For all of December I like to do these personal episode where I talk about things I learned throughout the year or things I think could help you in the new year and as usual I had a blast. But this is the last episode of 2018 so next week we will be back to our regularly scheduled interviews. Which I’m sure is welcome news to those sick of listening to my voice. The end of the year is a perfect time to reflect on the past year and look to the future. Last year I made a list of 5 way to jump start your photography in 2018. And although I called it a jumpstart, I felt like the tips were more foundational. Last year I suggested to Share your photos Experiment more Be the dumbest person in the room Don’t buy any new gear And print your photos. all this last year I think I did really well with this list. Share your photos The idea here is that you’re a photographer, you should be taking and sharing photos. But I think I took less personal photos this year than most. I started using an app called 1 second a day which is short 1 second video clips which you can compile into a month long chunks and then year long videos too. I love it. But I realized too late that I really don’t have to put in a ton of effort making the videos great. I use it to document my kids and just hearing their voices from a year ago has been a crazy progression. I don’t have to worry too much about lighting and composition and making it an event to get the 1 second because then its kinda fake. I should spend that energy in 2019 to create more family photos. Experiment more I did do a lot of experimenting this year. From video with a GoPro on top of my camera, to trying out new lighting techniques, and even with the core of my business. In this area I really excelled this year and will not be stopping in 2019 Be the dumbest person in the room At the beginning of the year I was in a mastermind group with some other photographer and it was doing great things for my business and just having some support. It fell apart and through the chaos of the summer just kept myself busy. Once weddings slowed down I was asked to join a 1 day in person mastermind with business owners of other fields (fitness, automotive, real estate, copy editing) and I even though they didn’t have any knowledge of photography the had practical tips for my problems and I felt like I had some helpful tips for their problems. It really ignited an excitement in me and I will be putting more value to that in 2019. Don’t buy any new gear I aced this. I didn’t buy any new gear in 2019 except for like batteries or expendables. Pens, memory cards, I had to replace a flash. But no new cameras (well except a GoPro that I bought for our trip to Iceland which was so worth it). I really fell like I became much better acquainted with the abilities of my camera and lenses by being forced to stick with them. I wanted to upgrade to an xt3 but I didn’t. I wanted to get a 70-200 but I didn’t. I made what I had, work. My bank account thanked me too as I was able to bring home more money because of it. Print your photos I printed more photos. Thanks to Brian Caporici I made same day albums a big thing this year at weddings and every one of my couples went crazy for them. They were all SHOCKED that I was able to create one while at their wedding. These albums are nothing fancy either. They are instant prints glued onto black card stock and put in a $5 book from hobby lobby. The point being, that having something physical made their wedding day feel real. That’s what prints do. We had family photos taken at the beginning of the year and I had those photos framed and I gave them to my wife for Mother’s Day. I did the same thing with family photos for my mom for the holidays. Having something to hold on to, makes it so much more than just pretty.   So I sat down and started thinking about how to become a better photographer in 2019. I thought about what worked and what didn’t work for 2018 and ultimately w