San Jose Earthquakes vs New York Red BullsFireworks display after the show. The San Jose Earthquakes tied the New York Red Bulls 2-2 at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California on July 2nd, 2011. Happy New Year!!! 

Same as anyone, I have the generic personal new year's resolutions: drink more water, exercise more, get more sleep (most of which are rolling resolutions) But here are a few of my photography-centric goals for the year:

 

Revisit My Cloud Archive Strategy

I diligently back up on external drives (but we know those eventually fail) and I have consistently uploaded to KLCfotos (via zenfolio) or KelleyLCox.com, but not always both. I started being diligent about PhotoShelter uploads a few years ago, and I've tinkered with Pixie Set and SmugMug. It may be time to revisit my 3-2-1 rule.

 

Send Invoices ASAP

Money has always felt awkward for me. I feel as though I'm being rude if immediately after upload, I send an invoice. But I'm realizing, that isn't rude, and in many cases, it's preferred!

 

Improve Photographer Onboard Process

There are, gratefully, a back-log of photographers asking to work with KLC fotos.

Every new photographer needs to send a:

Contractor Agreement - to ensure KLC fotos can legally hire them as contractors

Contributor Agreement - to ensure KLC fotos has the rights to represent the work they upload

W-9 (US Citizen) or W-8 (non-US Citizen) - to ensure we can report payments as required

From there I need to create for them:

a BILL account - to pay them

a PhotoShelter account

a Zenfolio accounts

Given that constraint, the current onboarding process has prioritized photographers who KLC fotos needs to hire for an assignment urgently, as opposed to welcoming in the number of photographers who could potentially contribute to KLC fotos.

Get Rid of Gear

I never considered myself a gear-junkie. When I used canon, I had two bodies (1Dx, 5D Mark II), and four lenses (70-200mm f/2.8, 16-35mm f/2.8, 300 f/2.8, 50mm f/1.5). When I switched to Olympus, and then was an "Olympus Visionary" it was all to easy to establish the mindset "hmmm, I might as well get that 60mm macro lens, and two 14-42mm to essentially serve as body caps that make my camera always ready" and I have an embarrassing number of both bodies and lenses that I'm holding onto "in case I need them". Same for those 3 paper seamless backgrounds I have in my basement and haven't used since pre-pandemic when I switched to cloth backgrounds.

Build Up kreadivs

kreadivs has been a quiet labor of love for me for years. I've successfully enticed a few well respected creatives to join (hi, Peter Read Miller) and I continue to build out the site to make it more functional, but I haven't yet fully established any given area (GEAR, JOBS, POSTS) to the point of feeling like I can really launch.

Launch NILT

As I've been working with college athletes for nearly two decades (gosh, that makes me feel old) I've watched the landscape change dramatically, and the last few years it has felt like the wild wild west (even if Cal is soon to join the Atlantic Coast Conference) With everything happening with the conference realignment, the transfer portal and name image likeness, and all those playing off of each other. The NCAA isn't providing much direction, many schools haven't developed the support systems for student-athletes (or creators for that matter!) to truly maximize the opportunities.

Check It

There is so much going on in the world and with this being an election year in the US, I worry 

Check In

What are your resolutions? Personal and/or professional