As 2015 draws to a close, and 2016 dawns over the horizon, it’s time to take a stock of the year gone by.
2015 has been a fabulous year for me and I thought I’d reminisce on the year gone by and the way ahead
Travel
This year had a crazy number of long weekends, and one of the goals I had set myself was to make the maximum use of those long weekends. Starting with a trip to Kochi and then ending with a nice excursion to Japan, it’s been an interesting journey. Through the year have done crazy road trips, seen glowing forests and forgotten mansions, marvelled at migratory birds and dancing fireflies and even gone searching for tigers. Averaging at about a trip a month, I think I have more or less managed to achieve the 2015 goal.
In 2016, I want to do more of the same, but possibly spending more time in each place, whenever possible. I’ll also be focussing on the offbeat and the little known parts parts of Mumbai and the country. My plans for 2016 include a possible trip to the North-East of India and maybe even a short Euro trip.
Blogging
I started cataloguing my trips from the end of 2014 in this blog, that I started sometime in the first quarter of 2015. So far I have pretty much been able to post content on the blog at a decent enough regularity, but there have been lean months. Overall, the blog has seen visitors from 24 countries, something I never thought possible !!!
In 2016, I aim to be a lot more regular in posting and build that readership into a more regular one, rather than the one off readers who chance on the page. If you like this blog, you can help by spreading the word.
Photography
It was a good year for photography, but a bad year for actually putting up photos to see. I have been supremely tied up with keeping up with processing all the photographs I took. In fact, I’m still wading through the photos from the Japan trip in November !!!
So in 2016, I’m planning refine my post processing workflow and techniques to bring down the amount of time I put in post-processing. I’m also going to commit to shooting more often in the city and maybe focussing on street and urban photography. And who knows I may even invest in a new body.
2016 will also be year of nostalgia, as I’m planning to clean up my 10 year old archives and also bring a series of photo books covering some of my best work. So do stay tuned for more in 2016.
Side projects
2015 was also the year I did zero hobby projects on the side. In 2016, I plan to correct this. 2016 should see some experimental work on visualizations, some cool hardware hacks using Raspberry Pi and getting back to dabbling with painting and art.
So that was the year gone by and the plan for the future. Wishing everyone a brilliant 2016 ahead !!! May all your travel dreams come true.
Cover Image Credits: Celebration of Light – Italy, Colin Knowles / Flickr
