2016 Year In Review and Looking Forward To 2017

It’s that time again when the calendar rolls over to the new year. Welcome 2017.  After being inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s annual review process, I started my own goal settling/year planning a few years ago. 2016 has been my most intentional year to date. This year I’ll be sharing some of my results from my 2016 annual review and also my plans for 2017 in the area of photography and travel here on the blog.

2016 has certainly flown by, on a photographic, personal and professional level, it has been a good year with many challenges, highs and definitely much to be grateful for. I have lived more intentionally and really tried to balance the my five value areas: Health, Relationships, Passion, Contribution and Growth. On the world stage it has been a very eventful year. While sometimes it feels like there is a lot of negativity around the around, there are also plenty of people who are out there doing good positive work. We can’t control the many varied events which occur in life, what you can control is yourself and your own response to the events around you.

Highlights of 2016

Photography

After years of wanting to start a website and blog of my own, I finally did so in June 2016 after come back from New Zealand (The name of this website came about during my trip to New Zealand). I have been enjoying the writing and photo curating process since I started my blog. I’ve also gotten some positive feedback from family and friends which I appreciate. In the 6 months since the blog went live, I have posted 49 posts.

I spent a year using my Fujifilm X-T10 camera and absolutely loved it. I took over 6000 images in 2016 (compared to 900 images in 2015 before I got my Fujifilm camera). The lightweight and small sized camera has meant that it is more convenient to take out on my travels and every day life. I will probably write a spin-off post on my experience with using the camera for a year and how it changed my photography in the near future.

I was contacted by Fujifilm Australia at the end of 2016 and asked if I was interested in being featured as December’s X-Thusiast photographer. It was an honour to be asked and I found the process of answering the interview questions to be very helpful for my photography. It allowed me to reflect on my journey as a photographer and appreciate how much I have learned over the years. It was a lovely way to end 2016 photographically speaking.

I would have loved to have done a thorough review of my photos from 2016 and select 12 of my favourite images to share, but alas, I didn’t get around to it. That will be the plan for the end of 2017.

Travel

After a stressful year that was 2015 where I worked more and travelled less. I wanted to reverse that in 2016. So in 2016 I made my way across the Tasman Sea to beautiful New Zealand with a dear friend I have known for well over a decade. It was one of the best holidays I’ve had in a long time. A great mix of sights, photography and experiences. We took a helicopter ride to hike a a glacier. We went on several short hikes, the most famous and photogenic being Hooker Valley walk, rewarding us with a fantastic view of Mt Cook at the end of the hike. We explored glow worm caves, admired the colourful geothermal pools and visited Hobbiton. We went on a fun jetboat ride in Glenorchy, ziplined in Queenstown and cruised the majestic Milford Sound. So much more happened on that trip but that is just a few of the highlights, which I will hopefully be sharing in more detail in 2017.

I also (finally) made my first trip to Sydney and Canberra, ticking off a few more Australian capital cities off my bucketlist. The one week trip was filled with eating, visiting popular sights in Sydney (E.g. Opera House, climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge, Blue Mountains, Manly beach) and learning more about the Australia political history on a day trip to Canberra’s old and new parliament houses. I will be sharing my Sydney and Canberra adventures in 2017 once I get around to editing those photos.

There were also a couple of family trips in 2016. This tied with one of the value area for me which was building and nurturing family relationships. We spent some time in Malaysia for Chinese New Year as a family with the extended family and also made short trip to Malacca (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). In November 2016, I decided to organise a short weekend trip down to the South West for my dad’s birthday. It was a nice long weekend away exploring the Margaret River and Dunsborough region.

What didn’t work out in 2016

• As part of improving my photography, I decided to part take in Dogwood Photography’s 52 Week Photo Challenge. I managed to keep it up for 3 months and then it fell on the wayside in April when I travelled to New Zealand. I think the main reason for this was because I had too many commitments between work, travelling and personal commitments in 2016. I also got to a point where I no longer looked forward to doing the weekly challenge. I would like to do a 52 week challenge again in the future, but 2017 isn’t the year for me to take on this challenge.
• I had intended to participate in photography contests as part of challenging myself but again I didn’t find the time to commit to it. Instead my increased participation on Instagram and the Fujifilm Australia community online got me noticed and then featured as an X-Thusiast photographer for December.

Looking forward to 2017

Over the years my year planning and goal setting process has evolved, with each iteration being more realistic, attainable and actionable. 2017 builds upon this. I’m limiting the number of goals I’ve set for myself so that I can really focus on the few that I have chosen.

• Making a family recipe book in collaboration with my dad will be my photography personal project for 2017. It will also allow me to develop my food photography skill set, while learning to cook a few family recipes along the way.
• Instead of the 52 week photo challenge, I will be setting myself a 27/27 challenge. For 27 days I will using my favourite Fujinon 27mm f2.8 lens to take a photograph a day. It will be a challenge to take a photo each day for 27 days straight amongst work and all other commitments,  however this is part of pushing myself forward with my photography.
• Read at least two photography books.
• After starting this blog, I have come to enjoy writing more and more. I want to continue to hone my writing skills through this blog and aim to posts 100 blog posts by the end of the year. Instagram has been a fun and inspiring place to be for me in 2016 and I’m planning to continue to use that platform to share my photos and hone my writing.
• Travelling has inspired and improved my photography this year. I have also grown as a person through my travel experiences and I’m looking forward to more travelling in 2017. The major trip on the cards is to spend one month in Iceland and the United Kingdom (likely Scotland). I’m also planning to visit Japan (It’s been 10 years since I was there last on a cultural exchange). Potentially I’ll also be planning a short family trip to Tasmania in early 2017.
• With the places I’m intending to travel to in 2017, I’m looking forward to hiking more and improving my landscape, cityscape and street photography.

I hope you have enjoyed the holiday season to refresh and unwind as I have. I’m looking forward to the new challenges and experiences that 2017 will bring. Thank you for stopping by today.

J.