A Personal and Professional Recap of 2024

Well, here we are on the very last day of 2024. For some people, the change from December to January is just like any other month throughout the year, and I get that to some extent. However, I also appreciate the symbolism of turning over into a new year with all of the possibilities, challenges, and habits that we will set and face.

The end of the year is also an excellent opportunity to take stock of things that have happened and recap major events and milestones. So, that’s what I’d like to do here. And even though this blog post is probably more for me than anyone else, I hope you enjoy your time reading this article (and all the other articles and videos published here).

Finally, before we jump in, I want to emphasize my thanks and appreciation for YOU! Your continued support allows me to do what I love more than anything: serve this community of Lightroom photographers looking to improve their skills behind the camera and in front of the computer (or mobile device). Whether you’ve purchased one of my courses or preset packs, subscribed and watched the videos I publish to my YouTube channel, or just browsed around this website, it all gives me the energy to keep striving to provide you with excellent content.

2024, On a Personal Note

William Matiash - 1951-2024

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to value my privacy a lot more, and it has resulted in me not sharing a lot about my personal life. I’m not militant about it or anything, but it’s quite the change in direction from Brian in his 20s and 30s. Still, I do want to acknowledge a particularly sad and heavy reason why 2024 ranks pretty much at the lowest spot in my life, and that’s because I lost my father, Willie, on June 20th, to a rare form of bone-marrow cancer called Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

My dad was an outstanding guy, a wonderful husband, and a helluva father. As a guy who immigrated to the US from Ukraine before I was born with hardly a penny to his name and not knowing much English at all, he lived his life as the embodiment of the American dream. Shortly after arriving, he met my mom (who is also a Ukrainian immigrant), got married after a few weeks of dating, and then I came into the picture shortly thereafter, followed by my sister about 18 months after that.

My dad worked his tail off to provide for his family, and provide he did. As someone who grew up in abject poverty, he did everything he could to ensure that his family would have everything they needed. He and my mom did everything they could to give us a loving home, plenty of food, and great educations.

My dad was also ridiculously jacked and worked out at least six days a week. He was an active guy and ate cleanly. So, when he was first diagnosed with Myelofibrosis a few years ago, we were all shocked. But, my dad was able to live a pretty normal life with the treatments that he was prescribed. Unfortunately, things went south earlier this year when the Myelofibrosis mutated into AML, which was the worst-case prognosis that the doctors gave us. My dad spent most of Jan - May in the hospital, and was transferred to hospice care in mid-May. Sadly, as strong as my dad was, AML was the one battle he just couldn’t beat and on June 20th, 2024, his pain and suffering had ended.

I’d visit my dad at the hospital and hospice almost every day of the week and I’d be totally wiped, physically and emotionally, when I’d get home. However, I found some solace by sitting in my backyard with my camera, telephoto lens, and tripod, and would photograph the grackles, blue jays, and woodpeckers that’d keep me company. Photography was the one thing that I could turn to when I needed to let everything else go and focus on what was literally in front of me, and I’d like to think that my dad was up there encouraging those birds to pose extra still for me.

2024, On a Professional Note

From the website

Thankfully, for all the sadness I experienced personally this year, I also found tremendous happiness and growth professionally… and so much of it is because of you! To start, I never would have imagined how successful my Lightroom Everywhere course would be. And yet in 2024, I saw the course exceed over 1,000 student enrollments! That is just wild! When I first began outlining the course, I was worried that no one would be interested in learning how to manage, edit, and share photos using Lightroom’s cloud ecosystem of apps. How wrong I was!

I also launched two more courses in 2024, both focused on specific areas of Lightroom. In February, I launched Lightroom Landscapes, a course dedicated to helping Lightroom users develop smarter and more sustainable editing workflows for your outdoor photography. In August, I launched Lightroom Masking Essentials, a lightweight course to help Lightroom users gain a mastery of one of the app’s most powerful tools: the masking panel. The response to both of these courses has been beyond encouraging, so stay tuned for some new courses in the works!

From YouTube

Next to my website, YouTube has been the platform that I’ve focused on growing the most in 2024. Leading up to 2024, I set a personal goal to publish 52 videos, one per week, just to see if I could maintain that consistency, and I’m happy to report that I just posted my 52nd video on Monday. So, I can check that item off the to-do list!

Like many growing YouTube channels, I also have a goal of exceeding 100,000 subscribers… although I don’t have a set time horizon to accomplish that because I can’t control the rate in which I gain new subscribers. Still, in 2024, I gained 12,400 new subscribers, which was a 42% increase compared to 2023. Not too shabby! Also, last week, the channel broke 40,000 subscribers, so things are looking good!

Earlier in the year, I also experimented with doing a weekly live show called Lightroom Everywhere Live, which I really enjoyed. However, it just wasn’t sustainable with everything going on personally. Still, it’s an itch that I want to scratch, and I’m thinking of revisiting that next year.

In the field

2024 was a pretty slow year in terms of travel and workshops given my dad’s declining condition for the first half of it. However, I did have the best time co-leading a photography workshop in July with my good friend, Nick Sinnott from Chicago Photography Classes.

We called the workshop, “From City to Sand,” and it afforded us an opportunity to give our attendees a variety of subjects to photograph from the urban surroundings of downtown Chicago to the rolling hills of Indiana Dunes National Park. We were even treated to a stunning sunset right behind the Chicago skyline thanks to Nick's meticulous planning using PhotoPills. It really was magical.

Enter Adobe

I am not remotely bashful about admitting that I am a HUGE Adobe fanboy, and I make absolutely no apologies for it. While no company is perfect, and Adobe certainly took its licks in 2024, I have always loved this company because it develops some of my favorite apps ever created: Lightroom and Photoshop (and Adobe Express is quickly growing in that list). I’ve wanted to work with (and for) Adobe for years, and it seems that everything finally crystallized for me this year.

The Lightroom Advisory Board

I wish I could talk more about my experiences joining the first-ever Lightroom Advisory Board, but I’d be violating all sorts of NDA conditions. The only thing I’m allowed to say is that I was a part of it, so there ya go. Suffice it to say that it was a truly wonderful experience that I’ll always be grateful for.

MAX in Miami

Me with two of my favorite Lightroom colleagues, Pei Ketron and Ben Warde

I have ALWAYS wanted to attend Adobe MAX, the company’s annual creativity conference. But, tickets are not cheap at all and I couldn’t justify the cost. Also, none of the companies I worked for at the time would send me. So, when my friend and colleague, Pei Ketron (pictured above) invited me to not only attend MAX this year in Miami (just an hour south of where I live), but to actually present a session and a ring lab, I was floored.

The overall experience was easily one of the best of my life especially because I got to spend so much time with my new Adobe colleagues and have meaningful face-to-face conversations with our end users. It absolutely takes the top spot of conferences I’ve attended (and I’ve attended a lot of them in my career). While passes are expensive, if it’s something that you can budget for, I highly recommend it. It’ll be in LA next October and I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to attend again.

© Renee Robyn

© Renee Robyn

Not only was I able to present at Adobe MAX this year, I was also featured on the Adobe Blog within the article announcing all of the new features added to Lightroom Desktop, Mobile, and Web! I was asked to produce a short video showcasing one of the new tentpole features: Quick Actions. It was also in that blog post that Adobe added a little tidbit that was one of the most pivotal career goals of my life.

© Adobe

Brian Matiash, Software Quality Engineer, Lightroom Desktop

I’ve worked for some very cool companies throughout my career in the photography and tech industries, and I’m so grateful for each of those experiences. However, the very crown jewel for me has always been to join Adobe. Well, not just join Adobe… but to join the Lightroom team. It’s something I’ve been trying to do for YEARS, and 2024 was the year that it finally happened. On September 30th, I officially joined the Lightroom Desktop team as a Software Quality Engineer. In short, some of my core responsibilities are to thoroughly test new features that are being developed before we release them (basically, my version of being let loose in a candy store with no adult supervision), filing bug reports when I uncover them, and acting as a liaison between you, our beloved users, and the product management and marketing teams.

If I sound like I’m gushing, it’s because I am. This is my dream job, and I genuinely can’t wait to start each new day with my team because our singular goal is to make Lightroom the best app it can be for you (and for me). And now with me being on the inside and seeing how the sausage is actually made, I have an even deeper appreciation for how hard everyone on the Lightroom team works and how passionate they are about our users and about the love of photography. The fact that I can play even a small role in that is something that I never want to take for granted.

All Eyes on 2025

So, there you have it. 2024 is all wrapped up and ready to be filed in the ol’ archive. Plans for 2025 are still taking shape, but I’m hoping to return to traveling some more on photo-specific trips. I would love to get a few workshops scheduled, and I’ll be sure to let you know if I do.

In terms of courses, the one that I’m most excited about is tentatively called “Photoshop for Lightroom Photographers.” My goal with this course is to teach you how to make the most out of that exceptionally powerful tool without getting overwhelmed and bogged down by its enormity. I’m still working on the outline, and I’ll share more soon, so be sure that you’re subscribed to my Lightroom Everywhere newsletter to be the first to learn more.

As far as Adobe goes, we’re heads-down working on all sorts of new features and improvements for you. As you can imagine, that’s about as much as I can discuss, but trust me when I say that you’re gonna love what we’re cooking up.

So with that, I’d like to thank you all again SO MUCH for your continued support. I am such a blessed guy to be able to serve all of you, and I pray that I can continue to do so in 2025 and for many years to come. I wish you and your families a wonderful, prosperous, and healthy 2025. Let’s do this!