The Year in Review - 2024
Flippin’ Nora, that came around quickly!
2024 has been a roller coaster of a year, with record revenues, record tax liabilities, and a crash right at the end to finish things off. So…..what’s it all about?
April through October proved to be a milestone period, with revenues reaching levels I could only have dreamed of a few years ago. Luckily, I resisted the urge to spend anything substantial, and put any excess away into a fund covering a potentially huge tax bill, and any emergencies that might come my way. One of those emergencies actually happened right at the end of the year when a multi-branch estate agency I’ve worked with for almost ten years recruited an in-house employee to capture “grab & run” jpegs for the basic jobs. I’m still on the books to shoot prestige stuff though. Nothing lasts forever in any career, so I’ll get marketing with a view to shooting high value stuff in the next couple of weeks.
The side effects of 90+ hour weeks become more apparent as you get on, and this year forced me to step back from trying to fit everything in. I reached out to my old mate James, who stepped in to cover my shooting commitments south of the Tyne, and this didn’t affect my revenue because I filled my diary with local jobs rather than wasting hours in a car every day. In September I started to take the odd weekend off, and spent ultra-valuable time with my 14 year old boy and 16 year old girl - wild camping in the Scottish Southern Uplands. Getting out in the hills has had a huge effect on my well being, and hopefully it will continue to be a valuable and enjoyable pastime well into my 60’s.
Once again, I’ve not had a favourite property of the year. It’s just been a solid queue of “nosebag” houses with the odd millionaires gaff thrown in here and there. I’ve seen them all now, and they’re pretty much all the same.
The least favourites have become the ones that, for some reason, require multiple trips for some ridiculously minor reason. Fortunately, this will now become a thing of the past. In January, I was sent to shoot a house in a remote part of the Weardale moors. This place took me over 2 hours to get to, and was only accessible with a proper 4WD vehicle. I had to walk the last bit with my gear. The first visit was sorted in an hour or so, with drone shots done, and all seemed well until I was asked to go back to redo the exteriors in the sunshine. It’s in a steep-sided valley, so in January, it almost never sees sunlight. I use an app called Lightrac which gives precise sun positions in terms of direction and elevation, and I saw an opportunity at the very start of the day to get a bit of light on the front of the house, so off I went for another 5 hour return trip to capture the few required shots. Imagine my delight when I was told that the vendor now also wanted a shot of the bloody bricks on the wall…… The BRICKS! My third visit involved a 30 second task and another 5 hour drive. Not amused - all for £90 minus expenses.
Generative AI has transformed my working practices this year. Before GAI, I would have to go through a room, or an exterior and remove any distractions like bins, clothes, stuff on tables, things hanging on doors etc. Some people (Pensioners and tenants) often couldn’t give a shit about clearing anything up, so this task could take ages. Removing wet flannels behind toilets (used for wiping arses) was something I really didn’t want to do anymore, so it’s now simpler to draw a ring around the offending item(s) and click a button in Photoshop to magically replace them with what would normally be there without the clutter. I can also generate copyright-free illustrations for this blog by using a text-to-image generator rather than trawling search engines. There’s one task involving automatic tagging and renaming of folders that I just can’t do using AI, so hopefully that’ll get sorted in 2025.
Healthwise, it’s been a mixed bag. My diabetic control has been nothing short of awful. I’ve made a concerted effort to improve this in recent months, and my next blood test is on my birthday. My shoulder injury - sustained during a ridiculous attempt to find a property while carrying my own body weight - has continued to give me serious pain all day, every day. I just tolerate it, but the suspected rotator cuff tear will need to be addressed in the coming weeks before I get too ancient.
So - the year ahead. Keeping things simple is going to be the key. I was intending to sell all my mirrorless gear to get some medium format equipment as mentioned in a previous post, and I’d try to do some personal work in order to create a commercial and architectural portfolio presence. My main real estate client now is looking to expand their marketing methods to include video, and I’m well setup to accommodate that intent. I’ve also got a few high-end clients in my sights, and I’ll be setting up social channels in the next few weeks to get some exposure out there again.
Tonight will be a quiet one as usual - I probably won’t even see midnight - so have a safe evening, enjoy the end of the year, and a happy new year to you all!
