It has been a good year here at the Sajin Photo Blog. Over the past year I have worked to increase my presence on the web and work to gain a better grip on my photography career.

The past few years have always started with the Burns Night Charity Event. This is a huge event that does a lot of good in the Ulsan area. The 2013 event had the honour of the British Ambassador to Korea in attendance. Suffice to say that it was a successful event and the photos came out great. It is a big job handling all of the photos from the night but year by year, my workflow gets more streamlined to handle clients like this.

I also took over the Ulsan Photo Club this past year and tried to really make it into something great. It was tricky trying to get people out and take photos. I posted weekly challenges but received lackluster responses. However, what did result was a far greater reaching network thanks to the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk.

This past year I once again hosted the Worldwide Photo Walk and it was a great success. By that I mean people actually showed up. What struck me as interesting was that only a few people from Ulsan showed up but we pulled in people from Pohang, Daegu, and Busan. It was a great chance to show people around Daewangam Park which is an area in Ulsan most people rarely go to if they are visiting or have nothing to do with Hyundai.

I later lead the combined groups through Gyeongju for a really great photo walk. Again people from Daegu, Busan and even as far as Indonesia showed up. It was a great time and the conditions at Anapji were second to none. We later finished the event off with dinner in the newly restored hannock village and that was great.

I was also invited to head up to Cheorwon with the Korean Tourism Organization recently. It was a great trip and it was so amazing to get to hang out with many of the great photographers that I talk to online but rarely get a chance to shoot with. It was a fun time in an interesting place and something that I hope will continue again in some other locations.

Finally, I managed to get printed in a National Geographic book called “Dawn to Dark Photographs” It was a pretty big honour and one that I am still shocked about. This is one of those life time accomplishment boxes that has now been check off and I am already thinking about how to do it again.

As this year ends, I am left in a bit of a jam. Just before Christmas my Canon 7D along with my 12-24mm lens and tripod blew off from the top of a building that I was shooting from. They feel 34 floors and basically exploded on the pavement below. NO ONE WAS HURT let alone even around. However, I still feel like an idiot and with a few major jobs on the way, I am out a lot of gear. This I hope that this year ends with a miracle or something because I am not sure what else to do besides dump a lot of cash into replacing the gear and moving on.

 

At any rate, I want  to wish you all the best in 2014. Happy New Year! I am looking forward to 2014. I want to push my photography to the next level… well that is if I can replace the gear that I lost in a timely manner. With that being said, what are your plans for the new year?