Upgrades for a New Year of Production

Last week I delivered my final contract edit for 2013, which essentially marked 4 straight months of contract projects on top of a full-time photography/editing job. I have never been more consistently busy in my professional life than I was during this time. I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to choose some really cool projects to take on, and at the same time I think I was walking a pretty fine line. 

Now that the chaos is finally dying down, it's amazing to look back at how much I've done since mid-August. Without much free time to spend the contract money that I'd been making, these last few weeks I've been celebrating an early Christmas by upgrading my arsenal of production equipment. From a new professional video tripod to a new shotgun mic and sound accessory kit, I've spent a lot of time online doing some guilt-free spending. I've also upgraded all of my video and photography editing software, and added a few new external hard drives for cataloging all of my backups. 

It's not even that any of my equipment is in that rough of shape, but with every completed project I feel the urge to make an improvement or add a new option. It's a pragmatic way of keeping my equipment up to date.

The upgrades are also just an excuse to play around and get excited about taking on new projects in 2014. I bought myself a new DSLR this fall for that very reason, and it worked at getting me excited to experiment again. I can't wait to see what the new year holds, and in the meantime I'm having a blast playing with my toys. All those extra hours do come with perks! Thankfully, I finally have a bit of downtime to get myself organized and enjoy them.