I sit here at the beginning of 2020 and the end of 2019 reflecting on a year of failures, successes, and discoveries. The last 12 months flew by in the blink of an eye, but as I look back I remember all the awesome and not so awesome things from the year. I was faced with a lot of good, bad, and scary situations, both photographically and personally, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Through the many experiences I had, I have slowly begun to learn to roll with the punches and take challenges head-on. I plan to take this mentality into 2020 to continue what I feel is an upward trend in my photography.
During the last year, I took a lot of good, bad, and ugly photos. I want to take some time to walk through a few photos I believe me or any one reading can learn from. Either that be from the mistakes I made or hammer home what elements make a great photograph truly great. I will start off with some photos I consider to be failures.
Read MoreScouting, discovering, and revisiting is how I spent most of my time out with the camera in September. With Fall quickly approaching, I went into full composition hunting mode. Fall was a struggle photographically for me last year due to the little time I had to go out shooting. I just simply didn’t have the time and to be honest didn’t have the energy to go out chasing Fall color. This left me feeling very disappointed by the time October ended, but this time around I want to change that. I returned to a few of the spots I frequent between Fall and Spring to see how the landscape has changed over the Summer. I even explored some new areas I previously have not spent much time in. I have a few compositions in mind that could turn out to be photos I would be very proud of. Needless to say, the outlook for capturing the beautiful Fall colors is much better than last year. Between heading North, and staying local, I should have two great windows of time to capture peak fall color. Now, I just simply have to believe in the compositions I have in mind and hope for great conditions and light.
Read MoreIf you photograph nature you will probably agree with me when I say summer is the hardest season to photograph. The bugs are out, the sun rises far too early and sets way too late, everything is green and overgrown, and the light is harsh most of the day. I find it very hard to find much inspiration or motivation to shoot during the summer for the above reasons. In past summers, I have succumb to the lack of motivation and just stopped shooting nature expect for the bigger trips I took. However, I wanted to change that this summer. I wanted to push myself creatively, to see things in a different light (no pun intended), and continue to develop as a photographer. I have spoken about this before in a past Photo of the Month post, how I want to expand my creativity with the camera, and look at the finer details of a scene. And this month’s photo is the result of just that.
Read MoreMay’s photo of the month is my attempt at expanding my photographic creativity past the obvious. In the last few months, I have focused on looking at the finer details while out with the camera. Such as the shapes made by cascading water, the reflections of a rock, or in this case a small branch with fresh leaves flowing in a stream. I have really enjoyed the process of looking closer at the smaller pieces to the larger landscape.
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