Six things from 2022

Well, here we are again. Rapidly heading towards the end of the year. Which can mean only one thing…a few reflections on the year just gone. So, with no further delay, six things I’m taking from the last year.

Street Photography

I really feel like my street photography has improved a lot this past year, to the extent that, towards the end of the year, I started to feel it’s becoming my main type of photography. However, I think that’s largely down to the time of year and the type of street photography I’ve enjoyed. As the nights have drawn in, I’ve really enjoyed shooting on the streets in the evenings. I tend to find so many more opportunities than during the daytime to create interesting photos. I think this particularly comes down to a combination of the vibe at night, but also that there are great opportunities for more interesting and abstract photography than during the day. For example, in winter the cold evenings and warm interiors often leads to condensation on bar/restaurant/cafe windows which, for me, makes for some interesting abstract photos. Of course, some times evening shoots can leave you going home empty-handed. The reliance on light and, from my point of view, striking a balance between too many people and too few, can make some evening photowalks a bit of a drag. But when they pay off, they seem to really pay off.

I’m also finding with my night street photography that I am a bit more adventurous with my edits. Pushing it a little outside the realms of what it looked like in the moment. I’ve been pretty chuffed to have a few people make reference to “blade runner” in relation to my night photography, which is a huge compliment to me as it’s one of my favourite films. Obviously, the streets of East Kent bear no relation to the street scenes in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, but pushing those edits so they resemble that kind of imagery does, I think, give that extra atmosphere that my daytime street photography often lacks.

Autumn Photography

It’s become somewhat of a ritual now…as we enter October and peak autumnal colours, every single weekend is spent at the local woods, looking for compositions and hoping to capture those beautiful, vivid autumn colours. It’s fairly typical for me to spend about 3-4 hours in the woods every Sunday at this time of year. Far more time than I would ordinarily spend and, to be fair, pretty much at the limits of what I can get away with without creating an issue at home. There’s no better place to be, in my mind, if you want to be out taking photos in the autumn, than the woods. And if you get some fog or mist thrown into the mix too…even better!

This year, I have really felt that my woodland photography has improved a lot. Every year I feel I am making progress, but this year in particular I came home with a host of autumn woodland photographs that I was really proud of. I think part of this comes down to better editing, but I also think my composition has improved and the technical aspects have improved too. Of course, we’re all on a journey of improvement so I suspect I will feel that next year’s are better than this year’s but nonetheless, I am certainly happy with what I’ve taken in 2022.

Film Photography

This year I’ve also rediscovered film photography. Ok, it’s with a point and shoot camera, but it’s been interesting using the Mju II again after 20 years. There’s been a lot to [re]learn about shooting with film, not least the “decisive moment”, but it has been an enjoyable experience so far. For now, the Mju II is purely a carry-around camera when I’m travelling to and from work. Picking up on opportunities as and when I stumble upon them. I try not to be trigger happy (it’s too expensive to be firing away left, right and centre after all), and really try to pick my moments. It’s been a challenge learning not to shoot too early, and not to shoot too late. But it has been fun and I have been pleased with some of the results whilst I figure it all out. A second film has just been completed and is due to be sent for processing…let’s see how that turns out.

Fuji 33mm f1.4

This is, without doubt, the most expensive lens I have ever bought, and it’s been worth every penny. Having started getting into some low light street photography, I began to feel like a 1.4 lens would be a good move. I took a look at a few options, including the classic Fuji 35mm 1.4, but in the end I decided to go for the brand new 33mm. I don’t regret it for an instant. It’s been a fantastic lens so far, at a focal length I really enjoy working with (not least because it means I can take a few steps back from my subject). Since buying it, my other Fuji lenses (the 23mm f2 and 35mm f2) have barely got a look in. In fact, I’m already mulling over the 16mm 1.4 or 18mm 1.4 to compliment it when I’m out on the streets. I won’t get either any time soon, but either one of those are definitely on my wishlist.

As for the 33mm, it’s incredibly sharp and although it’s a fair bit bigger than the f2s, it’s not a chore to carry around. I’ve happily shot with it all day long and not had a problem. I’m not one for fixating on gear, but it’s certainly one of those lenses where you just want to get out and use it. When a piece of kit makes you want to go out and take photos, you know it’s a winner.

Getting back into blogging

I’ve been blogging in various guises now for just short of twenty years. But I’ve really dropped the habit in recent years. Time was I used to almost blog daily. Surprisingly, kids coming along kinda had an impact on that, and as they grew older, I spent less and less time sitting down at a computer for an hour or two and writing whatever I wanted to write. With the advent of opening an online store, I realise now that it might be helpful to start blogging more regularly, not just to share my photography and my thoughts on photography, but also to help promote this website, draw in traffic and all that yucky marketing stuff which comes with selling products. And so here I am, blogging more regularly. I’m aiming to make 8pm on a Wednesday my standard blog post publishing time, and will promote these posts on all the usual social media platforms. Any shares, likes or subscriptions to my blog would be welcome of course!

Online Store

Of course the biggest deal for me this year was opening a store selling prints. It’s not something I want to get too hung up about, it’s just there to highlight what I consider my “best” work and make it easier for people who would like to purchase a print. Ultimately, I don’t want to pressure myself into making it a big deal, so it’s there, people can buy prints, I’ll promote it periodically, but I won’t stress if I don’t sell [m]any. Let’s see if I sell any from the store in 2023!

And with that…onward to 2023. Hope you all have a great new year and the very best wishes for 2023.

Shooting woodland in autumn

I wrote recently about how summer is a tricky time for photography and, as a result, I tend to shift to street photography as I find far more options when I go out than I would do in the landscape. Of course, summer is one thing, autumn is quite another. Autumn has to be my all-time favourite time of year for landscape photography. The colours, the weather, the sheer number of compositions that can be had in the woods…it’s hard to beat.

From the moment October comes around, going to the woods every week becomes my habit. Every Saturday and/or Sunday I spend several hours wandering around, looking for compositions. Quite often the beginning of October isn’t the best, but that doesn’t matter. Even if the colours aren’t right, it’s still important to explore the woods, to seek out new areas, and to find new compositions. If nothing else, spending 3-4 hours in the woods per day is a great way to get some exercise!

Returning back to the same area time and time again can seem quite boring and repetitive. And, well, it can be. BUT. It does also yield benefits. By getting familiar with the landscape, you spot opportunities, you learn about the landscape and how light and conditions affect the scene and, ultimately, it helps you get better photos. Certainly this year I think it has paid off, and I feel I have the best set of autumn photos I have ever managed to capture. Of course, next year I will say that now I have the best I’ve taken, but still, that’s the way of photography I guess…

In terms of what I look for in the woods, it tends to be single trees or collections of trees. I used to take a wide-angle lens and try to capture everything in the scene, but now I am much more focused (pardon the pun). Given the chaos of the woodland, I try to simplify things and try to concentrate on excluding things rather than including them. I find that a helpful way of approaching the scene. And if there is rain or, better still, glorious fog, then all the better to help me to exclude and hone in on particular trees or scenes.

In terms of the editing process, I’ve changed how I do this quite a lot over the years too. Whereas before I liked high contrast images, I’ve moved to softening them quite substantially, particularly with my woodland shots. Now I tend to drop the clarity (whilst keeping some texture) and drop the dehaze and contrast to suit the composition. I find this makes for a more pleasing image and gives it a more painterly feel. Of course, I may sometimes up the contrast, I like to go case by case, but generally soft and low contrast is preferable to hard and contrasty. And if the image warrants it, I sometimes throw in a little Orten effect. Not too much, I don’t like it looking like it’s lifted from a dream sequence, but sometimes a little touch of it really helps.

Now we are nearing the end of autumn and shifting into winter, I’m starting to think about moving away from the woods (unless we have some snow of course!), and towards stormy, windy, cold seascapes and low light abstract street photography. Autumn maybe passing, but there’s still lots to look forward to before the year is out!

Looking back on 2019 and looking forward to 2020...

A little later than I had originally intended (I should know by now that Christmas and New Year with two kids means that time is in short supply for things like this!), but thought I’d briefly reflect on 2019 and think about what’s next for 2020. Let’s start by looking back…

On 2nd January 2019 I wrote a blog post out lining a few aims and objectives for the coming year, so how successful was I in achieving them?

1) Do more video work.

TICK. Well, I did do “more video work” in the sense I actually filmed, edited and published a YouTube video. My trip to Scotland in the summer of 2019 to meet my mum’s real family gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment with creating a short film, particularly as I went without my wife and children. I was quite pleased with the end result (see below), but I’ve not created anymore since.

2) More street photography.

TICK. I’ve done more street photography here and in Spain over the past 12mths, but I still need to improve my approach. I’m still very much on phase 1 and phase 2 (see here), but I feel like I’ve improved a bit in this area.

3) Print more.

FAIL. I had good intentions to print and keep photos in a scrapbook, but I’ve just not kept on top of this and I’ve not printed anything for months.

4) Blog more.

FAIL. Again, same as above. I had good intentions, but it’s just not happened.

5) Discover new locations.

TICK. I’ve tried a couple of new locations over the past 12mths (Botany Bay, Isle of Grain, Ashenbank Wood) but I do need to expand on this in 2020 and explore the county a bit more widely. I have some ideas in mind, but let’s see if I follow through on them.

6) Oh yeah, 365 Project type stuff.

SEMI-FAIL. Again, best intentions, but after over half the year I gave up and just lost all motivation. I think this wasn’t helped by restricting myself to black and white.

Over the course of 2019, I’ve really felt that my photography has improved a great deal and I’m starting to gain confidence in the quality of the images that I’ve created. I think partly this has been down to being better organised, particularly for sunrise shoots, as well as honing my technique. In terms of organisation, I’ve tried to make sure I am on location over half-an-hour before sunrise (rather than minutes before sunrise) as I appreciate now that often the best light is just before the sun peeps out over the horizon. I’ve also taken to making a hot breakfast in the morning and plonking it into a Therma-pot so that I can have breakfast on the go rather than leaving the house after I’ve eaten it. This has certainly helped to ensure that I arrive on location in good time and can concentrate on getting a good composition for that early morning light (as an aside, I still much prefer to sunrise to sunset).

To give an example of how I think I’ve improved, this is a shot from early 2019 taken in Dungeness (I arrived after the best light had happened):

And here’s one taken of the same boat in Dungeness, but this time I arrived in plenty of time before sunrise:

There’s probably not a whole lot in it, but I much prefer the second image to the first. I think I took it after the sun had risen (and therefore around the same time as the first), but because I had arrived early I had time to play around and get some different compositions and better evaluate the conditions, rather than rushing to get a shot before the best of the light had gone.

I also feel like my woodland photography improved greatly this year. We have some great local woods with lots of potential and plenty of silver birch trees dotted around (as well as wild deer, which is always breath-taking to see). For example, here are a few woodland shots I took in 2018:

And here are some taken in 2019:

I definitely feel there has been a big step forward there (to the extent that I even printed off one of the above and gave it to a family member as a gift for Christmas). I still feel I need to work it more, but I think spending virtually every weekend in the woods for the best part of a month really helped me to get a clearer sense of how to compose decent woodland shots.

Overall I feel strides have been made, and I am growing in confidence to the extent I am mulling over selling prints in 2020 (although it remains to be seen whether I am actually prepared to take that step just yet). The key for me has been getting out regularly, practicing all the time, working some scenes that I know well until I get shots that I am really happy with and being more organised in my trips out. And I haven’t even mentioned the biggest change in my shooting this year…

Early in 2019 I switched up my trusty D3200 for the D7200. A big leap in terms of what the camera does, but still a crop-sensor Nikon. I’ve been absolutely thrilled with the camera so far. Of course in many ways it’s not about the camera but the person behind it, but it’s undoubtedly the case that the D7200 has made a number of things easier. For example, the increased number of focus points have helped greatly (from 11 on the D3200 to 51), as has the resolution on live view (I’m better able to zoom in on screen and manually focus than I was on the D3200 which tended to look very fuzzy after hitting the zoom button a couple of times). Much as I loved the D3200, I certainly feel the D7200 has helped me to take things up a level.

As for 2020, I’m not sure where I’ll be 12mths from now (in an abstract rather than literal sense!). I want to start exploring the possibility of selling images, but I’m not going to commit to that just yet. I also want to challenge myself by exploring new locations and getting some new compositions. But beyond that, I think I just want to keep practicing, improving and keeping to my new regime of getting out early and not rushing my shots! We’ll see where that takes me…

All the best for 2020!