Happy New Year
My top 9 images/videos of 2023 from Instagram. Variety!
Welcome to 2024! Now that our test week is out of the way, how are you planning to tackle the new year? Any resolutions in place?
I hesitate to make resolutions because they just seem like failure waiting to happen. Instead, since 2014 or so, I’ve chosen a word to guide me through the year — a quality I want to embody rather than a list of things I need to do — based on Christine Kane’s writing on Do, Have, Be vs. Be, Do, Have mentality. It’s an approach that has you work from the inside-out rather than outside-in to effect real change in your life. Check out her podcast/transcript on the subject; it’s good stuff.
Last year, my word was JOY, and I found it in so many places when I took the time to look around and be a joyful person. In my personal life, I made new friends and said yes to more social events. In business, I got out of my comfort zone by shooting more lifestyle, started experimenting with infrared photography, took a deeper dive into product photography, and started studying videography and stop motion animation in-depth. And I took on a few fulfilling personal projects. It refreshed and recharged me, and helped me to remember why I fell in love with photography in the first place.
2023 was my best financial year yet (with fewer clients, even!), so I’ve decided that this year’s word will be DISCIPLINE. It’s something I’ve always lacked to some degree. I can be very diligent about some things and always work hard to be the valedictorian of my photo shoots, but my marketing efforts are haphazard at best. My business goal this year is to triple last year’s income, and the only way I know how to even approach that goal is through applying discipline to my life, so let’s give it a shot!
One way I’m applying my word of the year is by creating at least one video per week. No guarantees they’ll all see the light of day, but it’ll be fun to look back a year from now to see how I’ve grown in this area. For accountability’s sake, here’s my first video of 2024:
At the end of every year, I like to review my business expenses to separate the wheat from the chaff. Repeat expenses can really creep up on you, and what seems like a small expenditure can easily compound over the course of a year, so I cancel any services I don’t find valuable. Here are some things I found useful and thought I’d share in case you find them useful, too. A handful of these are affiliate links, but I’m a huge fan of everything here and wholeheartedly recommend each one.
Gear
Insta360 X3 So much fun to take this guy out on hikes or trips to the lake. I haven’t found is as useful as I’d hoped for studio photography, but haven’t given up on the idea yet.
Another fun purchase was an old Nikon DSLR that had been converted for infrared photography. I bought mine from KEH and retroactively figured out what type of conversion it was on my own, but Kolari lets you choose the conversion in advance, or even send in an old camera body for them to convert. Again, it hasn’t been so useful for client work…yet.
PrismLensFX makes loads of fun filters for your camera lenses, which let you add some neat effects to your images in-camera.
Sometimes you just need the smallest little touch of light on a set. That’s where these lights come in handy. They’re small enough to hide behind another element and even come with tripods, gels and snoots to make them more versatile. I used them here to add a little light on the left side of the bottle.
If you’re looking for slightly larger lights, I just got a few of these little Aputure LEDs, and made this week’s lipstick video clip with them. I’m going to have a LOT of fun playing with these versatile little buggers.
If you’re doing stop motion, consider investing in software that’ll make your life easier. I resisted for so long, but Dragonframe is worth every cent.
Education
I’m never so happy as when I’m learning something new. 2023 was all about getting my feet wet in stop motion and videography, with the help of these courses, among others:
Austen Paul’s Product Video Course
Huddl Creative Club for stop motion
I own a couple of Abba Shapiro’s Premiere Pro courses at Creative Live, and they got me up and running pretty quickly. I still go back to them from time to time to brush up on things. They’re a few years old, but the foundation is solid.
Free Resources
Like I said, expenses can easily add up. But here are some free resources in the video arena that I’d happily pay for.
Studio Binder Sign up for their emails and get a weekly mailer with information on filmmaking. Plus, you can find a lot of free documents, templates and education at their website as well. And be prepared to lose days of your life on their YouTube channel.
Freesound Do you need the sound of a match striking? A droplet of water? A wind chime? Find it here for free, and upload your own clips.
Other good YouTube channels I live for:
Austen Paul - For general commercial videography and techniques.
Daniel Schiffer - More general commercial videography and techniques.
Gerald Undone - Great equipment reviews, and tech-y information.
Video Copilot for After Effects tutorials. I’m just getting started and AE is breaking my brain in new and fascinating ways, but this is the first place I go when I have a question.
Pond5 — OK, it’s not free, but this site allows you to pay individually for footage, music and effects rather than subscribe. Much more economical when you’re starting out.
Misc
If you’re looking for a CRM, you can’t go wrong with Táve. There are plenty of other CRMs out there, like 17Hats, Honeybook, Bloom, Sprout Studio and more. I’m always on the lookout for something that might be a little better than what I have, but for the price, Táve is a beast! The email and questionnaire automations alone make it worth my while. This affiliate link will get you a 60-day trial membership if you want to check it out.
Organization
This backdrop holder makes me giddy whenever I see it. If you’re like me and have a ridiculous number of vinyl backgrounds, this vertical blueprint storage is amazing. Easily one of the best things I purchased last year. Don’t forget the appropriately-sized clamps: I hung my backdrops vertically, and got the 36-inch clamps to accommodate my 3 x 4-foot backgrounds, and anything smaller.
I’ll be back next week with a less link-heavy post. Enjoy your week!
