I am flying to Portland for a shoot as I write this end of the year blog. Outside the window it is blue sky above a gray mass of clouds that stretch the entire way from Phoenix to Seattle. Snow in the desert tomorrow. I will be downtown Portland having warm Brandy while watching it rain. The metaphor of being above the storm and not seeing what is happening on the ground is quite interesting. We approach the next year with the same sort of apprehension/excitement – we cannot see beyond the mist..

The shoot will be a lot of fun, but I am glad that I decided to come back early New Years Eve. I want to be with my family on that day.

I want to thank each and every one of you who came along this year on the blog. I hope you have been both entertained and enlightened. And I promise to continue to step up the level of content here. At least I will make every effort.

2010 was the year I wrote more, shot more, thought about quitting more, persevered more, and changed more than most recent years in memory. I changed up the workshop in 2010 and it was received well. It has been over a year that I have been in the new studio… just finished unpacking the stuff there. Workflow totally changed from 2009, and the changes coming in 2011 are pretty big… for me, anyway. Simplifying almost everything around me… from computers and systems to the physical space. More dress pants and ties this year, less jeans and t-shirts, and a tighter work schedule so there is time for more personal endeavors. And, I wrote a book in 2010. It is at the publishers now, Amherst Media. Awaiting rewrites and editing… argh.

The coming year is bringing some changes to both the blog and my business. The blog will see some what may be a dramatic change, but in reality is where I have been heading with it for a while. I want to focus more on the emerging photographer, the shooter who is starting up, getting out there and competing. We will be doing more articles directed toward that shooter.

We also will be doing some assignment work for those who want to break out into the business of professional commercial photography. I know there are many wedding photographers who follow this blog. While the information is not aimed at wedding photographers, I am sure there will be some wonderful overlap. It is photography and it is a business.

Starting this Monday, January 3, we will begin the assignments. They will continue for the year… 52 assignments, 52 examples of work that you may be commissioned to do as a photographer. I will make sure you know when the assignment will need models or subjects to photograph, and there will be time for you to get thing together.

The assignments will range from simple to complex. We will have components of business included in all the assignments including responding to an RFP, bidding, billing, negotiating, expenses and delivery. Not every assignment will go that deep, but there will be elements in each assignment.

Half of this work will be free, and half will be a premium paid service. We are working on the backend of this structure now, so January will be free for all. We will start the paid service in February. It will not be expensive, probably the cost of a couple o’ cups of coffee, but it is necessary. For many reasons we will discuss this year.

Fridays will be shoot posts. We will be doing assignments for those who want to learn more about lighting and photography and the excitement of creating an image. We will feature video and tutorial work, as well as some interaction with me and some guests.

Wednesdays may be regular blog post days with topics that interest me, and hopefully, my readers.

I will be turning toward my Posterous Blog for more daily posts, and will make sure they are linked from the LE site as well.

On another front, my Design / Ad Agency is really taking off, so there will be some long and fun days there. Thanks to my partner, Robin Bramman, we are looking at a terrific Q1 and stretching all the way into Q2. Robin is a personal brand and digital marketing expert as well as a fantastic project management guru. She keeps me focused… heh.

The workshops are going to be a bit fewer than last year. I love doing them, but two per month is what I am shooting for this year. They are changing as well, and check out Learn to Light later in January for an introduction to the new workshop.

More after the jump…

Upcoming workshops are Phoenix, San Diego, Austin, and…… If you are looking for a workshop that has little down time, no big egos, a real focus on learning and the right mix of shooting/reviewing/demonstration, check out the Lighting Essentials Workshops.

Stuff Coming Up:

Selina Maitreya is putting on one heck of an event called “Clarion Call” – a teleseminar for commercial photographers. Featuring discussions with insiders, editors, designers, consultants, art buyers, reps, writers and more, Clarion Call will prove to be a seminal point for a lot of you out there. Imagine what it would cost to spend an hour with Heather Morton, or Rob Haggard, or Rosh Sillars… listening to them talk to you about the current business of commercial photography. You would have to travel to Detroit to Colorado to Toronto to get their wisdom and experience. And that is just 3 of the 14 industry insiders who have generously volunteered to share their view, ideas and suggestions with you.

And it is free. No charge for the teleseminar. You can sign up here:

Why is it free? I will let Selina tell you in her own words next Wednesday. She and I spoke for nearly an hour this week, and I will be sharing it with you next week. I will say that Selina, and all the people you will hear, love this business. And they want you to succeed. A rising tide lifts all boats… and keeping you successful helps the entire industry. (Full disclosure: I will be discussing website design and strategies at Clarion Call.)

Audio/Visual Chats:

I will be continuing the weekly call in chats, and we will have things to look at while we talk. Combining the power of Slideshare and the broadcasting of Vokle, we can really have a fun weekly get together.

OK… I have a few end of year list-like things to expound on: No top ten of anything, but some stuff that I have enjoyed this year and want to share… in no particular order.

Cool Gear:

1. Lumo Pro stuff. I have the strobes, stands, booms, and modifiers for my speedlights and they rock. Talk about bang for the buck. The boom arm is a lifesaver for me. And it all fits so nicely into my…
2. Standbagger light stand carry cases. I have four of them now. Love them. Recommend them. Cannot understand why you don’t have one yet. Steve at Standbagger is a perfectionist and the bags are a tremendous value.
3. Small video cameras: I love them. I have too many of them. But… they rock. I currently have a Vado, Flip and Kodak zi8 which takes an external microphone. If you aren’t carrying a pocket video camera, you should. Great for location scouting, taking notes, recording shoot information… all kinds of things.
4. C-Stands. I love them. I want more of them.
5. My Smart Phone (device). These things have changed how I do what I do more than nearly any other single thing. I use an Android. You may use an iPhone or a Microsoft phone, but the end result is that we have a whole suite of tools at our fingertips. I find new uses for my devices daily.
6. iPad. I love it. It has given me a lighter load for meetings. I generally take it instead of a laptop now. Instant on means I can check what I need to check without wasting time ‘booting up’. Mail, web, social media, books, music, pictures… I will never be without one again. It is that powerful, and that much of a game changer for me.

Books: These are not necessarily new releases, but books that I have spent some time with this year.

Four Hour Work Week: Tim Ferris
Portfolios That Sell: Selina Maitreya
Cyclops: Albert Watson
Stravinsky In Pictures and Documents: Vera Stravinsky
Jeanloup Sieff 40 Years of Photography: Jeanloupe Sieff
Peter Lindbergh: Pictures of Women
Crush It: Gary Vaynerchuk
Daybooks of Edward Weston: Edward Weston
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Robert M. Persig (I re-read it every 4 or 5 years.)
Effortless Mastery: Kenny Werner

Music: The stuff I am listening to.
(BTW, you know photography is like jazz, right? Seriously… I will tell you in a post coming up soon why I think photography IS jazz.)

I have been on a bit of a nostalgia trip lately. My Pandora Channel (John Coltrane Radio) is simply the best music channel I have ever listened to – cause I choose the music. The music is 100% jazz. I have been adding some softer (still Jazz) stuff to the mix. Older artists, and stuff from my youth… Don Ellis, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker.

Lately on the iPod the music that has been with me ranges from the soundtrack to “What Women Want” to Keith Jarrett solo piano collections to Cannonball Adderly’s great stuff from the 70s. I also went to some softer stuff, the fun stuff we listened to while the fusion thing was going on. Chuck Mangione, John Klemmer, Tom Scott, the Brecker Brothers and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin with the great Billy Cobham. I don’t really know what that attraction was other than the music seemed so familiar to me and… comforting. I mixed it up with my Archie Shepp, McCoy Tyner, Courtney Pine and others. And at the core is Coltrane. Always Coltrane. Forever Coltrane.

Same thing with my ‘classical’ stuff. The Bartok Quartets, Hindemith chamber music and orchestral works of Barber shared time with Webern and Lutoslewski and Stravinsky. And at the core, Eliot Carter. Always Carter. Forever Carter.

Music is so very important to me. I have memories that are totally based on music. My choices are not the ones that most choose, and I have wondered from the beginning why I can feel so attached to music that is so difficult to listen to for most. I have no answer. I have no clue.

Next year will either be more Miles and Evans or a deeper excursion into the free form stuff from the 70’s and 80’s.

Sites I visit often:
A Photo Editor
Conscientious
Permission to Suck
The Imagist
Visual Science Lab
Selina Maitreya
Jasmine DeFoore
Elizabeth Avedon
Cheesy Cam
Creativity_Unbound
Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
aworks :: “new” american classical music
Gary Vaynerchuk
Write to Done
ProBlogger
Men With Pens
Seth Godin
TechCrunch
Lifehacker
Signal to Noise
Smashing Magazine

They are my mainstays, but there are a couple of dozen others that are on my reader as well. I am looking at a lot more art photographers these days as well. More of that in the year to come.

The digital world:
1. Netvibes – My home page. If you aren’t using something like Netvibes you are wasting time.
2. Evernote. Better than bookmarks. I use it daily.
3. DropBox. This thing is more than an online storage unit, it is integral to how I work. Across all my devices… laptops, desktops, iPhone, Android, iPad… My work when I need it, where ever I am.
4. Skype. Incredible. I use it all the time. Video chatting and recording is more than fun, it is business.
5. Audacity. I am putting my vinyl collection onto CD. And this little software rocks.
6. Analytics: Information.
7. Posterous and Tumblr… damn these are fun little blogging platforms. From simple image posts to full blown blogs, both are fabuluous.
8. Easy Release: I have it on my iPhone, Android and iPad. I am never without a release form now. And I have custom ones for custom situations.
9. Pandora: I love you guys.
10. FaceBook: I finally figured it out… and having a blast with LE there. FB is where we will be doing more and more as an ancillary to LE. Not sure that Flickr has the appeal it had. So much loss of control and craziness there… we’ll see.

There are lots more things I wish I could share with you all, but it is time to get ready for our wild New Years Party – staying up late with the kids and watching movies. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

A big thanks out to the folks who have gone above and beyond – you know who you are – and you are in my thoughts every day. Without your encouragement, insights, hard work and comradeship, it would have been a less exciting journey. Jan, Steve, Chris, Jeff(s), Charles, Bill, Billy, Tom, Moishe, Frank, Megan, Jerry, and a lot more… thanks for watching my back and keeping me focused. And thanks to each and every participant in the workshops. It is an honor to have been your teacher. My fondest wish is for each of you to find joy and fulfillment through photography – whether for the pure fun of it or as a career.

Happiest of New Years to all of you.

Follow along on Twitter, check out my Page at Facebook, and get ready for a great year. Find out all About Me here, and check out the Learn to Light workshop page for more information on one hell of a workshop experience.