2012 Photography Goals

I have a few new years resolutions for 2012 that I'd like to share with you all, regarding photography.

1 Learn to master shallow depth of field
      - I am constantly getting back from a shoot in the fields or park, loading my shots onto my laptop & finding that half my photos are out of focus. I'm always shooting at f/1.4 which is what I enjoy but I've reached a place where I've shot the same way for a number years that I'm getting lazy. So I'm just pointing the camera anywhere & not even bothering sometimes. I need to look more, focus more, take more time in getting the shots I want. I come home with 200 or so shots & most of the time 190 of them are unusable. I need to stop being so lazy in my routine & mix things up again.

2 Step away from shallow depth of field more often.
      - I know I've just said I'd like to master it more, but I also think I need to step away from the wide apertures & start shooting with apertures of say 5.6 or so. 1.4 is nice, it gives a lovely effect but I use it for EVERYTHING, & everything doesn't necessarily work with apertures that wide, hence the above goal of not getting much in focus. I need to stop using 1.4 all the time & I need to use my initiative more when it comes to aperture.

3 Get published
     - I got published a few times in 2011, but in 2012 I want to turn my attention to the big guys. I got published in a big magazine who gave me a two page spread much to my surprise, but I'd like to get published in a more professional magazine as the one I was in is more for the amateur photographers. I feel like I need to step away from the amateur side of things & enter into the professional world.

4 Be in an exhibition
     - I have an idea of an exhibition that I'd like to put on myself with work from all my friends. I know a lot of talented people & I think we'd all benefit from having our work featured in an exhibition in a nearby city. If that doesn't come to fruition then I'll look at other options but I think it's a nice idea.

5 Reach 1000 likes on Facebook
      - It's just something I'd like to do. I like the idea of people from other countries seeing my work & Facebook allows you to find out where people are liking your page from. It's amazing all the different countries that come up in my insights. 1000 likes just seems like an all-round nice number to reach. As I write this now, I'm currently on 882.

6 Continue photographing the subjects I want to
     - I am proud of the fact that I photograph the things I want to rather than the things I think I need to. By that I mean I photograph the things around me, the nature that is available to me on my own doorstep. I don't want to suddenly think that because the majority of people are photographing people, or weddings, or animals, that I should be doing that too.

7 Blog more
     - I want to share my work more online & blog about the experience. My photos hold lots of memories for me & I think it'd be nice to share those memories. I hope that there will be lots of nice memories in 2012.