I think I’ve become a much much better photographer through the process.  You clearly see a big change after April 9th when I took the class at the Chicago Photography Center. The other part of it was the constant practice and repetition of shooting and editing. I still have a long road to go in terms of skill and eye, but its been an amazing year of growth.

Some things I’ve learned:

1. Doing something every day is HARD, no matter what it is except necessary bodily functions. Its more of a time commitment than one would think.
2. It’s very difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas if you feel the need to have every day be a little bit different. There were days when I didn’t shoot anything all day and wanted to go to bed and ended up shooting stuff in the house. By the end of the year, I ran out stuff in the house. Also, I ended up doing accidental themes for days at a time because I couldn’t think of anything new.
3. There are days when things don’t work out or you just shot all crap…but if you are gonna stay on the daily mission, you post it.
4. I have a hard time asking people I don’t know if I can take their picture, or just taking a picture of unknown people. Hence, you got a lot of landscapes and buildings and whatnot.

Here’s links to 23 of my favorites through the year in no particular order:

• The Biltmore Hotel
• The Washington Monument at dusk
• Ding Dong, MMMkay
• The Chicago Skyline
• Swing!
• Y?
• Fall Colors
• Violin
• Waiting
• Wrigley and Trump
• Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge
• Reach
• The US Capitol
• Chicago Water Tower
• Pike Place Market
• North of the Border
• The bonus beer shot on Epcot from the boardwalk
• Beer
• Forest Gears
• What are you looking at?
• Spring on Michigan Ave
• The strawberries from Wine
• Train approaching

Here’s the top 5 most visited photos on the blog:

1. Ice skating in flight – I’d like to reshoot this, I could do better now. Its very search engine friendly
2. Any skirt in a storm – The Marilyn statue is still a big deal, and this shot got around to a bunch of blogs
3. Food Porn: Matzo Softball – Search Engine friendly
4. Will you be my date for life? – I pointed out it was Sarah’s and my 10 year anniversary
5. Blue wall: Half-way done! – I think I talked this one up when I painted it. It’s just a nice blue

I really enjoy photography, so I’ll still continue to shoot. Hey, I gotta learn to use the backdrops more.  That said, the frequency of photo posts will be going down.  I might just hide for a month and take no pictures. I need a break.

The final shot of the year of shots… The concept didn’t come out as well as I intended, but I thought a final goodbye with some of the equipment would be a good way to end. (Also, I really need to iron the white backdrop.) Finis!

GGB time!

Sarah got me a swanky background kit, and this was my first attempt at using it along with the new 580EXii flash. I also have white and chroma key green backdrops. I’m pretty happy with how this came out.

2 more solo shots of the kids:

It took more shots then it should to get the LEDs glowing

I’m stuck at work the final week of the year, and now so are you

I was tired after Christmas and I thought this would be better than it is

Buzz had it with all the new toys moving in and is hitchhiking his way out of here. (I found Buzz laying on the ground as pictured, so I can only image he flopped down when I walked into the room.)

At Grandma and Grandpa’s

Except for the new name, a 104 year tradition in the Walnut Room in Chicago at Marshall Field’s..er..Macy’s

I really wanted to try to get a picture with snow, but that looks like it wasn’t in the cards. Also, the tree is blocking the HUGE stocking on the door.

My attempt to capture all the little bubbles in a freeze frame

I would have liked to get more light caught up in the head. Not sure how I would have got that done here.

I can’t say “Ho Ho Ho” without saying “Now I have a machine gun” in Alan Rickman’s voice

Took another shot of the capitol now that I can do better night shots. I did a longer exposure to get building detail besides the highly illuminated dome. I had the camera on top of “tourist” binocular, I’ll need to bring a tripod next time.

Touch me! NOT A TOUCH-SCREEN. Sarah and I saw this out shopping

I screwed up and didn’t shoot at all today. I needed the rest. Here’s a shot from yesterday I liked.

PBR, orange juice, and amaretto. Its about as nasty as you think it is.

We have two Christmas trees, so the O Tannenbaum series is 2 images large.

This is the “Science Fiction and Beer” theme tree. You’ll see lots of Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments on the tree, the Borg cube being the easiest to see. I need to get a Serenity or Moya up in this trizzle. A Viper or the Galactica wouldn’t be bad either.

Her birthday is on Monday, but I took her out (sans children) for dinner to Wildfire. Pomegranate martinis for the birthday girl.

Does it count if the tree is artificial?

Our tour of Chicago via our ornaments continues.

I love our new LED lights.

An ornament version of the famous Marshall Field’s Great Clock. One of our many cool Chicago ornaments.

I think for the next week or so, you’ll see lots of the Christmas Tree as its a new item in the house I haven’t over shot yet. Also because we have some cool ornaments, I’m a depth of field overuser, and I think I could turn some shots into Christmas decorations.

After traveling and being up way to late too many nights in a row, I was trying an experiment with ice that failed. But hey, purple ice… I couldn’t really get the texture I wanted out of it.

There’s a few people missing who couldn’t make it, but this is pretty representitive of the tribe. (I lined up the shot then used an IR trigger to shoot it.)

Bonus, check out our microcosm of this group:

We took a field trip to visit Brian and drink tasty beer.

Clay turkey by Dinah