2012 Photography Year in Review

With 2012 now over, I am having a look back at the photoblog, my photos during 2012, the blog traffic and what 2012 photography blog posts were the most popular.

I got the WordPress email which had some very interesting stats. I have combined this report with some from Google Analytics and the results are below.

My Year in Review

In comparison with 2011, my 2012 photography year was a very successful year. At the start of 2012 I decided to try and use my photos more, instead of just taking photos and letting them rot on a hard drive somewhere; I did this by entering competitions, submitting to press and also anywhere they can get some exposure. It was a much better year as a result.

  • 2 Photos published on 2013 Calendars (Morris Oil and Ardmore Pattern Festival)
  • Photos of Stavros Tall Ship published in the local Press
  • 2 Photos shown on 3e Weather in March and May
  • Other photos taken at work have been published in adverts and editorial for National Press and Magazines such as Confetti, IMAGE and Social and Personal which is very rewarding to see them in print.

Photoblog Stats for 2012

Website Traffic for 2012 was up 260% on 2011 with over 14,000 web visitors in 2012 – not groundbreaking but not bad for year 2 of a site which is not commercial and has no commercial advertising or marketing behind it.

The most popular day was 20th Feb when I posted a photo of the International Space Station passing over the N25 Bypass Bridge in Waterford. [ click here to view ]

Most Popular Posts were very interesting, not a photo but a “How To” item. The posts How to blur backgrounds using the aperture and How to change Depth of Field and make blurred backgrounds.

Traffic from Social Media was an obvious generator of web traffic with traffic from Twitter being highest and Facebook in 2nd place.

Popular Web Searches were how to blur background, Waterford city, aperture blur background, blur background, and Waterford red iron bridge … which was one of my favourites showing a train crashing off the Red Iron Bridge in Waterford.

Other Searches of Note include;

Plans for Photography in 2013

I am looking forward to doing some more advanced landscape photography shoots in 2013 with a bit more planning and scouting for the landscape shots and might even do some portrait or event photography also. I want to do more Seascape at Sunset shots using filters as well as experimenting with light and long exposures such as light trails, Star Trails and astrophotography.

You can follow me on Twitter @shanesphoto, on Facebook at Shane McDonald Photography Page, on 500px and on Flickr.

Happy New Year !