End of the year tally - how did you do?

[MarianMurdoch]

How successful was this past year for you? What did you accomplish? If you are involved in sales, how was it for you this year compared to the prior year?

For me, this was a great year, mostly because I was finally pain free after having been put on chemo, and was able to create a greater body of work than ever before.

I sold 127 prints which is up from the 117 from the prior year. I stopped selling greeting cards, as they were becoming too costly to produce.

I also became more proficient at visually determining what settings I needed to use, instead of relying on mechanical means. Now, I can look at a scene and pretty much know my starting point.

As for projects, I started one called Daily Hands, in which I am trying to show a photo of hands every day. It's already causing me to think outside the box. dailyhands.blogspot.com My favorite, thus far, is Jan 3rd's entry.

Next! ;D

[Saknika]

Chemo!? Yikes! I'm glad to hear things are finally looking up for you Marian! I pray that things stay that way for you as well.

I'm checking out that project though! Sounds like a lot of fun!

I didn't set any goals this past year.

But, I think I have a rough idea of some good things!

I sent my first mass-marketing out this year. And while it didn't yield anything, it gave me an idea of how much work and time is going to have to go into drumming up business. Experience is a great thing!

I re-did my entire website and made it more organized, and personally, I think far more pretty too. You can see it here: www.photo-phantasy.com

I also started a photo blog! Here: photo-phantasy.blogspot.com (I know, so original...)

This year I also finally purchased a background stand and some better backdrops, so my equipment is growing. And my thing is, I won't purchase anything for photography (at least right now) unless I can do it with money I earned through photography.

I definitely grossed close to $500 this year. And I spent every damn penny on my business so the government can't have it!

My favourite things though, were starting two new projects after figuring out that I had an eye for fine art photos if I put my mind to it. So I'm working on Black and White flowers, which I'd like to create a small book out of, and origami still lifes.

The big deal this year was me getting a boyfriend though. Shocked the whole family since I was dead convinced that I liked girls. Nooooooope, I just like good personalities it turns out. No wonder I dated such homely chicks... Now if only they weren't total jerks, I might still be convinced today. xD But nah, my boyfriend is a wonderful person and we are able to help each other out immensely, so I'm happy. No labels here.

[ŋєт™]

I've just grown so much as a photographer over the last year. Enough that it's really become one of my number one passions and something that I really want to do as a career. I haven't really ever sold anything I've shot yet, but this year I'm really looking into starting my own freelance business.

I have a website now for my work, but I decided I want to go a different route. joshengel.net is where it's going to be when my friend and I finish it and my blog is blog.joshengel.net .

This next year is going to be a big year for me I think.

[shp]

I was having a large problem with my camera, as it refused to come on for about four months prior to two weeks before Christmas. I was getting ready to send it to the manufacturer, but I decided to try a new battery I had been reading about on the Kodak website. Next thing I know, it's working as if there had never been anything wrong with it.

Before that, my nephew would volunteer to help me by posing, and I also had my young friends helping me out. I had also bought a few of those flash cameras from Wal-Mart just for fun. Of course I hated having to pay extra just to have the film developed...

But I'm hoping that this year will be better, now that I've learned about stock photography, and that my camera is working. I've just recently started "studying" photography, so looking forward to improving and hopefully working with Maria McGinley and Sally Mann.