Year End Newsletter

[Dallas]

 

Well, what a year this was.

 

For me 2023 started off as slow as 2022 had ended, but then almost by magic something happened in February / March and the work just started to flood in. Product shoots, property shoots, even some events. There were big clients calling me up. In fact, I got so busy that I had to start publishing a calendar on my website for regular clients to see when I was available. Tough times gave way to good times and the year has exceeded all my expectations as far as photography goes. 

 

This past year I have grown a lot. Not just in terms of business, but personally too. My outlook is different now, more mature and dare I say it, considerably more positive than it was during the pandemic years. I see things crystallising in ways that I didn’t notice before. It’s not like I feel driven. In fact I don’t think I have felt this relaxed in many years but maybe that’s because I have not lit any fuses under my own rear end. I just take each day as it comes, do the work that is expected of me and every now and then I allow myself to dream a little. Just a little. 

 

Some of those dreams include this little corner of the internet I introduced as Fotozones back in 2012. Where is it going and what is its future? Well, there are two things that I can do that will maybe make Fotozones interesting again. The first one is to carry on with my planned “classroom” where I will be teaching those who have an interest in it my unique and efficient way of photographing property for commercial purposes. Plans are afoot right now to make this a reality. 

 

The second thing I can do with Fotozones is something we are all familiar with and which the pandemic put paid to, namely developing amazing safaris and adventures for photographers. Our last official group safari happened in 2019 and while I have been itching to do another one, the circumstances are not quite where I would like them to be before I can confidently pitch another one to you all. That’s not to say that this isn’t always on my mind. I think about it night and day, but given what happened to global tourism in 2020, I need to be extremely circumspect on how I go about this looking forwards. There are still many challenges I face in getting this business going again.

 

For starters finding free space to book at my preferred destinations has been, erm… challenging. The other thing that weighs heavy on my mind is that 2024 will see elections in the US, the UK and also here in South Africa. I’m cautiously optimistic that these will all go smoothly, but … given the way the world reacts these days to things that they don’t like, where democratic outcomes are concerned, I’d rather not count any chickens before they hatch. Especially not here in South Africa where we are expecting big change and of course a potentially volatile reaction to that change next year. Given all this “stuff” I have decided to put off plans for organising a group safari until 2025. I will of course keep you all up to speed on developments in that regard.

 

To end off this news letter I’d just like to give a very big thanks to Andrew Livelsberger who has taken over the Editorial chair while I have been busy working on my professional photography career this year. Andrew has published some really excellent articles and reviews of both old and new gear this year. Take a bow, Andrew! I am looking forward to see where your gear adventures take you in 2024. Also a massive thanks to the regular posters on FZ, especially Aguinaldo De Paula who continues to share his incredible talent and visual acumen with us as he travels in South America. Keep them coming, Aguinaldo. 

 

And to you, faithful member, thank you for still allowing me into your inbox for these (now very) infrequent ramblings. I hope that the year ahead for you is filled with interesting things. 

 

Until we speak again take care, enjoy the holidays and keep on making photographs! 

 

Dallas
 

[Dallas]

Now that I am managing my own bulk emails on my dedicated server, I receive all the bounce-back notifications for emails addresses that no longer exist, or have some or other problem. There were about 52 of these this time around and some of them are quite familiar members. Obviously I have no way of contacting these members if their email addresses are invalid, so if by any chance you are reading this and didn't get the newsletter, please check your profile to ensure that the address is correct. If it is right and you still don't get any emails from Fotozones also check your notifications settings to see what events the system will send you email for. And of course make sure that your ISP isn't reporting us as spam. I do have DkIM and SPF records in place for authentication but sometimes the recipient servers use very aggressive filtering and they don't always help. Microsoft Outlook (Office 365) is one of the culprits here. 

 

I'd highly recommend using an address that you are in complete control of, such as Gmail. Often what happens is that people use their work email address, then leave their jobs and no longer have access to that address. If this happened to you all you need to do is get in touch with me directly (info@fotozones.com) and let me know what the old address was. If you can also tell me what the secret word is on your account I will be pretty confident that you are who you claim to be and I can manually change your email address. 

[danielm]

Thank you Dallas for you have create with Fotozones over the years and special thanks to Andrew for all his interesting and always comptent editorial work.  It is really appreciated. Thanks also to all the participants of this unique photo community dispersed over our small planet earth. 

Hope you all a nice Christmas holiday and a fine new 2024 year!

Daniel M

[Dallas]

It looks like many of the emails sent to Comcast addresses are either failing or just not being delivered. Is there something going on with that company in the US?