Celebrate your decade

In New Zealand today is already the first day of 2020 (whoop whoop!) – a new decade.

I have so much to celebrate from the last decade.

• The sale of The Collective Force, my photo agency, and OPTNZ, my production company- which have continued to thrive under new ownership.
• Multiple interviews in multiple magazines and publications, and speaking gigs around the world, including the inaugural Palm Springs Photo Fest.
• Being asked to judge the IPA awards (beginning 2010) and presenting some of the awards last year in NYC at the Lucies.
• Launching this blog and my consulting business
• Creating the Bootcamp programme which has now helped nearly 200 photographers get to the next level, break into new territories, acquire new reps and gallery representation, and rise above their competition.
• Blitzing the work of hundreds of photographers and revealing their unique magic and visual voice.
• Launching CA+, the very first and only folio review event of its kind in Asia, introducing working creative decision makers to top photographers from around the world.
• Launching The Series Project, where we take a select group of photographers through the development and execution of a personal project with depth, and from which acclaimed awards have already been won.
• Visiting numerous places around the world I had never visited before and swimming in the ocean every week through winter.
• Watching my kids leave home and forge their own lives and careers (sad but amazing!)

I could keep going and I encourage you, if you haven’t already to make a list of what you’re proud of achieving not just over the last year but over the last decade.

• Maybe you acquired a new rep, or more than one.
• Perhaps you broke into a new country, or worked for clients you thought were unreachable
• Or made personal projects that grabbed attention, helped a cause, or simply allowed something or someone to be ‘seen’ for the first time.
• Changed direction, and succeeded.
• Launched your photography career, went out on your own, and made an income from your photography..
• Got that MFA you’d always wanted.
• Maybe you became a dad, or a mum, for the first time, or again.

They say that we often over-estimate what we can do in a year, but under-estimate what we can do in 10 years.

So what would you like to achieve in the next decade?

Make a list, and if you need help you know where I am.