No, that’s not the new motto around here, but it’s pretty funny. And funny, is how I like to start the New Year. For all the beautiful places I’ve been this year and great athletes I’ve photographed, this might be my favorite image of the year. I took it at a bar in Keystone, and something about the colors, simplicity, balance, warmth and crispness of it, not to mention the fact that it’s hilarious, really captures me. 2010 has started off with a bang, and a lot has just changed. There’s a pile of good times on the horizon, so keep reading for a breakdown of what’s new, what’s old and a slide show of some of my favorite 2009 images that don’t already appear somewhere on the webpage.  Enjoy!

New Year. December 31st marked the end of my first year in business as a full-time adventure photographer, and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the way it went. In 2009 I spent a month living in Joshua Tree National Park in California with an old friend and a new friend, climbed and shot in the dry deserts and lush mountains of Utah, failed miserably at climbing the Grand Teton, spent 4 weeks gallivanting around the northeast collecting an array of images, went back to J-Tree for another week, logged well over 100 hours of road trip time, took over 30,000 images, almost died 3 times and much more. Not a bad start. If I can continue the trend of visiting and photographing beautiful places, while lowering the occurrence of near death experiences, it’ll be a pretty good beginning to 2010. There’s a lot on the horizon that I’m excited about. Some things are planned, some things are prospective, some things are just ideas and hopes, and the more I think about it all, the more it fills me with energy to make it all happen.  Stay tuned!

New Website. For the better half of 2009, getting a new website was high on my list of things to do. The old one was a template site and wasn’t customizable enough for me, was to limiting, and in my opinion, just wasn’t professional looking. I wanted something completely original, completely me. So why did it take so long? Because I was originally hung up on the idea of doing it myself. I got books on HTML and CSS, watched a bunch of tutorials, and tried to learn everything. Us creative types are usually also control freaks and want to exercise our creativity in every possible arena. But that mentality often just causes us to be distracted from whatever it is that we’re really trying to accomplish. Luckily, I got wise (it happens ever now and then) and realized that if I continued trying to do it myself it would not be done for many more months. Not only that, but it would also considerably pull me away from my real objective, which is growth as a photographer, not a web developer.

That’s when I decided to bring in some back up, er, someone to do almost all the work.  I went to my friend and climbing partner Jeremy Fields, who just so happens to also be a professional web developer.  He agreed to “help” me build the site.  Jeremy is absolutely fantastic to work with, and as I already knew, is a great guy.  He is very prompt, professional, creative, easygoing, and very talented.  Thanks to him, the website is ready now, not the six months from now/never that it would of been if I had continued trying it myself.  A few weeks ago, I was talking with a photographer friend of mine, and he said something that stuck with me: Do what you’re good at, and outsource the rest.  That’s not always an option, but when it is, it seems to be a good plan.  I think this a a great example of that in action.  Thanks Jeremy!

New Blog. I always felt that the old blog had a bit of an identity crisis.  What was it about?  Genny and I?  Climbing?  Photography?  Pictures and stories?  Nothing?  Who was it written for?  Friends and family?  Photographers?  Adventurers?  With this new blog I hope to remedy that problem.  The old blog will stay active and will go back to it’s original purpose of just being about the life and adventures of Ben and Genny.  This blog will take a more professional look at my life as an adventure photographer.  Meaningless diatribe and incessant rambling might will yield way to more purposed content.  I will still share lots of stories and photos from the field, but will also begin including some posts that will have a little more substance for photographers, while hopefully also still having some significance for the non photographic folks out there.  I will also delve into the occasional gear related post, talking about what I use and why, and about what ever kind of cool new toys that are out there for photographers and adventurers alike.  My mission is to have a well balanced mix of content that has something for everyone.

New Resolution. No, I’m not talking about higher megapixels. That hasn’t changed.  I mean the kind of resolution one tends to make around New Years.  I’m generally not the type for any kind of resolutions, but I’ve been trying to be more intentional about setting goals and pursuing growth as a photographer and as a person.  A few weeks ago, I came up with a rather odd goal and I’ve recently decided to make it my theme for 2010.  My new resolution is *drumroll*… to take more bad pictures.  This of course is not to be confused with wanting to take less good pictures.  Now most photographers would probably agree with me that taking bad photos isn’t really something you need to put effort into.  It generally just happens all on it’s own.  I’m not talking about those mistakes, things like missed focus, bad exposures or poor framing.

If there’s one skill that I certainly have, it’s the ability to know ahead of time what things I’ll be good at and only do those, while at the same time completely avoiding the things that I know I’ll be bad at.  It’s great for appearing like you are good at everything, but it’s terrible for growth as a person, since it causes me to skip the part of life that might have the opportunity for failure.  The kind of bad photos I’m looking for are the kind that come from experimentation, the kind that come from not knowing how something is going to turn out, or the kind that come from intentionally working with subject matter that you know is boring just to see if you can capture it an interesting way.  The bottom line is that sometimes a great image only comes on the tail end of a bunch of crap.  As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times.  I have successfully found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  So, now I will welcome failure as part of the path to becoming a better photographer and as part of pursuing perfection.

And that’s what’s going on in my world.  It seems like 2010 will be all about ‘more’.  More trips, more mistakes, more growth, and hopefully, more great images.  So, now you’re all caught up.  Moving on.  This weekend I’ll be hanging out, climbing and shooting in Ouray, CO for the annual Ice Festival.  Keep you eye out for some fun images upon my return. Peace!

Scroll down for the slide show.