Greetings reader,
Few things in life are guaranteed but, barring some sort of catastrophic event, the start of a new calendar year is one of them. For the last few years, I’ve had a similar cycle. Order a calendar with my work from that year, wait for it to arrive, open it, feel proud of how many solid images I took in a single calendar year, hang it up, get a year older, repeat. I always make a note of ordering two, an A3 for my house, and a smaller one for my desk at work.
Having the calendars are helpful for a number of reasons. The first is that it acts as a sort of “year in review”. Any time I look at the images I’ve taken over the last year, I can’t believe some of them were taken that year. Because of my rather busy schedule, a picture I took in January of 2019, feels like a memory from 2017 or 2018. My calendar at work serves a few functions, first and foremost, as a way to add personalty to my otherwise neutral work-space. The next is as a conversation tool. Often when people see my calendars, they just assume it a calendar of images by “some pro”, so when they find out I took them, it often leads to a fun discussion. On occasion, this has lead to lengthy discussions with people curious to know about the art of photography. They’re always shocked when they see how much time and technical knowledge is required, but I have helped a number of people get into photography. The final purpose, is as a sort of marketing tool. I haven’t made any sales based on my calendar, but I have gotten more people thinking about my work, and visiting my website, which is better than nothing.
However, as the years have gone on, a new cycle has begun, and it’s been one of the more beneficial things for my confidence. For the past two years, I’ve opened my new calendar and thought to myself, “wow, this is infinitely better than last year”. Every time I go back and look at my calendars from years previous, I feel a sort shock. I sometimes have hard time believing which pictures were good enough to make the calendar just a few years ago. It’s a huge boost of confidence to have physical, comparable proof that your work is getting better. This year, the cycle continued, but with the added realization that I was able to improve my work, while working full time, and helping out with our daughter. Even after switching up my focus from landscapes to abstract architecture, I was still able to find 12 solid landscape images for my calendar, 11 of which were taken this year.
I often think “if I only had more time…” when it comes to improving my work or getting “keepers”. However this year’s calendar was proof that while my opportunities may have gone down in number, my images have gone up in quality. Things are only going to get more busy for me in 2020, as my wife goes back to work, and our daughter starts school, but it’s not the end of the world. I may have to reduce my number of photography trips per year, but I can manage. My 2020 calendar has proved to me that even if I only get out once or twice a month, I can still take some stunning images, if I put in the work.
If you’re into photography, I strongly recommend considering making a calendar of you own, and challenging yourself to make a better one the following year.
Some of the images included in this year’s calendar are: