The Year That Was 2022

Updated: Jan 23, 2023

It's time to reflect on the year that was 2022. Did I make progress with my photography? Were there any lessons learned that I could take into the new year? Did I make New Year's resolutions for my photographic journey in 2023? Let's find out.

Going Places

The year 2022 marked the end of covid restrictions, at least in Australia. It allowed us to venture out again and do the unthinkable: going on a holiday trip. Seriously, I had to get used to the idea of traveling again. The country opening up is reflected in my photo count: I took at least 25% more pictures in 2022 than during each of the covid years. But it's not just the volume that counts, it's also the diversity in places and subjects that I took photos of.

While we haven't traveled overseas yet, my wife and I spent some quality time outside the Greater Sydney area. We watched an airshow in Temora, visited Canberra multiple times, took a holiday to Port Macquarie, and made many day trips. It was absolutely wonderful to be out and about again. Of course, I took my camera everywhere we went, and it was good to take pictures of something else than our backyard, pets, and the dishes we made. 2022 felt very refreshing!

Photography Website

Something that has been on my to do list for many, many years was creating my own photography website and blog. It finally came to fruition in 2022. I spent time researching a variety of tools for creating a website and eventually settled on Wix. There are obviously many other capable tools out there, but Wix felt intuitive to use, and offered everything I was looking for in a website and content creation tool. Wix is providing me with a lot of flexibility for the design of my website, has great functionality for managing blog post, good options for showcasing my photos, and much more.

Before I started creating my website, I made a small project plan for myself. Apart from researching website creation tools, my plan covered the artistic design of my website, the navigation and menu structure, writing the About and My Gear pages, generating ideas for my initial blog posts, creating a logo, obtaining a domain name, and of course sourcing and curating the photos that make up my Portfolio. It has been a highly rewarding experience.

By breaking up a relatively large project into bite-sized tasks, I felt I was making progress whenever I found a couple of hours to spend on my website.

Camera Upgrade

As covered in my Gear Acquisition Syndrome blog post, the end of 2022 was also marked by a camera upgrade. I replaced my trusted and much-loved Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with the OM SYSTEM OM-1. Did this upgrade bring what I anticipated? Largely yes. I love the much-improved electronic viewfinder, the AF subject tracking, the 'My Menu' feature, and a bunch of other improvements. My expectations for how noise is managed were perhaps a bit too high (see my Pixel Peeping Noise blog post), but I have to admit it's still an improvement compared to the E-M1 Mark II. And on the positive side, I ended up experimenting with, and eventually buying DxO PureRAW. I'm extremely impressed with how DxO is capable of eliminating the noise in my photos and I no longer worry about shooting with high ISO values. Not a bad outcome at all. All things considered, I am extremely happy with my camera upgrade, and I look forward to experimenting more with it in 2023.

Bird Photography

With my camera upgrade came a strong desire to explore a new genre of photography. A genre I haven't been exploring seriously in the past. A genre that pushes my boundaries, just like food photography did in the covid years. I picked bird photography. It felt natural to pick bird photography because the OM-1 is lauded for its capabilities in this area. The bird subject tracking works extremely well in combination with the Pro Capture mode that's capable of shooting up to 120 frames per second. Yes, that's a lot. It also helps that Micro Four Thirds lenses are smaller and lighter than their equivalent full frame big zoom lenses.

Similar to how I started my food photography journey, I spent countless hours watching YouTube videos and reviewing websites to pick up best practices for bird photography. I particularly liked watching the excellent videos from Steve Perry, Simon d'Entremont, Duane Paton, and Mike Lane. And let's not forget OM SYSTEM Ambassador Emilie Talpin. Their enthusiasm is infectious and it's pure joy watching these experts talk about bird and wildlife photography.

And of course, we're blessed with an abundance of beautiful birds in Australia. Rainbow lorikeets, yellow-tailed black cockatoos, galahs, sulphur-crested cockatoos, white-bellied sea eagles, pelicans, kookaburras, and many more species can all be found on my doorstep.

New Year's Resolutions for 2023

What's a new year without resolutions? Here are mine:

Continue to master bird photography. I have only scratched the surface of this genre and there is so much more to learn. I need much more practice, but it has been incredible fun and rewarding already. What's not to like about exploring nature and capturing shots of beautiful animals?
Take pictures more consciously. Remember my checklists blog? Well, I need to put that into practice. Too often I catch myself taking photos without thinking through what I'm trying to achieve, not carefully reviewing my camera settings or composition, not paying enough attention to the light or the multitude of other things that I end up ignoring in the spur of the moment. It's time to heed my own advice.
Continue to update my website. Building a website is one thing but keeping it 'alive' and interesting is something else. I have set myself the goal of writing at least one blog post per month and upload new photos on a regular basis as well.
Explore ways to drive traffic to my website. Other than asking a few friends to review my first attempt at a website, I have so far not promoted my website at all. I'm keen to start doing this in 2023 and see if the content resonates with a broader audience.
Have fun taking pictures. This is what it's all about. Let's not forget to have fun while taking pictures. Everything else is just a support act. The real star of the show is a camera in my hands and a subject waiting to be photographed. Bring on 2023!