2025 Big 3

Each January, like many others, I try to key in on several photography concepts for the upcoming year. This isn’t so much a contract I make for myself, but more like areas of focus, typically large enough that I can shift and maneuver when needed, but still fundamentally rooted in an area of growth for me. I am not, typically, a goal-oriented person, which is why I struggle at times with numerically centric endeavors like sales, marketing, and finance. The education sector was a very comfortable space for me for 30 years as I was able to create annual professional development goals that while somewhat based on metrics, were also guided by an overall belief that improvement is not always linear and may, at times, be imperfect or difficult to measure. I found over the years that evidence of success in education would often come years later when talking with a former student or working with a colleague I hired in my role as an administrator. Shorter term, easily measured goals were not always indicative of long-term success.

And so, with that backdrop, here are three practices which I hope to focus on for 2025, something I am calling the “Big 3”.

Consistency
I think there is something to be said for the Simon Sinek approach toward consistency. The idea that smaller, perhaps imperceptible practices that are consistent lead to self improvement more than the irregular, yet strongly intense practices that often look dramatic and life-changing, but most often are not.

You may ask yourself, what does consistency have to do with photography? On the surface, perhaps very little. But, as I think about consistency in relation to my photography I can make several connections.

For example, shooting consistently will help me improve my photography by being out in the field and putting to practice the techniques I am learning via YouTube, books, articles and conferences. Posting images to my social media accounts consistently may increase my following and improve my ability to connect with other, like minded photographers from whom I can learn. Creating YouTube videos weekly will help me improve my approach to film making and buoy my confidence for transparently sharing my thoughts and best practices. Writing in this space weekly (and articles for publication elsewhere) will not only help me become a stronger writer, but also help me organize my photography practices and support my improvement as a photographer.

Of the four I just outlined above, the first two are pretty consistent practices on my part already. I suppose I could shoot and post more, but I have increased bothover the past several years and I feel as though pouring more into each of those will result in just minimal gains overall. If anything, I think I should probably be more focused on when I shoot and when I post.

It is the last two items above in which I will strive to be more consistent: producing more video and writing more articles. Both will give me an opportunity to do two things: 1. cement my best practices as a landscape and wildlife photography and 2. help others do the same. Ultimately, my interest in photography is to not only help me improve my art, but to help others do the same. Thirty years in education taught me to cherish the opportunity to help and be of service to others, and consistently sharing my best photographic lessons will help me do more of that in 2025.

Make Connections
Connecting with both the natural world and the people who I come across in it needs to be a big part of my growth as a photographer in 2025. Connecting to nature and the animals found in it is the easy part for me. Walking alone in a national park or wildlife refuge is theraputic. Hearing sounds, seeing sights and feeling nature brush up against me has always been a part of who I am. When I look back at some of my most memorable moments in the field, they include feeling the winds off the coast of Oregon while photographing Haceta Head Lighthouse at sunset, hearing a male and female Eagle screech at other prior to copulation, and seeing beautiful rays of yellow, orange, and red dance across the sky along the coast of New England at sunrise while listening to the waves crash into, then recede from the rocky shore. The images I created on those days are only punctuated by the senses heightened while there. Connecting to nature is easy for me, so doing more of it isn’t so much a goal for 2025, more of a reminder that it’s what feeds my creative soul.

Connecting with people hasn’t been as natural for me. While I am very comfortable with my introverted disposition, I also fully recognize just how important building relationships with others is. As an educator I have always firmly believed that the most important work I did was to build relationships with others. People don’t learn from those whom they don’t feel connected to. And so, in that environment, as a teacher, I connect very easily.

But, otherwise, building a business, forming meaningful partnerships, or simply in tyring to build a network of other photographers, connecting with others has always been a bit of a challenge for me. Like most, I’m sure there is a bit of imposter syndrome, but truthfully there are times when connecting with others simply isn’t top of mind for me. As I think about my current photographic journey, both in my art and in my business, I do believe that being deliberate in my connections with others will be integral in helping me access new opportunities, be exposed to newer photographic techniques, and, in general, enrich my life with more good people to call my friend, colleague, and/or partner.

So, here’s to more connections in 2025.

Smaller Birds, Bigger Stories
Of the Big 3, this is the only one specifically focusing on a photographic practice or technique. While you can find more about this here, I find myself torn between two photography genres that I love, Landscape and Wild Bird photography, I see an opportunity to combine them both in something I am calling “Smaller Birds, Bigger Stories”. The general concept is simple, leave the bird smaller in the frame and use the balance of the space to tell a larger story not only about the bird, but also the habitat within which it lives. Inspired by Ray Hennessy’s work on this, I have found the idea of leaving space in the frame results in, for me, a much more pleasing image, one that scratches both my landscape and wildlife itch, but also one that can be quite challenging.

As Ray, says, “What I have learned over the years is that creating an image with a small subject in the frame in which the subject still stands out and the overall scene is pleasing is no easy task.” In my early years of bird photography in particular, I strove to get closer, get more details, and “fill the frame” with my subject. Now, I look to step back and broaden my definition of subject beyond that of just the birds, but now the bird within its environment.

I’ve written much more about the topic in this article if you are interested in learning more.