The Best of 2015, but the best is yet to come!

Every year it is a great practice to reflect on what you have accomplished.  I don’t do this to brag or make anyone feel less accomplished, I do it for personal accountability to ensure that I strive for more next year.  It is amazing to me that every year I do this and I think to myself, how in the world can I top what I did this year?

As I reflect on the year I look at a number of things.  While the photography aspect is important to me, I am often more concerned with how the business grew in terms of the goals I wanted to accomplish.

  1. How many new subscribers and views on YouTube (I even compare all of my years on a spreadsheet to ensure the channel is growing at exponential rates)
  2. What significant objectives did you reach, ie Seminars, Webinars, etc.
  3. How many photos were taken, how many made the portfolio?

So let’s break these areas down and see how 2015 looked.

The Best of 2015 - Blake Rudis (11)

The YouTube Channel | Best of 2015

I actually saw my largest spike of exponential growth this year as opposed to all other years past.  It was incredible watching this happen.  Most of the success came from “Back End” hacks that you may not have noticed but have proven to be invaluable to the channel growth.

  1. Incorporating me.  I was talking with Matt Kloskowski at the beginning of the year and he told me he loved my training videos, but they were lacking something extremely important… me.  I was shocked, I thought I was in them.  The problem was my personality was in them, but I was not.  I started incorporating the Webcam and that has increased interaction immensely!
  2. A tiny subscribe button. Something that was never on the videos before was the little subscribe button that pops up in the lower right hand corner.  After implementing that I watched my subscriber rate go from ~250 per month to over 700!
  3. Blog Post Descriptions.  One thing that you may not notice in the blog posts is something called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.  This is a way of key wording every post to ensure Google likes your content and ranks it higher.   On your end it should be nearly invisible but Google will find one word or phrase that is repeated and put your post higher in a search based on several factors.  I took this concept and started pasting the SEO posts into the descriptions of the YouTube videos.  This increased my search rankings on YouTube by over 30%

Watch time in minutes

Video Views

New Subscribers

Years of content watched in 2015

Top 3 Videos of 2015

Significant Objectives | Best of 2015

So much has happened in 2015, where do I even begin!  I am shocked by how rapidly my dreams are becoming a reality.  Again, I do not say this to brag, if anything to inspire.  In 2010 I set out to be speaking at seminars within 5 years, that was my goal with EverydayHDR.  I am so proud to say that within that 5 years I did exactly that and am well on my way to breaking my next 5 year in a predicted 2 years.

Hard work is like a nail, determination the hammer, and tenacity is the driving force behind it.  With a significant amount of determination and hard work your goals will be accomplished, the time frame depends on your tenacity to accomplish them.

  • I hosted my very first All Day Seminar in Kansas City – 55 attendees!
  • I taught at a Seminar in Walla Walla Washington.
  • Conducted 1 webinar with the Photoshop and Lightroom Group and 8 webinars with Topaz Labs for a grand total of 21 over the last 3 years.
  • I was on the jpeg2RAW Podcast twice, on two Podcasts with SIC (Share Inspire Create) and one with the Pixelobby Facebook Group.
  • I was also a featured Pro with On1 and conducted an interview with a colleague, longtime friend, and mentor of mine:  Matt Kloskowski.
  • 3 more courses were added to the store:  The Zone Systems Master Class, HDR and Perfect Effects 9 and The Artist’s Eye.
  • I also conducted my first Workshop with Shutter Click Adventures in Cannon Beach Oregon!

Webinars Conducted

Podcasts Interviewed For

Seminars Taught

Workshops Taught

The Best of 2015 - Blake Rudis (13)

The Photographs | Best of 2015

This is probably the hardest part of 2015, culling the plethora of photos from the year.  While I may have taken an insane amount of photos, I only consider 25 or so to be my best and really only 10 made the portfolio.  I am hard on myself when it comes to what makes it in the Portfolio of the best of the best.  This is a good practice to get into.

It is impossible to say that every photo you take is a keeper.  To say this would be, in many regards, vain and probably more accurately, delusional!  I took several hours going through all of my photos from the year and had such a great time reflecting on the places I have been.  Included at the bottom of this post is a gallery of my favorite 25 images, of those favorites, the top 10 portfolio pieces are included.

Places 2015 took me:

  • Cannon Beach, Oregon
  • Portland, Oregon
  • Portland, Maine
  • Kennebunkport, Maine
  • Ha Ha Tonka National Park, Missouri
  • Montgomery, Alabama
  • Tall Grass National Preserve, Kansas
  • The Palouse, Washington

Photos Shot

Gigs of Photos taken

Number of Photos that made the Portfolio

%

Percentage of photos that made the portfolio

The Best of 2015 Gallery

Enough about my 2015, how was yours?

Blake Rudis
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
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