HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Was a great 2010, but just wait for 2011! WOW!

December 31, 2010 News 53

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GOODBYE 2010, HELLO 2011!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL who come here, lurk here, and contribute here! I love all of you and truly wish you a HAPPY 2011. May the new year bring  joy, happiness, new friends, new experiences, and new motivations. For me, I am as motivated as I have ever been thanks to a mixture of friends, family, the thrill of things to come and the fact that this blog has really taken off in the past couple of months. Traffic here has went up and it appears all who come here are having a blast. I am thrilled with the community that has been building here and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for 2011 as well.

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This site is growing FAST and I THANK ALL OF YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Check out these stats for the past 12 months…

In 2010 stevehuffphoto.com has had 6,085,640 page views and now is averaging 65,000 unique visitors per month with over 30,000 page views each and every day and December was a record month with over 702,000 page views. There has been 663 posts since this new version of the site started in November 2009 (and  you can see them all listed out HERE) with 14,793 comments left. I’m not gloating, I’m just excited 🙂

This site is growing! November 2009 had 47k page views. December of 2010 had over 700,000. Hoping to make it 1 million per month by March 2011. THANK YOU ALL!

So again, I thank ALL of you who come here and enjoy reading the posts by not only me, but the multiple talented readers who have submitted their own stories and articles. My dream for this site is just now starting to become a reality. I wanted a community that could come here and be civil, kind, and friendly. We now have that here. I have not even had to moderate ONE forum post, not a one!

I wanted this site to also be a place where we can all come and learn. I wanted us to all learn from each other. I can learn from you guys just as much as you can learn from me as I am above no one. So with the guest articles and commentary here it has been amazing and not only have all of the readers learned a ton, so have I.

I will always keep this site unique, personal, and true to what it started out as. Just a guy who has a passion for photography, gear and life! I will always let the readers have a voice as well as I feel this is important.

As many of you know my personal life was a bit rough in 2010 due to a divorce and at one point in July of 2010 this sites existence was threatened but again, thanks to you guys it continued on. So again..THANK YOU! (cant say it enough).

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Things to come in 2011

I can’t spill all the beans but as I said, I have plenty up my sleeve for 2011. More great real world reviews of the coolest gear, more great daily inspirations, more awesome guest articles and more contests that will get us all involved. Maybe even a collaboration or two 🙂 I will also be planning some cool meet ups in 2011 because the NYC meetup was a great success and I promise the next will be even bigger and better.

But ultimately for me it’s all about the passion. I think those who come here have the same passion that I do for photography. We may not all be pros, we may not all be amazing photographers, but does any of that matter? NO! What does matter is that we enjoy shooting…that we have a true love to create memories and if we get enjoyment and fulfillment from it then THAT is great for the soul. We only have one go round in this life so we MUST enjoy it 🙂 ANYONE who enjoys shooting, even if it is taking photos of their dogs, cats, birds or kids this site will always welcome you without having the stuffy “pro” attitude.

So I welcome the new year with great happiness. Can’t wait for more cameras, more lenses, more stories, more lessons and yes, even more controversy 🙂 If anyone is interested in submitting articles, stories or ANYTHING photo related that would be interesting to post here then email me and I’ll give you the details 🙂

Of course I can not forget the Leica M9 Giveaway contest which is coming in January 2011.

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Special 2010 Thanks…

I want to give special thanks to a few special friends who helped me out in 2010…

SEAL (~6) – Thanks brother…you have been an amazing friend this year. The highlights have been spoken about here of course from taking me on tour, letting me shoot with your Noctilux, and donating your own M9 for the upcoming contest. You have been a true friend and were one of the few there when I was down and out. Here is to more experiences in 2011! Of course you must check out picortwo.com and while there, register!

Ken Hansen – My favorite Leica dealer bar non. Ken has helped me from day one when I started the old site and to this day still helps me. Sure, I help him wiyth my recommendations but I do not recommend him for $$, I do so because he is a great guy, an amazing dealer and in todays world of customer service nightmares it really doesn’t get much better than Ken. He knows what he did to help me this year, so I THANK YOU KEN! His email is khpny19@aol.com if you ever need any gear, new or used.

Ashwin Rao – What a guy. Ashwin has submitted so many guest articles in 2010 and I know he is a busy guy, so thanks Ashwin! Hope to work with you more in 2011! Ashwin’s blog is here.

Riccis Valladares – I’d like to thank Riccis for helping me out at my 1st meet-up in NYC. He was the guest speaker and gave a killer presentation on shooting Leica while he shared some amazing photos. Hopefully we can work together again in 2011! Riccis site is here.

There are others but the ones above are those who influenced me, motivated me and helped me out in 2010 with the site.

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53 Comments

  1. Thank you, Steve for providing this awesome site! <3!! I'm excited for what's coming up in this New Year!!! Woohoo!!!

  2. Congrats!
    I enjoy this website and have it book marked. When I buy my next Camera…(GH2 maybe) I’ll try to remember to click on your links.
    So anyway .. . any thought about a GH2 review?

  3. Keep ‘ehm coming Steve!

    And thx for your efforts, your enthusiams all those past months in 2010 and I really do wish you well and that things work out/come out as you intented them to to in 2011!

    greetings,

    Michael S.

  4. Happy New Year to you and all those dear to you. Best wishes for a leicafragelisticE-Palidotious 2011!!! Thanks , Steve for persevering here during times that must have been hard to focus through. May your personal 2011 be as straight up over the top great as your site has been and will be.

    gg

  5. Happy New Year Steve..
    In reading your post above…I really got a sense of what you want this site to be about (and what it IS about!) and your words are fresh and inspiring for yourself and all of us who come here. The site is really well-rounded and has tons to offer. I am AMAZED at the growth and enthused by YOUR enthusiasm. Your site ups the ante of my personal passion to create images…with any camera! Post on my brother!!!!!
    –Bob

  6. Happy New Year Steve and co! Looking forward to what your site and it’s avid participants bring this year… Rock on 😉

  7. A Happy New Year Steve to you and your family, congrats on your continued success, and look forward to seeing what 2011 brings for you.

    Ty

  10. Happy New Year, Steve. It’s hard to add to what others have said, so I’ll just give it a hearty “+1” and wish you and the community warmth, health, happiness and good things in 2011!

    –Peter

  11. Happy New Year Steve and all you photo enthusiasts out there! Wishing everyone more joy, passion, and opportunities to make even more photographs! And hoping that our collective desire for an affordable digital rangefinder comes true this year!!! (are you listening, Leica??)

  12. Happy New Year Steve, and Everyone!

    Thanks for creating this site and providing us with an outlet of expression, and the opportunity to see that we are not alone in our enjoyment of range finder photography. And thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the success of this site.

    Paul

  13. Steve,

    A very happy New year to you and your family and thank you sooooo much for this site.

    I have to blame (read: thank) you for my jump into the Leica world. Specifically this image from your 5DMII review on your old site:

    http://web.mac.com/videoman69/Steve_Huff_Photos/CANON_5D_MARKII_REVIEW_AND_SAMPLES_2_files/M8AND5DII.jpg

    I had a 5DMII at that time, and when I saw this image, for the first time I truly realized what a monster size piece of gear I was using. I had never used a rangefinder prior to that, let alone really seen one. This image truly changed it for me. I got myself the M8 and over time got lenses. I got the 28 Summicron and the 50 Summicron based on your reviews. I eventually sold the M8 as I hated the shutter sound and got myself an M8.2 to replace it. Subsequently I sold all my canon gear except my 7 year old 10D, which I still have but never gets used.

    Now I can’t wait for the M9 or a future M10 🙂 Thanks again!

    And oh btw, how about a meet-up in Seattle….Ashwin is here and so are a few more of your readers I think 🙂

    Satya

    • Satya, I would love to meet up here in Seattle! There are many awesome Leica shooters here, including Aaron Piazza, Matt Driscoll, Peter Klein, Nat Burgess, Brad Husick, TIm Isaac (of Thumbs Up fame), Vinay Krishnaswami, Kay Yang, Nathan Wall, Roger Paperno, just to name a few…let’s do it!!

      Best,
      Ashwin

      • Ashwin – awesome, let us pull one together. You can email me at skommini at gmail dot com and we can chat.

        Satya

      • Ashwin: We might persuade Steve to come up here when Arizona gets too hot for human habitation. Right now he’s got the advantage. 🙂 It would be nice to get the Seattle bunch from getdpi and here together soon. My email is on my flickr profile–I just made you a contact.
        –Peter

  14. Steve, Happy New Years to you and your beloved ones! The same to everyone else as well! I can’t wait to see what the New Year brings, and I look forward to sharing many more guest articles….I’ll be here for ya 😉

    Steve, it’s been a great honor to write for you and see your community here grow into one of the most vibrant photography sites in the world for rangefinder photography and all other forms of film and digital photography. Your support of Leica is admirable, and I am thrilled to be part of that. I imagine that it’s been such a challenging year for you, but you have been an inspiration to all of us…

    Thanks for the props above. It’s very kind of you to include me in that group… I thank you for the chance to share my thoughts and photography with your community. You are quite a great guy yourself, and a true beacon of light in the Leica community!

  17. All the best for you and your family as well, and may we share even more great moments on this site in the coming year!

  19. BIG congrats to you Steve on the success of your site, wow that graph looks amazing considering how hard it is to get hits like that and keep gaining them too. Just goes to show that it’s YOU and your laid back, open and honest reviews and thoughts that pulls viewers towards your site and keeps them there.

    Maybe even you don’t really realise what you have done in such a short time, you have turned people against the tide to a simple form of photography and a frankly ancient and basic camera system but yet is so pure that even today in 2011 it still shines above most others to thinking individuals and YOU have stimulated peoples thought process into realising how and why it will benefit their photography as opposed to throwing cash and electronic gizmos that most other camera mags & sites insist is the correct way forward. Now that is some doing Steve!

    I know you’ve had a really hard year just by what you’ve told us about events in your personal life alone, I’m sure there’s even more on top of that that you haven’t told, but you’ve battled through it like a warrior and given your all in making this site be so great – so a MASSIVE well done and thanks and a pat on the back from all of us! Sit back man and have a beer and reflect on your achievement’s, you deserve it!!! 🙂

  22. I really appreciate the great reviews and objective commentary. All the best for next year!

  24. Happy New Year Steve. Your site continues to ROCK! Here’s to 2011 and continued success.
    Thanks for everything.

  25. Great job Steve. I’ve mainly been a lurker here, but you’ve built a great site with tons of great content and good people. Looking forward to seeing it grow in 2011.

  26. Thanks Steve! I’d like to extend a big thanks to Max too. I absolutely loved his Holga post.

  30. Happy New Year Steve!!!
    I visit your site every day more than once.
    Very comforting to hear that you have such good feedback from a growing community. I love it and it is very comforting for me, because I wish to visit you site every day for many years to come.
    Thanks!!!!

    • Thanks Max, your articles have also been very inspiring and have helped out quite a bit. I appreciate every single one you have written for this site. Great stuff.

  32. Haooy New Year Steve!
    I’m one of the late comers, finding your site a couple of months ago by pure accident. I was hooked straight away due to your overwhelming excitement for the subject and the friendliness of all the community who post on here. Here’s to a great 2011!
    Fraser

  33. Happy New year to you Steve. 2011 will be a watershed year I think. Looking forward to it!

  34. Happy new year Steve. Thanks to you for your hard work too. Being a noob to the Leica scene I’ve found your site really useful and informative. Your reviews are really what convinced me to part with my hard earned cash and buy an M9! Here’s to 2011; onwards and upwards!

  35. Thank you Steve for having the best photo site online, i love the feeling of this site, everyone is sivil and supportive. There arent many places like that online.. Wish you all a Happy New Year

  37. Dear Steve, you and your site have been a true inspiration and motivation for me in 2010. All the best for you, your family and your site in 2011.
    I will continue to visit and improve my skills so that I can comfortly submit pictures from time to time and thus contribute to this site.
    I enjoy the friendliness and respect for each other of your community/site visitors which makes each visit a joy and clearly differentiates this site from others.
    Best
    Frank

  39. I think it’s the other way round – WE can’t thank YOU enough for creating this beautiful website and letting all of us come here to see and hear and contribute and be amazed and pleased and happy.

    I wish you all the best in 2011 and I am really looking forward to seeing what’s up your sleeves… 😉

    Thank you, Steve.

    David

  40. A very Happy New Year to you Steve, and to the wonderful community following your awesome site. As a relative newcomer to Leica M photography I have found your website both inspirational and informative. You should be extremely proud of what you have built. Looking forward to what’s in store for 2011

  41. Happy new year, Steve

    Happy to see that your site is growing! I visit them every night for inspiration, information or just plain fun.

    Hope in 2011 you might consider international travel, such as to my country, Indonesia.
    We have a growing Leica community here, called Id-Leica. We love your site!
    We’d love to meet up with you (and perhaps US team) and have some sharing workshop and co-hunting sessions all over the beautiful tropical country of Indonesia. Does that dream seem a far-fetched wish?

    Anyway, here’s wishing you and your family a wonderful new year filled with prosperity, health, love, joy n peace….

    Andrew

  43. Happy New Year Steve! Thanks for a great year of enjoying this site throught its ups and downs — and it was more ups than down! Woohoo! I can feel that it’ll be all ups in 2011! Thanks for even letting a noob like me contribute to your site. And finally, hopefully 2011 won’t hurt my wallet as much as 2010 did, thanks to you! 🙂 Wishing you nothing but the best in 2011.

  45. Congrats on a great year Steve. You’ve done very well in a really short time and deserve credit for the brilliant contribution you make to the online photography world. All the best for 2011.

    Kristian

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