Well, around this time the past 2 years, I have published a yearly round up of my photographic journey. The 2008 and 2007 articles have been reasonably popular, so I will try and make the 2009 edition a good read as well.
The previous 2 years have been contrasting in that the 1st year was a real learning experience. The 2nd year seems to have been a year of experimentation. Looking back at the previous 12 months, it is hard to say what was the overall theme. I think maybe I had a better understanding of light.
Gull on Gold
I was more confident of being able to use light to my advantage. Knowing when shooting into the sun would work. When some blown highlights wouldn’t ruin the photo. And maybe using some of my better quality equipment to take advantage of certain situations.
Really, does Barry need to do that?
That photo of Barry the seagull flipping his head over is still to this day one of my favourite photos. The shallow depth of field and the fact the the one seagull not conforming is just out of focus really makes me chuckle.
March 2008 rolled around and I thought I would have a go at some high speed photography. Cue the fish tank and golf ball. I rigged up a couple of $5 flashes I had acquired, set the camera up with a remote, turned the lights out and flash!
Splash #2.
It wasn’t quite that easy, but I was very happy with the result. And the people on Flickr voted with their Fave buttons. The set up for the golf ball shot can be seen below. The spotlights were just to show what was going on.
Splash setup.
My fascination with seagulls was still as strong as ever, and baiting them into frame with hot chips is always fun.
Chip Catcher.
The high speed photography needed to be revisited, so I rolled the dice and came up with this.
3 and 6, where are you?
April last year was Sydney Royal Easter show time. I really can’t recommend the show enough for photographers. It is a gold mine if you are willing to wander around for the day.
Winner!
Dust in the air.
Yummo
April also saw me trying to make a cheap as chips right light for macro photography. The 3 small LEDs gave off a surprising about of light, but not really sufficient to help with macro photography. Self portraits on the other hand.
Cpt Rough’s $12 Ring Light
April 25th sees ANZAC day in Australia. A time for the old and young returned servicemen and women to march in remembrance. Once again, it is a photographers gold mine. The old Diggers and the respect and dignity they show is really something to admire.
A returned serviceman.
May, and things are starting to cool down. Autumn is with us, which means the sun is rising later in the morning, which makes sunrise photos a little easier to achieve. When you go out and the water is still and it looks like a sheet of glass, it is happy days for the lucky photographer.
Ocean Baths
And when the local wildlife puts on a show, it is even better.
“If I have told you once……”
I did a trip down to Canberra for a mates 40th, and it is quite a nice place in Autumn.
4S
It was about this time that a package arrived from Belarus, containing a Zenitar 16mm fisheye lens. I promptly named it Vladimir. He produced images like this.
U turn?
Just as promptly, I sold him. Fisheye just doesn’t excite me. I know in the right hands they are amazing, but it wasn’t for me.
June 2008 saw me out and about quite a bit, but I didn’t really take many quality images. Given the running around I was doing, my favourite photo of the month came out of my back yard.
Drops
In July, in the very car park below, a Flickr friend of mine turned my photographic world on its ear.
Cruising at Maccas
Harry, being the generous guy he is, gave me one of his old film cameras. A Canon EOS 1000F. Life was about to change for this hack photographer. I had now been using a digital SLR for about 2 and a half years. I knew very little about film, but I did like some of the images I had seen people taking on film. So I loaded the camera up with some Ilford B&W film, and off I went.
South Coast Music
There is something about film that I fell in love with. I still can’t put my finger on it. There is an undefinable X factor to it. You don’t get the immediacy of digital, so you are certainly a lot more careful with composition and exposure settings. I love it.
With in a fortnight, I had the following collection.
Fil-Lm
it was the start on an eBay addiction. I can’t help but buy cheap film cameras and see how they work. I never thought I would embrace it like I have. I even started to develop my own negatives to scan into the computer. What was happening?
The negs
So July was all about the film. August was here and that meant 1 thing. ROADTRIP! August 23rd was the day and I was off. What a great trip. Places like Dubbo, Bourke, Louth, Tilpa, Broken Hill, Menindee, Ivanhoe, Hay and lots of places in between. I won’t dwell on it, just show 3 of my favourite photos from the trip here.
Toorale Station
Blue and Yellow
Fleece
Again, I had the time of my life, and I am very lucky to have a wife who lets me go away and have my boy time.
September rolled around and I had a trip to Sydney for work. I stayed with my good mate Macca and we got up early the next morning for some sun rise shots.
Dawn Dip
Much to my surprise, this photo was selected for printing and hanging in an exhibition in London! The Photomonth 2008 exhibition is huge, and 16 Flickr photos would be on display there. And mine was one of them.
I was pretty happy with that little win. In late September, a group of people from the Wollongong Pictorial Mafia held an exhibition of their own. It was a terrific show, with some very talented people showing off their photos.
2x the mugness
October was a quiet month after the previous months excitement. A nice shot of a calf was about the best of October.
Should I stick my neck out?
November, and more filmy goodness. I had been watching numerous TLR cameras on eBay for a while, but they were always too expensive for me. Until…
New Old Toy
Medium format film. Something new to me. Would the photos turn out? It was pretty much completely manual, with no meter.
Danny
Well, slightly over exposed, but I am happy with it for a 1st go at a portrait.
December was very quiet. Some photos of our friends daughters was the only big deal of the month.
January saw a trip down to Albury, and on the way I spotted this sunset.
Skeleton
Some more work with the Yashica down the beach was fun, and resulted in this shot.
Making Tracks
I also did my 1st gig photography in January. I have posted about it on here a little while back.
Cam
End of January and my 1st roll of film out of the latest film camera, a Holga 120, is ready to go. The details are here.
Monty, Elvis and the roll of film.
So that about wraps it up for another yearly update. It has taken a few days to get all the information together, but it is good to look back at the last year and what I have managed to capture both with digital and film.
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