Every year I have the tradition on this blog to do a year in review and what I am looking forward to in the new year. I spent the last few weeks reflecting the year that was 2019 and also the previous decade of my life as the 2010s came to a close. I also thought about my goals for 2020 and to some degree my life in the new decade. A word of warning, this ended up being a fairly lengthy post.
My previous year in reviews can be found here:
My reflections on 2019 and the decade that was the 2010s
My 20s was definitely a period of change and growth. I transitioned from student life into working adult life. I transitioned from singlehood into being in a relationship. I started the 2010s with the passing of my grandmother who I was very close to. But I also celebrated big milestones with friends and family with lots of weddings, big birthdays and the birth of their children. 2010 was also the year I picked up my first DSLR and began my journey into photography with the purpose of capturing my life and travels. Photography has become a significant part of my life and I feel my skills, vision and style has also grown a lot over the last decade. More importantly I feel like photography has allow me to meet all sorts of people from all walks of life. Without photography, I would not have met the supportive and fantastic community photographers at Fuji X Aus and at Fujifilm Australia. I would not have started my photography blog and honed my writing skills.
Travel has also been a big part of my life in the last decade as I entered the workforce and was able to save up to travel during periods of leave. To this point I have been to 21 countries and 55 major cities in the world, and counting. While there are certainly plenty of people out there who have travelled more extensively than me, I feel fortunate to have travelled to and experienced so many countries, cities and cultures.
The maturation of the mirrorless camera market over the last 10 years has meant small but capable cameras were produced from the likes of Fujifilm and other manufacturers. The small and tough Fujifilm X series cameras (my Fujifilm X-T10 is still going strong, though I am looking for an upgrade in the next year or so) has meant I could more easily document my travels. I’ve had the good fortune of having a range of experiences like helicopter rides, hiking glaciers, flying business class, celebrating a big birthday milestone in one of the most romantic islands in the world (Santorini), fulfilling my childhood dream of “visiting the happiest place on earth” (Disney’s Magic Kingdom themepark) and snorkelling between two tectonic plates in one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world (Iceland).
I didn’t have any major travel trips in 2019 however it turned out to be a relatively busy year of travelling. I travelled to Thailand and Malaysia with family. Bali for a family wedding. Sydney for a friend’s wedding. Melbourne for a birthday celebration and watching Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. A road trip to Margaret River for a long weekend. Singapore to celebrate my birthday.
I started my photography-centric blog Travelling Lens back in June 2016 after a 2 week road trip around New Zealand with a dear friend. I will always remember that as one of my travel highlights. The open road, the beautiful and breath taking scenery and the good times and long chats. Since starting my blog I have written and published a whopping 200+ blog posts. I started my blog as a means to share my images and travel stories, and keep me on track with honing my photography and editing skills. I certainly didn’t think it would be of interest to anyone else. To my pleasant surprise (looking at my WordPress stats anyway), my blog viewership has grown significantly in 2019 (more than doubled that of 2018). I’m so grateful for the conversations with other photographers and the connections I’ve made through this blog. I also had the opportunity to guest blog post for Fujifilm Australia and Women Love Tech. I also started contributing to the Fuji X Aus blog since becoming a community rep.
Looking to 2020 and beyond
I spent a bit of time in 2019 thinking about the direction I want to take my photography and the blog in the next year and maybe the next decade. I have always been a bit conflicted about who my target audience is and what I enjoy writing about. It has yoyoed between photographers vs. potential clients who want photography services as my audience. Now it’s much clearer to me. Travelling Lens is about my passion for photography and storytelling. Naturally my audience is other fellow photographers. As such the focus of Travelling Lens will continue to be on the art and craft of photography and travel stories. With the potential to expand into writing about various aspects of photography and an enthusiast photographer’s journey. As such I plan to migrate my blog to the main page of travellinglens.co in the coming months.
Last year my goal was to write 60 posts and I fell short and published 41 posts. This year my goal is to write and publish 50 posts, which is an average one post a week. I also want to hone my writing skills by writing and reading more.
My photography portfolio will be at janicekho.com. If the opportunity arises to expand my photography into a side hustle where I am providing services as a photographer, my target audience of this site will be potential photography clients. The three key areas of photography I’m thinking of dabbling into are:
- Architectural & interior photography
- Personal & business branding photography
- Family Documentary Photography
As with my previous years’ goal, continue to chip away at my editing my backlog of travel photos.
Learn to use CaptureOne 12. Since purchasing it when it was on sale a few months ago, I haven’t had the time and energy to learn a new editing software. I’m hopeful that I will be able find the time to in 2020.
I don’t have any set travel plans in 2020, but am looking to going back to the United Kingdom or Europe towards the latter half of the year. I also have my usual family trip to Malaysia for Chinese New Year coming up in the next few weeks. I was hoping to (finally) make a trip down to Albany to climb Bluff Knoll in March. However with the terrible bushfire season devastating areas across Australia, Bluff Knoll has also experienced some damage and is closed indefinitely while they assess damage to the walking trails.
If you have read this far, thank you! I’m excited to see how 2020 and the rest of the decade will unfold. I’m looking forward to sharing more stories on my blog, organising more Fuji X Aus events in Perth and connecting with the photography community. It means a lot to me that you have supported and taken the time out of your busy day to check out my writings and images. I hope you’ve had a great start to the new year and wishing you all the best for the rest of 2020. I’m keen to hear what you have planned for 2020 in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by today.
J.
Cool little round up to take stock and look ahead. Nice meeting you over at the Melb FujiXAus meet up, all the best for the year ahead!
Hi Keat! thanks for stopping by! It was great meeting you too and all the best to the new year ahead.