2024 is OVER and in the history books.

Time to put my 2025 goals down in print, or at least in words on this website. If for nothing else its a good plan to start with, and if things change in my life or other opportunities arise, I can adjust accordingly. I’ve found the key for me is to just have a plan. Without a plan, I’m really bad at just drifting along, or doing the same-old same-old.

WEBSITE

Time for a revamp of this website in 2025. I tried to get a jumpstart on that during the Holidays, but the new Squarespace AI Page Builder feature doesn’t come up for me. I think it may be due to having an older Squarespace account that’s very template-driven. I’ll be sending them an email this month to try to get that feature working for me to do some new lay-out and design. I’ve already cycled thru the templates that they offer that I like, so I need to go “off the reservation” for the next update. Also, part of my update will be to load some of my newer work on the site in the “Prints for Sale” section. I haven’t added anything in over a year, and I’ve certainly been busy creating new work. Stay tuned!

THEATER/MUSICAL WORK

2025 has the possibility of being very busy for me with musicals and theater productions. In the last month of 2024 I had two additional theater organizations reach out to me to shoot events. While I couldn’t shoot for them in December due to prior commitments, discussions were had to set some time aside in January 2025 to discuss their needs for the following year and potentially pick them up as clients. This is exciting news for me, because I love shooting musicals and have been wanting to expand my paying clientele base for a few years now. More to come!

BLOG POSTS

My Konica C35 Review was the most-viewed post on my site in 2024, which was a bit of a surprise.

I hit my goal of averaging 3 posts per month in 2024, and I plan on sustaining that thru 2025. I’ve already got my first month of Frugal Film Project shots done for January, and a blogpost ready and waiting to go for that. So I’m off to a good start!

Look for a few more gear reviews this year, as I am currently doing some long-term testing on the Malefic 617 panoramic camera, and the all-new Rollei 35AF point and shoot. My site analytics show, to no surprise, that my gear review blogposts get the most hits and views.

Also, I’m going to include a few photography book reviews for 2025. I just recently organized my den and collected all of my photography books into a large bookcase so that they are easily accessible and organized. When I used to belong to a local photography group, I would write the occasional book review and those always got a lot of hits on the group page. Now that the group is gone, I may pull out a few of those reviews and dust them off to put here, along with some new reviews. I find a lot of inspiration in sitting down with a photo book, and hope to pass some of that along to others here.

BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY

I’m planning on a few bird photography trips this year, including once again the early May pilgrimage to Magee Marsh for the Biggest Week in American Birding. Look for more posts and images on that this year!

My most exciting bird encounter for 2024 was this female Snowy Owl at Indian Lake in November.

OCVN VOLUNTEERING

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I have been an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OCVN) since 2020. I’ve led birding walks, and have done many other hours of volunteering and training to maintain my certification every year. My goal this year to is to make my hourly commitment be almost all volunteering versus a volunteering and training mix. That means leading some more birding walks with the local wetlands organization, and doing some other volunteering like trail/site work. This all in addition to the Great Backyard Bird Count, The Sandhill Crane Count, and the Christmas Bird Count that I did last year and plan on repeating this year.

PHOTO SHOWS AND EXHIBITS

This is one aspect that I will be pulling back on for 2025. I was in 7 shows last year including a focused show at Sinclair College’s Triangle Gallery with 12 large pieces on display. 7 shows is a lot of work, and took up a lot of my time this year with printing, prep, drop-offs/pick-ups, and openings. Also, most of my print sales tend to be online thru my site, which means if I have something physical left over from a show, I’m then left with the conundrum of what to do with it afterwards. I’ve run out of storage room in my house. I need to take a break this year. I’l continue to apply for solo shows with my “Light at the Edge” series of images and if something arises I’ll certainly jump on that!

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That’s about it for my major directions for 2025. I do plan on some minor goals like shooting more panoramic images, continuing to focus on perfecting my bird photography, and working my way through my huge stock of 120 and 35mm film. I’d also like to sell a few more cameras in 2025, and after the website re-vamp I may throw some of them on my websire as well as eBay.

What goals and plans do you have for 2025? Please feel free to comment below.

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great NEW YEAR!

Jeremy