again, a big thank you to everyone!

It was a new day yesterday, but it’s an old day now. I’ve always wanted to quote that snippet of lyric by Jethro Tull. It somehow seems applicable on a New Year’s Day in some oblique way. But I could never make sense of it.

And here I am, on the first morning of 2013, and it just seems like it’s the customary opportune time to reflect over the past year. And of course, it’s a good time to re-energize oneself for the new year. In some ways it is arbitrary, I know, but still, January the 1st is as good a time as any.

Aside from the feedback and comments from the followers of the Tangents blog, one of the ways that I constantly see if I am doing the right thing, is the website’s traffic. If it increases year after year, then I must be doing something right.

The screen-capture at the top is the Google Analytics mapping of the visitors to the Tangents blog the past year. Nearly 1.9 million visits from all over the world. It blows my mind! Photographers from Russia, Mongolia and even Greenland and Madagascar have checked out the site.

Compared to 2011, that’s approximately a 10% increase in website traffic. Quite solid. There was a massive 49% jump in traffic from 2010 to 2011, but I think that is mostly because I started posting much more regularly during 2009 and 2010.

One other metric that I use, is the Alexa ranking for the entire neilvn site. It fluctuates over time, depending on how website traffic ebbs and flows over any 3 month period. But I was quite chuffed with the all-time high in November 2012, of being the 131,000 most popular site on the entire internet. I still hope to crack the 100,000 Alexa ranking sometime.

So while all of this seems a little boastful, it is also a way of saying that I really, really appreciate the good word that everyone puts out there about this site. It helps the site, and it helps me … and motivates me in turn to make this site even better. So for all those who have referred others to my site, and linked to my site, it is hugely appreciated. Truly. But please don’t stop now. : )

A recap of the highlights of 2012 …

some of the highlights of the year:

• I completed my 3rd book, titled: Direction and Quality of Light. It will hit the shelves (and Amazon) in a few month’s time. I’m particularly proud of this book. Since I first started this blog, (and since the first book), my voice and writing style has matured, and of course, I have improved as a photographer in that time.

• Even though I scaled down the travel workshops entirely, there was the one workshop in Amsterdam. With my daughter having finished high-school and about to enter University (to study Chemical Engineering), I thought it would be a cool thing to take her on a road trip of some kind. She’s been to the UK and Ireland with us … so, Amsterdam next! So we went to Amsterdam for a week. Of course, it was a entirely unique cultural experience.

• The one thing I did which still amazes me about the technology involved – I shot, and edited and finalized a 2 minute travelogue of our visit to Amsterdam. I edited the entire clip (and added music), while on the flight back to New York. I uploaded it to Vimeo when I got back home. No other device was used. Just the iPad. Unreal technology.  We are surely living in the Science Fiction age.

• I presented three full-day workshops in New York during the course of the year, and will again this year. Check the photography workshops & seminars 2013 listing for the upcoming workshops and presentations this year.

• I upgraded my system with two Nikon D4 cameras. Yes, this is an event! This camera allowed an easy entry into the world of time-lapse photography.

• My first book was released in Chinese, with the 2nd one on the way.
  My second book, Off-Camera Flash, was translated into Polish.

• With wedding photography, I photographed weddings as far afield as Boston and Baltimore, Maryland and Delaware. Some of those were from photographers who follow this site. So that was a huge honor and a real compliment.

• I worked with some great models in 2012, some new and some my usual favorites.
  Ulorin Vex specifically, was a treat to photograph again.

• My Facebook photography page cracked 10,000 likes. A sweet number.

onward into 2013

2012 was a busy year again. Things-to-be-done seem to find me. For 2013, I want to work on some personal projects, and also delve further into studio photography. Then there is also this long-term sort-of-a project, where I want to photograph you, possibly for my next book.

And here we are. Again, to everyone who regularly follows this blog, thank you!
There’s more to come.

photography books by Neil vN

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