2011 was a pretty great yeah, I have to admit.  Lets start by looking at some numbers:

• 110 blog posts (49 personal/PAD, 45 landscapes, 8 BJP, 8 gear reviews)
• 16,185 images shot (33% less than last year?!), 350gb
• 174 images uploaded to flickr
• 6,015 uploaded to my site
• spent more on prints than gear
• kept my gear budget “in the black”
• 1 sotm win!
• site stats: 45,227 Visits by 33,598 Unique Visitors viewing 145,497 pages

The biggest thing to happen to me this year, was the birth of our daughter Isabella.  She’s an awesome kid and with Elias we’ve got a great pair.  Nikki and I couldn’t be happier with our family life.  We’ve got two great kids and family support that helps us tremendously.  Sailing wise, Dad and I decided to switch boats to the viper this season, so we could race one design.  That was one of our better decisions as we’ve learned a ton, had a blast, and done pretty well winning the around the island race this year as well as doing quite well in our Tuesday night series (we didn’t have the boat for the whole season so we weren’t counted in the overall).  I was also lucky enough to get onto avalanche for one more trip south (her last), my first since Elias was born.  Skiing wise I was able to get out ~10 times last season before Isabella arrived.  This season I’m working on a project in Tuckerman’s Ravine.  I’ll also be doing my usual bus trips.  I’m looking forward to being able to ski with Nikki again this winter, as well as getting Elias out on the mountain for real this winter.  And love it or hate it, this post could have also been titled “The Year of the Beard!” since I’ve had my beard for the entire calendar year…  I used to only sport one for ski season, and even those were pretty weak, but in November of 2010 I started my annual Novembeard and haven’t shaved it yet…

Photographically I’ve had a few interesting things happen this year.  I was published for the first time getting a shot into Sailing World.  I found a copyright infringement and learned a ton about how to protect my images and how to deal with such a case.  I finally won a SotM on NSOP (a shot of the month contest on my photography forum NewSchoolOfPhotography.com).  I was able to meet a few more of the members of NSOP in person as well, and our year end NSOPgiving BBQ was by far the biggest and best yet.  I shot 45 sunrises this year, getting closer to my 52/year goal.  I maintained my PAD as well, missing <5 days this year (I no longer keep perfect track of it, but I still shoot and post the images to the update threads you see here).  Last year, I set forth a goal of spending more on prints than gear in 2011 and I held myself to that.  Nikki and I added 6 canvases to our walls at the house (they’re now quite full actually).  I also maintained my 2010 goal of keeping my photography purchases “in the black” only spending money that came from photography.  I’m also quite proud of my 2012 BJP.com calendar, as it’s my best yet, at least IMHO.  This years version has a much stronger group of images in terms of maintaining a theme (water and rocks ;)).

As for 2012?  I’ll be maintaining my current projects/goals from the previous years.  I’ll try to get to 52 LAWs (landscapes a week) this year.  It’s not that I’m not motivated for those BTW, it’s that trips and family functions will sometimes prevent me from getting out on a given weekend…

My goals for 2012:

• take two weekends away just for photography via car, and one trip via plane somewhere
• get my work into a gallery or show
• teach more workshops
• find more new locations
• continue to build BJP.com and NSOP, including more social media usage
• continue my PAD and LAW (landscape a week) hopefully going 100% for both
• continue with my strict gear budget as well as printing more

Thank you to all my readers out there.  Knowing you guys come here and read what I have to say, and look at my work really pushes me to keep this all going.  A BIG THANK YOU to my affiliates as well who help me keep this site funded.   Enjoy some of my personal favorites from 2011: