Grading My 2024 Resolutions

A year ago I made up list of New Years Resolutions (click here to go back to that post).  Today I thought I would grade myself on how I did on each one:

Take More Pictures – Grade: B – I tried to hold down the shutter more when birds were in action so I did take more pictures.  On the flip side I started to get lazy when winter came and didn’t take my camera out on gray, overcast days when I didn’t expect to see much (you can’t get a GreatBirdPic if you don’t take your camera).

Be Brutal: Delete More Pictures – Grade B – I still agonize too long over which of several good shots to keep. I have to continue to identify the best ones earlier in the post-processing workflow.

Try Two Unused Features On My Camera – Grade B – I did implement a Magnify button on my Canon R7, which helps ID distant birds and allows me to attain manual focus better.  Although not on my camera, I did learn much more about Denoise and Sharpening in Lightroom, which has improved my images.

Share More Pics on GBP – Grade C – My goal was to reduce the number of pics in my “To Share on GBP” folder from 1700 to 800.  I came close, reducing the pics in the folder to 981.

Add 25 New Members to GBP – Grade F – I still am hesitant to hand out my card to bird photographers I meet along the way and to otherwise promote the site.  As a result our membership remains just a tad higher than this time last year.

Enter Three Photo Contests – Grade F – Perhaps I just don’t think about it.  Perhaps I’m not confident in my photos.  Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

Offer More Contests on GreatBirdPics.com – Grade B+ – We did three contests this year (BIF, Reflections, and Halloween) which was one more than last Year.  Perhaps I’ll squeeze another one in next year.

Present 5 Programs About Birds – Grade A – I did 8 bird presentations this year, all as part of the DuPage Birding Club’s Outreach Committee.  I have been thinking about putting together a presentation along the lines of “Birds In The Bible” and offer it to churches in the area (as you can see from the above resolutions, don’t hold me to it).

Become Proficient in Two Photoshop Techniques – Grade F – Totally blew this one off.

That was a lot of resolutions!  No wonder I failed many of them.  I’ll work on a more reasonable list for 2025 and share them with you soon.

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