In 2023, I joined a local photography club. That gave me the opportunity to submit a photo into the local Holiday Gallery Show (everything was accepted). It was the first time I ever printed and showed a photo to the public and I have been shooting since around 2006. The response from others has been very positive. Because of that, I have a bit more confidence in my work and plan on submitting to more shows/compeitions. My goal is at least three in 2024. I don't know why three, but that is what I chose. Regarding focal length, I seemed to shoot a bit more with the 35mm focal length on my Nikon bodies. However, the 50mm on my M11 just seems to mesh perfectly for me. I also have a 35mm for the Leica, but the 50mm just seems to work better. Anyway, good luck on your resolutions.
I remember my first exhibition clearly, confidence gained from friends was extremely helpful to push me down this path. The internet is so filled with trolls, I hate to think of how many passionate photographers who never tried to make a career out of this because others ridiculed them.
@@AskMOTT, sometimes, however, amateur critics are too kind. They don't want to be the mean-spirited one. I think that attitude is not uncommon - which is probably good.
I am new to your channel. I have been following you for a couple of weeks now and I must say your content is inspiring. It helps me shoot more purposefully. To be honest, before I started following you, I had never seen your work before, wow I missed a lot! I am becoming a member and look forward to more of your content. Thank you
Hello Marten and welcome to our little community here. Comments like this truly fuel me to create more content as I love sharing my experience and hearing from you guys so thank you brother.
Too funny! I made the exact same resolution about a month ago. The APO-Summicron-SL 35mm is what generally lives on my SL2, but last month I got an APO-Summicron-SL 50mm with the idea that I was going to switch things up a little.
Put me down for a book, absolutely! I have several photo NY resolutions too... Shoot B&W Film exclusively for a year (personal stuff, not client stuff unfortunately), game up on my food photos, shoot something with intention every single day, and attempt to learn the basics of video and make one short film about Hong Kong and/or Shenzhen. That's surely enough :)
I didn't tell you the price yet, well, your word is your word and I'm doing an exclusive 1 image 1 book run for 1.3 million, dollars no dong (Vietnamese currency, I'm not being gross).
Earlier in the year I decided to have a clear out of lenses that I found I never used , 21, 75 and 90 plus some accessories , I've never really liked the 50mm but traded all the stuff for a 50mm summilux the plan was to shoot with it for a year ,but I kept going back to the 35 summicron From the new year I'm going back to just using the 50mm I've been looking through my pictures and I seem to take a lot of people sitting down on benches , so I'm going to set a project to see if I can expand on that Wishing you and your wife a very happy Christmas and new year 🎄🎉
Similar resolutions! Yet (!) the challenge for me, is how to balance commercial (💰) with personal (❤️🔥) work. I feel commercial takes priority, and keep pushing personal. 😢
Balance as a professional photographer is so hard and something I constantly struggle with and it's never going be perfect but the older I get the less for them the more for me.
Good video Justin, and worthy resolutions!! For me: Slow right down when working a scene, changing to Leica M cameras has helped but I need to take more time. Work harder on gaining access to remote groups here in the Philippines, theres heaps of fascinating people here in the Provinces, I just need to work more at gaining their confidence. Print and display more work and lastly also work on a couple of books, covering India, Vietnam and the Philippines, but just very small print runs through Blurb for myself and a few friends. Looking forward to getting my teeth into '24.
2024: To be braver and less concerned with safety. I will turn 56 in February, and this is my second year as a freelance journalist after a lifetime in secure, full time, editorial positions. The first year as a freelancer I worked myself almost to death in long term, but boring, assignments. Next year I will fly higher with more risk. Do more of the fun stuff and less bread and butter.
1, Grow my RU-vid Channel to 10,000 subs 2, Finally Finish my diploma of photography 3, Dive deeper into my personal street/urban photography 4, Leverage my commercial lifestyle photography and videography 5, Purchase the Panasonic S5 MKiix & 24 to 70
Love it Grant, as for the total number of Subscribers on RU-vid my advice would be to not worry about the total numbers and care about the engagement and such. I've found my audience isn't huge but they are high quality people interested in similar things and interested in my workshops and classes as well so a good fit makes more impact.
The 50mm may feel limiting at first, but its narrower angle of view creates "tighter" compositions. I think it makes one a more thoughtful photographer. More intentional. Hope you enjoy it! "If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough." ~ Robert Capa
I've spent most of the last year shooting monochrome in an attempt to focus more on light and composition... But your colors always inspire and I'm thinking I might purposefully avoid shooting black and white in 2024. Maybe, still got a few weeks to think on it
@@AskMOTT yeah it's stunning! I live in Northeast Ohio, and it's grey and rainy most of the year so not always a ton of beautiful colors... All the more reason to make it happen though!
Welcome to our little community Jerzy, glad to have you here. What is your genre and what do you shoot with? I just like to know the audience a bit, helps me guide my content in some ways.
Justin - Loving everything you post and your personal style. Dumb question but how do you sign up for your community? I don’t see any obvious link on your YT channel.
@@AskMOTT no worries. I signed up using the browser version. Google disables that on the iPhone so they don’t have to pay Apple’s 30% tax on the transaction.
Andre Kertesz has a small book of his "best" photographs - probably chosen by someone else. If you were going to choose 100 of your "best" photographs, how would you begin to do that? Would you have someone else, someone "knowledgeable" choose the 100, or would you do the choosing? If you've started such a book, what'll it be called, 'Mott on Mott'? ;-)
Great question, what I'd do is I'd go through my entire archive with a theme in mind and I'd sift through assignment by assignment picking out the best. Then I'd sift again by redundancy in compositions, subjects, and place. Then once I had it narrowed down I'd probably hire an editor that I trust to help me do one final look at everything, edit, edit, edit.
@@AskMOTT , thank you very much for that very thoughtful, very practica/usefull answer. I don't think that I have many friends that I would trust to choose a "best" photo from MY collection. I'm sure that you do.