, seeing the artwork created around the globe throughout history, learning more about a period of history and about the people of that time.

Relax

Relaxing amongst the cherry blossoms

I don’t want to let a list of written goals turn into a stressful burden. There seems little point in many of these goals if they make me miserable. I want to use them to grow, to improve my photography and myself, and to find more joy and fulfillment in life. Part of that will require making time to slow down, relax, and contemplate. This may be the most important of all the goals.

So those are some of my goals for 2020. Some may be easier to achieve than others. And I may create new goals and drop old ones as the year progresses. But at least this gives me a place to start, a set of initial goals to focus on, and something to look back on to measure my progress.

Have you thought about your goals for the year? How formal is your goal making process?

Fundamentals of Photography with John Greengo /  by Todd Henson

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This is at no extra cost to you.

Fundamentals of Photography with John Greengo. Image credit: CreativeLive

Fundamentals of Photography with John Greengo. Image credit: CreativeLive

Are you new to photography? Interested in learning how to master your new camera and use it to begin creating beautiful images? Or perhaps you already know a bit about photography and would like a refresher to reinforce various topics? If so, check out CreativeLive’s class, Fundamentals of Photography, taught by John Greengo.

For many years John Greengo has taught his Fundamentals of Photography class, often adding or updating content, especially if anything new has happened in the world of photography. I’ve purchased two versions of this class in the past (in 2010 and 2012), and still go back to the lessons from time to time. John is a great teacher and he creates amazing visuals that help explain and reinforce the topics he teaches. (The visuals and examples in this post are my own.)

Selection of SLR lenses

In the class, John covers a wide range of topics. He talks about the different types of cameras out there today and how each work. He explains each part of a camera system, including the digital sensor and the differences between sensors, and camera lenses in their different forms. He explains how light works and how the camera captures it.

John teaches about exposure, and how it is affected by choices of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. He explains each of these topics with visuals that really help you grasp the concepts. Examples of this are how to use aperture to get a shallow depth of field or a large depth of field. He talks about how shutter speed will affect the look of your image, allowing you to freeze the action or create motion blur to show the action. He explains ISO and how it controls how sensitive the sensor is to light.

Example: Aperture and Depth of Field

The images of the lens below show the actual, physical, opening of the aperture at 4 different f-stops: f/1.4, f/4, f/8, and f/16. For this particular lens, a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens, the largest opening possible is f/1.4 and the smallest opening possible is f/16. Click on the arrows on either side of the image to display to the next image.

The images of the frogs below show the depth of field for each of the apertures above. The depth of field is the area most in focus. In each image I focused on the eyes of the middle frog.

Notice at f/1.4 there is very little depth of field, meaning there is a lot of the image that is out of focus. Notice how at f/4, then f/8, and finally f/16, that more and more of the image is in focus.

Look at the images of the lens above again. Notice that f/1.4 is the largest opening and created the least depth of field (had the least in focus). Notice that f/16 is the smallest opening and created the largest depth of field (had the most in focus).

Example: Focal Length and Perspective

The images below were created at 2 different focal lengths. I attempted to keep the compositions as close as possible.

The first image was created using a wide angle lens at a focal length of 16mm. The front of the lens is very close to the foreground frog. Notice how large the foreground frog is in relation to the background frog. Notice how far away the background frog looks. Short focal length lenses (wide angle lenses) can stretch out the landscape, making objects in the foreground appear larger and making objects in the background appear smaller.

The second image was created using a telephoto lens at a focal length of 200mm. Notice how much larger the background frog is in relation to the foreground frog. Notice how much closer the background frog seems than in the wide angle image. This is called compression. Longer focal length lenses (telephoto lenses) compress the foreground and background, bringing the background objects closer to the foreground.

These images are an example of why it can still be very useful to move back and forth in a scene and not just rely on zooming your lens to fit the scene to the lens. Instead, visualize how you'd like the image to look.

Do you want to emphasize the foreground and minimize the background? Then use a wide angle lens and get close to the foreground object.

Do you want to emphasize the background, making it seem very large? Then use a telephoto lens. You can then move closer or further from the foreground object depending on how large you what that to be in the frame.

In addition to the more technical topics, John also talks about composition and design, about how to create pleasing images, how to add drama and evoke emotion in the viewer. He has had a long and successful career in photography, and has worked with other well known photographers, such as Art Wolfe. John is very good at taking what he’s learned and passing that on to his students through the videos and visuals.

Fundamentals of Photography is a long class full of content. It is first broadcast live over several days, usually close to 5 or 6 hours a day. One of the nice things about purchasing the class is being able to watch it later at your own pace. You can take one topic at a time, watch the videos, experiment with your camera, really understand the topic. Then move on to the next topic.

If you’re new to CreativeLive, check them out. They are an online education company that broadcasts classes on a whole range of topics. The classes are free to watch during the live broadcast and from time to time when they rebroadcast the class. They are always broadcasting something. If you like the class you can purchase it, letting you stream the class anytime, and also letting you download the videos and other content to your computer to watch offline anytime you want. Some classes have extra content only available when you purchase. I have purchased dozens of classes over the years, and likely will continue to. CreativeLive offers a fantastic platform for learning. Their topics cover not just photography & video, but also art & design, music & audio, craft & maker, and money & life.