20170107_Brownie Memories_013-Edit Hey Everybody!  The first of the year is a busy one for me, planning the upcoming year and setting goals, both photography and personal goals.  This year has been no exception.  I believe setting goals is one of the most important things you can do.  First of all, it puts a plan in motion.  Gets you looking forward or to something.  It gets the gears spinning in your head on what you want to do.  This year one of my goals, or maybe you could say a personal project, is going to visit all of the state parks in North Carolina where I live.  There are 34 official parks and 7 recreational areas.  I'm sticking with the parks for now.  Since most of my shooting is on the weekend, there are just so many weekends in a year.  But this project will do a few things.  It will get me out of the house both for photography and camping, which I love to do.  I have visited all of the parks before, but not in one year.  I even have an end-of-the-year photo in mind.  A collage of all the welcome signs of all the parks I have visited.  So that is my personal project for the year. Live Oak Pond

Another goal of mine is to do more printing.  To be honest that is always a goal of mine that always gets put aside.  I hope this year is an exception and I can print more and become a better printer.  I think that printing will keep your legacy alive long after you're gone.  If you're like me, you have thousands of images on your hard drive and probably less than half a percent of them printed.  After you're gone, those images on your hard drive will disappear, but printed images last a long time.  I just recently got all of my mother's photos from the past, and I have some from the 1800's that will be handed down to my children and theirs I hope.  So print more photos.

Another goal this year for me is not to buy so much camera gear.  I have a pretty good kit now and am happy with my gear.  We, and I mean me, always buy too much gear and are focused on gear more than we need to be.  If we spend less time thinking about the next best thing in gear and spend more time thinking about using the gear we have to the fullest, we will take better photos and concentrate more on what's in front of us instead of what's in our hands.  I've just done a blog of my camera gear for 2020 that you can check out. X Marks the Spot What I am going to concentrate on gear wise is my computers.  I currently have a 2015 iMac that I do most of my editing on and a 2017 MacBook Air that is my travel watch TV computer.  I have in the last week just updated both to the latest operating system Catalina and have upgraded both of the hard drives. On the MacBook that already had a Solid State Drive (SSD) in it I upgraded it to a faster and larger drive, from a 128gb drive to a 1TB drive.  This made the computer more snappy and works well in Lightroom CC and Luminar.  I also just upgraded my iMac from a 1TB hard drive (spinning drive) to a 1TB SSD drive which doubled the speed for this computer which is my main computer.  I did all the upgrades myself, and it has saved me from buying new machines.  My backup main computer is a 2011 MacBook Pro that I have kept pretty much up to date and snappy and which will run Lightroom Classic and full Photoshop with no problems if need be.

The next goal is to stay active in my local camera club.  I think being able to share and learn from others is a great way to advance you art as a photographer.  I believe that I have grown and have definitely gone to and seen places with my photography club that I wouldn't have done by myself.  Being able to try out new types of photography and see things from others' points of view has broadened my horizons and made me a better photographer.  So please, if you haven't already, join a photography club or go to a meet up and intermingle with others who have the same passion that you have about photography. Wormsloe Trees

Finally, one of my personal goals is to eat healthy and exercise more.  I started this last year and lost 30 pounds but have slipped lately and need to get back on the wagon.   The healthier you are the more places you can go and see.  Being healthy will make you a better photographer and a long-living one as well.  I'm not going to preach on this subject too much because I'm not the best example, but if you're like me, over 50, you've got to quit eating like you're 20.  Your body can't handle it.

So those are my goals for the year.  What are yours?  If you don't have some, sit down and make some.  Keep Shooting!