Now is the prefect time to think about and plan for the upcoming year and I was going to put together my list of ideas but before I could put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) I read the guest blog post from Rick Sammon "Getting Ready for 2012 – Or 12 New Year’s Resolutions for Photographers" which is full of great ideas for not just making your photography better in the coming year, but making your life better as well.
All of his suggestions are outstanding, but the two I liked the most were "Think Free”, which involves making other peoples lives better by giving part of yourself. The other was a book from Dr. Wayne Dyer. I have been a huge fan of Dr. Dyer and have (about) 12 of his books in audio form and start every year by re-listening to all of them in an effort to better focus my life.
You can get a "Best of" 4 CD collection of Wayne Dyer for just $16 and I would highly recommend it.
Rick also suggest embracing technology and I think that nothing is more helpful (technologically speaking) than the iPad, and Terry White has put together his list of the top 100 Apps of 2011 and there are plenty of Apps on there for photographers.
These are some of the best free Apps that made my "best of" list in 2011:
Strobox - a lighting diagram creator that will serve as a setup reminder of your photo-shoots and it allows you to share your setups with others. It generates PNG file that you can share with anyone as easily as sending an email.
Pocket Light Meter - I think its name pretty much says it all.
Adobe Photoshop Express - a phenomenally powerful editing tool.
Soft Box Color - will allow you to turn you iPad into a soft box.
Pack The Bag - this will help you manage all your gear, create custom packing lists, and make sure everything you need for a location shoot will be there.
Frame Up - waaaaay cool. Not only will it allow you to show your clients what their images will look like on the wall, you can take a shot of the room they will hang in and use it as the background, so your client will see their images hanging in their house. An outstanding sales tool.
Lastly, not every photographer has the luxury of having a studio, if you have ever thought about setting up a home studio then you will want to sign up for (another) free seminar from the good folks at CreativeLIVE "Setting Up a Home Studio" is scheduled for Tuesday January 10th. You can sign up here, but if you can't make it not to worry, they are offering the one day course for download for just $29, but you will need to pre-order otherwise it will be $39.
I have purchased 4 of the CreativeLIVE courses and have loved every single one of them.
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