2019 is a difficult year to look back on photographically. Not because was a bad year, but besides the obvious highlight of 1st runner up in the South West Coast Path competition and winning Photographer of the Year at my local camera club, I’m feeling a bit flat. I’m not sure if it’s the winter blues and the fact I’ve hardly touched a camera in December, or that I didn’t really get my teeth into a project in 2019.
And yet 2019 has been one of my most productive years with my hard drives filling up quickly. I was expecting to hit some kind of burnout during the year but thankfully didn’t, the passion to shoot remained throughout.
If 2019 was like a Chinese year then it would have to be the year of the Buzzard. I never intentionally set out at the start of the year to capture these wonderful birds, but over the course of the year, and continuing my Carn Marth project I’ve captured some Buzzard images I’m immensely proud of.
Maybe that is the key to 2020, setting some goals now to work on. Or maybe the fact I didn’t hit a ‘burnout’ is because I haven’t put any pressure on myself other than shooting because I want to. The only problem with this is finishing the year with a mish-mash of work if you like, from astro to portrait to landscape to wildlife.
I’m entering 2020 with an honest belief that I’m still yet to take a ‘killer’ image. I look at other photographer’s work and still think ‘wow, I’ve got some way to go.’ Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s exciting to think after 17 years of photography there is still plenty of room for improvement.
I usually pick some images for the year but this time I’m picking just one. This image from Idless woods that for some reason I can just keep coming back to.
Maybe it’s a reminder that what the camera has given me in 2019 is some release from the stresses of life. I’m immediately transported back to that moment in the woods, taking my time using the tripod and fine tuning my shot. Just me and the camera in the great outdoors.