[photoptimist]

In a fitting response to the pandemic, I'd like to finish some of my mutant Franken-lens projects:

* stack all my close-up lenses to see what's possible (70mm f/1.4 should be doable if fuzzy)
* make a teleconvertor from the front-element assembly of a damaged SIgma 28-80 zoom (it can focus and looks to be about 2X)
* reverse mount some 8mm movie camera lenses to the double-helicoid barrel from a point-n-shoot zoom for high-mag macro magic
* make a barrel and K-mount for a 200 mm photocopier lens

And generally muck about with all the optical oddities rattling around in boxes in the basement.

[MossyRocks]

And I figured that I was the only one on PF who knows very little about flash photography! I have not even bought a new flash yet, so I will make that my goal for the first half of 2021, and to reach some level of proficiency by the end of the year.

That was one thing I had worked on this year. Granted I'm no expert but am now getting comfortable using a flash to supplement and fill. So not dependent on flash or a flash providing the majority of light but I have gotten better at using it. I get lots of looks using the old Vivitar 285HV on the camera out in broad daylight. However I still need to be better about taking it with me all the time as there have been a number of times where I realized a good amount of fill flash would have helped, or I could have used it for night time foreground illumination. It is another took

For 2021 I guess my resolution would be get better at landscapes. Landscapes are one area that have fascinated me but I have always been let down by my results with very few exceptions. The other resolution is to throw some more gear at astrophotography as I now am likely proficient enough where I am hitting the limits of what I can do without a big higher end equatorial.

[kiwi_jono]

Spend more time shooting with my K-1 and lenses!

[jacamar]

Given the receding prospects of travel, at least for the first part of the year, to maintain and maybe even improve my enthusiasm and whatever "eye" I have based on the local and the mostly familiar.

[MossyRocks]

In a fitting response to the pandemic, I'd like to finish some of my mutant Franken-lens projects:

* stack all my close-up lenses to see what's possible (70mm f/1.4 should be doable if fuzzy)
* make a teleconvertor from the front-element assembly of a damaged SIgma 28-80 zoom (it can focus and looks to be about 2X)
* reverse mount some 8mm movie camera lenses to the double-helicoid barrel from a point-n-shoot zoom for high-mag macro magic
* make a barrel and K-mount for a 200 mm photocopier lens

And generally muck about with all the optical oddities rattling around in boxes in the basement.

I would love to see the results of those in the You're using it wrong thread I started for such things. The photocopier lens one intrigues me the most. That reminds me that I want to do some shots with my Laowa 12/2.8 reversed with the hood on inside the hood of my Rokinon 135/2 with it attached to that lens to see what an 11x or so macro setup can do. With the hoods on those lenses they nest very nicely and snugly but don't bind. Add some blue painters tape to hold them securely together and it should provide some reasonable results.

[Perfessor5646]

Acquire K3 III when available and move K3 II to backup.
Seriously consider new DA* 16-50 to partner with my DA* 50-135
Become more proficient with artificial light specific to portraiture. The experiments have begun!
Learn more about post processing.

Hopefully, the Covid restrictions will ease by late summer and the events I used to shoot will recommence.

I’ve operated on a buy and try a lot of lenses for 3 years. It’ll be time to sort and purge the shelf queens from the worker bees to help fund line 1 and 2.

[Apet-Sure]

What's Your 2021 New Years "Photography Resolution" ?

Probably mostly 14MP and 24MP on my KP.

Seriously, I'll probably get the tabletop tripod I've had my eye on, and try some still life shots I've been thinking about. I've done very little still life photography over the decades. This will give me the opportunity to carefully plan composition and lighting to get a certain 'look'. And it will give me something to do indoors until we all get vaccinated.

learn to process " RAW " instead of Jpeg

I need to get serious about that too.

[ehrwien]

So y'all are going to visit Strobist: Lighting 101: Introduction all year? I've got this on my bucket list for a while as well. Perhaps I'll be investing in some simple light formers as well...

But first of all, I know I won't be able to get out every day to get a worthwhile shot, so a photo a day is not realistic, but I want to get a presentable result every single week. Including some more planned shots. I was more of a "Take the camera and a lens (or two) and go on a walk and see what comes" kind of guy, but I want to set an early alarm every once in a while to tackle some early morning landscape shots, get around to shooting a few of the interesting buildings and structures in my area, do some portraits of friends, invest some time to find some wildlife... Lots of interesting things to get better at, perhaps set myself some project themes to make it more purposeful.

[Paul the Sunman]

.
My 2021 New Years Photography Resolution is to shoot at least 50% of my 2021 images using flash.

This reminds me of being on the Bateau Mouche for dinner on the Seine in Paris on Bastille night many years ago ('80s). There was a large Japanese corporate or tour group on the boat too. All the men sat at one table, and all the women at another, though that's another story. When it came time for the fireworks, the boat moored to the bank adjacent to the Eiffel Tower, a few hundred metres distant, so we could watch the show. Of course, the tower was brightly lit as usual.

The Japanese men all took the opportunity to go outside and shoot the scene, tower and fireworks, as you would. I was amazed that they were all shooting with flash! I do not know whether flash could not be turned off on their cameras, but I think more likely it was a failure to appreciate the implications of the inverse square law and the puniness of their inbuilt flashes relative to the Eiffel Tower lighting and fireworks.

So, Fenwoodian, by all means unleash the flash at every opportunity, though I am sure you are far more canny than the tourists on the Bateau Mouches.

[officiousbystander]

Shoot more medium format film (1 roll in the last 2 years is not enough)

That's exactly my position. I'm using this break to get back into film. I developed a roll of 120mm yesterday. The first in two years. It's so easy to get out of the film habit and time rushes by. Of course lockdowns and no international travel haven't helped.

[AggieDad]

Since I am one of the forum's more elderly members (at least I think I am) and long retired, I will have plenty of time in 2021 just as I have had in previous years. But for me, like everyone else, everything depends on the COVID.

On the Photography Side:

• Continue my monochrome graveyard series
• Increase my landscape focus – both color and monochrome
• Learn more about printing black & white – both print & paper
• Kick-start my languishing macro work
• Girl with Pearl Earring Project (COVID permitting)

  This is a project to stage a photograph to duplicate Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" with local girls and women of all walks and ages (I live in one of the most diverse counties in the U.S.) as models. The goal is a collection that celebrates our local diversity.

On the Workbench

• Finish my redesigned automated panorama rig
• Rebuild my macro rail with a new, more accurate controller and a vertical stand

I hope I achieve at least some of these goals.

In the mean time, I wish everyone the best for the new year.

[Lhorn]

Shoot more 35 mm film
Shoot more 16mm/ 110 film
Shoot more 120 film
Make more effort to travel more (locally) for the purpose of shooting
Learn to better use flash.

[Shenloanne]

Get out more.

Shoot more.

Learn my new K-3

More macro fun.

[Gene D]

After addressing my 2020 photography resolution to finally decide on my back-and-forth internal battle of "do I wait to upgrade to the K-new or upgrade to a KP?"( I upgraded to the KP and feeling great about that), I'm going to:

1) Get back to shooting manual with some vintage K, M and A lenses--and improving that skill on this wonderful KP
2) Try to refine my landscape workflow in the field to slow down, do better planning, take some more time to compose my shots etc., and in that process enjoy and explore my surroundings a bit more
3) Organize, catalogue and back-up my increasingly disorganized photo files (whew)

Happy new year to everyone on this forum! As a relative newbie here, you've brought me many moments of enjoyment, learning and diversion during this tough year and I am thankful for that!

[ffking]

I hadn't thought of making one, but since the idea is raised, to be less lazy about getting out and taking the best shots that I can, and pushing the boundaries of that - there are few things that give me more satisfaction than making an image I'm proud of, but I still find it hard to push myself out there to do it

Also, make more effort to sell work, so that adventures can be self-financing