For the past few years, I’ve been looking back at my photography stats at the end of the year. You can check out 2017’s edition here. Many (if not most) of these numbers are useless, especially when being analyzed like this in a vacuum, but they’re still fun nonetheless. I like graphs. #exscientist
Let’s start with the number of photos taken compared to the last few years.
Didn’t expect it to drop that low! The main culprit behind this drop? I took a 1-year break from weddings in 2018. (But hey I’m doing weddings again!) I don’t really mind or pay attention to the number of photos I take throughout a year since the type of assignments I get will dictate how much I shoot. As long as I still shoot a lot for my personal work and I still shoot with intention, that’s all that matters to me.
Now let’s see what happens if we break this down across months.
I took a month off of work when I got Fuji (my dog) back in January. But of course I was still taking some photos of the fleeting puppy stage. The spike in March is interesting. First, both March and December had exactly 5,286 photos. December always gets packed with assignments from companies needing photos done before the end of the year (and often last minute!), but in March, I had my biggest shoot ever, with Services Canada, where I had to photograph different branches across Montreal / Laval / Longueuil.
Now for me the big thing other than my dog was Luminarium, my new studio space. And the number of shoots that I had in there was…
Most of these 68 shoots were portraits or headshots in the studio. Last year I would have had those 68 shoots in my home. And that’s not counting meetings or coworking sessions either. I love hosting people over at home, but definitely enjoying this workspace homespace separation.
OK! Now for something completely useless.
Alex, when you photograph non-human mammals, what do you tend to photograph most often?
This is a question I get every day of course.
Probably not too surprising, given that dogs get the lead given that 1) I adopted my first dog, 2) I photographed his friends, and 3) I have some clients who require me to photograph dogs, like this for example.
My girlfriend Frédérique wants to take credit for the two other categories. She’s doing her master’s in biology, studying deer, and I managed to photograph some deer when out in the field with her in fall. And she has two adorable cats who are excellent models (aka my soon-to-be roommates.)
And finally, let’s look at my lens distribution!
65% mirrorless camera shooter. Last year, I was at 64%. Pretty remarkable how consistent I was. The main difference from last year is how now, whenever I grab my Nikon camera, it’s almost exclusively for my 85mm. Again, the break from weddings can explain the lack of use of the other lenses.
That’s it for this year! :)
Thanks for reading!