My photography has improved. Overall, there's good shots, average shots and poor shots but the ratio of good to bad has improved over the year. I'm shooting in raw nearly all the time and my preference has become to shoot on manual much more often than I ever would have.
There were big changes in my life across the period of time of this project. My marriage breaking up was the biggest by a long way and keeping on taking photos helped me through. Having something to concentrate on each day, even if it was only for a short time, was useful for me. I want to keep this post about the photography; the relationship stuff would need a blog of it's own.
I changed my camera. Out went the old reliable D90 and in came the kick-ass D800. I miss the D90 but the capability of the D800 is incredible. I'm still coming to terms with it and it could be a little better for sports and live music stuff, but it simply is an amazing piece of kit.
I was bemoaning the fact that I've never developed a "style" in terms of photography. My eldest daughter described my approach to photography as being like Pokemon - I collect style and techniques and then move on to something different and it can seem like I'm trying to bag as many techniques as I can. That is true - I see something I like and I want to try it/replicate it/ find out how it was done. But I also run with it too, I push the techniques when and where I can and see what else is possible. It was also pointed out to me that constantly changing and experimenting may actually be my style. Trying different styles and approaches has been great fun. I think I had been getting into a bland rut and was relying too much on the views and opinions of a small number of people.
For a while I forgot about what other people thought and just did what I wanted to do, exposed myself to areas of photography I'd never tried (landscapes, long exposure, light painting, boudoir) and generally tried to branch out. I also made the effort to express myself through my photography on at least a couple of occasions - I actually tried to use pictures to communicate how I was feeling at a particular time.
Leaving the camera club I had been in and not joining another was also the correct move for me. I feel that there's a certain narrow view of photography that exists within the camera club setup here in Northern Ireland and I think I had become too tuned into that rather than focusing on what I what I wanted to do. Seeing pictures that do well in competitions made me feel two things; firstly, they were generally all great shots if a bit over-processed. Secondly they just weren't the sort of shots I wanted to take.
I think, looking back, that I've also been forced to push myself more in terms of getting to grips with the technical aspects of shooting. I've also had the opportunity to do some "semi-pro" shoots where someone has been relying on me to produce the goods. I guess this started with Belfast Roller Derby who adopted me as their official photographer but there have been plenty of others, and the opportunities have increased across the year, mainly due to positive word of mouth and also simply getting in touch with people and asking if they needed a photographer. Some say yes, some say no, but there's no point in getting put off by the odd knock-back. If you're serious, you keep asking. Eventually people will ask you.
Keeping the blog has been a positive experience for me as well. Posting weekly rather than daily updates worked well for me and pulling in anything up to 1300 views a month meant that people were at least having a look. I'd have liked to have generated more comments on the blog about the photos I was posting. There were a few good ones, a few bad ones and a couple of quite nasty and hurtful ones. I have to admit that the nastier ones hurt when I read them, and I did have a wee rant about one in particular but it never stopped me pushing forward and keeping going. I guess you don't write a blog and put yourself "out there" unless you can't put up with someone having a go at you or your content.
There were a couple of comments I decided not to publish that were spiteful, and were either left as "anonymous" or (I'm pretty cure) were left under a false name. I was fairly sure I knew where they had come from and as such, hoped that I was able to see them for what they were. It certainly wasn't about the photography. There were times over the last year when I was less robust mentally and emotionally than I wanted to be but again, having a purpose and a direction kept me on track.
Anyhow, I'm taking a break from the picture-a-day thing for a while. I may kick off again in the new year with something a bit more focussed on some of the areas of photography I want to develop a bit more. I'm going to keep on burning stuff and the orbs will still be spinning. Here's one from the weekend, just in case you've read this far and wondered where the photos on a photoblog were.
Uncle Colin burns some wire wool. Marble Hill, November 2012
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