Happy New Year!!!; The Best of The Best At DigitalProTalk

Good Morning Everybody, or afternoon, depending on your partying proclivities last night;~)

What a year it was last year here at DigitalProTalk.com - over 1,500 posts to date since I started DigitalProTalk.com about 18 months ago. Reader ship has tripled since last year at this time and I offer each of you my sincere, hearth-felt thank you for making that happen. My deepest gratitude too, to my fellow blogging buddies who felt DigitalProTalk's content was worthy to share with their readers. CameraDoJo.com just named DigitalProTalk as one of the top 20 photography sites for 2008 - thanks guys.

A special thank you to Scott Kelby at PhotoshopInsider.com, David Hobby at the Strobist.com, R.C Concepcion at Layers Magazine, mega-blogger 1001 at 1001 Noisy Cameras, Jim Talkington at ProPhotoLife.com, uber news blogger ImagingInsider at The ImagingInsider.com, our friends over at PhotographyBay.com and so many more for their timely mentions throughout this past year - A Great BIG "Thank You" from me to each of you! And one last Extra Big Thank You to my wife, LaDawn, who proofs every entry and makes the final posts day or night. By the way.... all those mistakes you find happen to be her fault, not mine;~)

Here are some of the highlights from this past year:
Podcasts were introduced and get quite a number of listens - 630,000 listens from its current library of interviews. One of my favorite was my interview with the famous Donny Hoyle of "You Suck At Photoshop" fame. Even John Nack over at Adobe picked up on it. Just hit the G-Cast widget in the right column to hear all the episodes posted to date. Look for many more episodes in 2009.

One of the surprise hits for me was my post "Conversations/Discussions/Insights" just a week ago [link]. This post provoked great response and, I think, proves to me that these kinds of posts can generate a wonderful collaborative resource for DPT readers worldwide. Look for more of these types of posts for sure in the new year.

I'm also stoked about the video capabilities of fusion of the new Canon and Nikon DSLR/Video cameras too. I plan to use this new technology to bring much richer content to DPT. These cameras make it that much easier to do just that. So, look forward to some pretty cool Technique Tuesdays.

I still love doing the "Image of the Day" posts too - over 300 for 2008 alone!. Although I feature wedding and portrait images primarily, I also like that it is not wedding photography each day. I've said it before here and I believe it. We need to get our Brain Juices flowing in other directions too. It's only then that we bring that new creative energy to our primary field of endeavor. I pledge to continue to keep those images interesting and diversified and informative to our DPT readers.

And, don't worry - Technique Tuesday and Business Day Thursday will continue though out 2009 along with many other topics as well.

That said, I promise that DigitalProTalk will continue to bring interesting, informative, content, insights, and news from our exciting digital photography world as long as my two typing fingers are up to the chore.

How about a look at the top traffic posts, most popular posts, and top videos from the past year. Here they are, Enjoy! -David

Top 5 Posts
1. It's Revelations Monday: 8 Hours With The Canon 5D Mark II
2. Canon 5D Mark II Video Monday!!!
3. Heads-Up Wednesday: No Photos In Westminster Abbey & The Analysis Of A Wedding Shoot - Part 1
4. Technique Tuesday: My Cheatin' Light - Or How To get Your Flash To Sync At Higher Sync Speeds Than Normal, and Alligators On Location
5. Highlight Tone Priority - Image Salvation!

Top 5 Video Tutorials
1. Technique Tuesday: My Cheatin' Light - Or How To get Your Flash To Sync At Higher Sync Speeds Than Normal, and Alligators On Location
2. Technique Tuesday: Dancing With The Light Fantastic - Getting The Best Light At Wedding Receptions With Multiple Strobes
3. It's Technique Tuesday This Thursday - Rembrandt Lives: Classical Portraiture
4. "Evening Blues" - A Cool Photoshop Tutorial
5. Technique Tuesday - "Our Emerging Future"

Most Commented Posts
1. Quick Hit Wednesday: Too Much Blogging?; New Training Session on Kelby Training; Inexpensive DYI Flash Gels; and Tom Hogarty Over At Photo
2. Technique Tuesday Again: Conversations, Discussions, Questions and Insights
3. Inspiration Friday: Game Changing Camera Technologies - Who Cares About Video On My DSLR
4. [B]Business Day Thursday - 7 Really Easy Things To Sell To Add To Your Bottom Line
5. I Don't Think I'm Dumb, Maybe I'm Just Stupid

Hey gang, That's it for me today. Thanks again for a great year and let's make 2009 even better. Check back tomorrow for another episode of "Gear Bag Friday: The Little Light That Could". See ya' then, -David