It’s scary and strange how quickly a year flies by.

One moment you’re in January with 300+ days ahead of you, and the next minute it’s November or December and you’re wondering how you got there, what you achieved in the meantime and how better off are you compared to where you started…

Each year I’ve gotten into the habit of writing a Retrospective. Unfortunately my 2011 Retrospective is in .html format from my old website, and I just can’t get it going here, without manually recreating it all. When I figure out how to trick wordpress into letting me operate an archive of open-in-new-window-html files, instead of adding them as posts or pages, I’ll be one happy camper. Until then, if you are, or if you know a WordPress guru who can make this happen for me, can you please send them in my direction!

I thought it’d be a real struggle getting this years Retrospective together as I feel like I hadn’t shot enough – or – at least once a month. Some months are skint, some are heavily populated. This goes along with the ebb and flow of my shooting habits and reflects my changing attitudes towards my photography. Turns out I did shoot at least once a month, but not all of it is Landscape. This is what I count as “not doing much”, but I know that I more than made up for it in September, which of course, was Iceland.

Anyway, on with the post.

January 2012

So, like the ritual goes, I shot Sunrise at Point Cartwright in a group meet-up on January 1, 2012.

At this time in January I still hadn’t lost too much of the drive to take photos, and my attention to detail was still quite high. I liked this shot, but it soon felt the same as the thousands of photos I had taken the year before.

Next on the agenda was a model shoot, where I got to hand-hold a 500mm f4 Nikon Pro lens. This was one heavy piece of equipment! For what we were doing, it looked very strange in the park, but the best shot of mine was this:

Late January 2012 the Gold Coast got soaked with hundreds of millimetres of rain in a matter of days, this caused a flooding effect, and it was a no-brainer to head to the hinterland to catch the waterfalls in heavier volume.

The rest of the month followed with me testing out a new Macro studio setup I had been given, and shooting my godson’s 1^st Birthday party.

February 2012

I started this month off strongly, taking a short break up the Sunshine Coast to make up for the lack of holiday that I had in January, owing it to the fact that I had to be back at work whilst everyone else was still on holidays, picking up the slack in my now-not-so-loved job. This included shooting some seascapes with my mum in tow. She was rather unsettled during this shoot, owing to the fact that there was a “strange man” watching us and following us around the headland as it got dark and while I was shooting. I calmly explained to my mum that there was nothing to worry about and that my tripod, in a snap, would take care of any self-defence issues, being that it was made of solid metal and I could handle it. This hampered my ability to concentrate and enjoy my scene. But nonetheless, I still got some good shots.

The rest of February flowed without anything else notable happening. I shot a gig for some friends, and caught the remnants of a storm and a sunset from my house and the city.

March 2012

March was very much one of my skint months, with a failed-attempt at chasing Sunflower fields and just another figurine-shoot of a blank art toy that I turned into a figure, called Flora. There was never a sequel to Flora until now, I’m currently working on Fauna, but it will be well into 2013 before he is completed.

In lieu of the sunflower fields (which were mostly dead when we found them) here’s an atmospheric shot of overgrown grass..

April 2012

Another month of not doing much, but it felt more accomplished than March.

There was an Easter-break Moonrise on Sunset/not long after, which I chose to head to the S.S Dicky at Caloundra to capture. This was fairly underwhelming, as I was not alone at the wreck, and made shooting difficult with others trying to light-paint the scene without consultation of the other shooters around them. I packed my stuff up early and headed home, having not had the conditions that I had gone there for.

I also had the chance to shoot a multiple shot again, it’d been a while since I’ve done one of these. My subject was Sam, a friend of mine who loves his cars. He was a willing subject, so it seemed silly not to do the shoot:

And lastly, I tried entering a competition to win an ipad. Alas I never won the competition, eventually chosing to buy my ipad instead. This was my entry, to which everyone accused me of being “photoshopped” or “too perfect” and subsequently I never got the votes I needed to. (I really dislike the “like” system as a method of voting in competitions on facebook)

May 2012

May heralded another full moonrise. I hit the Sunshine Coast yet again with a mate, and we mucked about taking shots in this creek-runoff that meets the beach.

I also got a chance to try my hand at Fashion Photography again, taking shots of my housemates’ clothing that she creates and sells on Etsy.

Lastly, the biggest thing in May, for me, was the Australian Body Art Carnivale that came around again to the Eumundi markets on the mayday long weekend. I had a chance to get some unique portraits. I paid $90 for the experience to pose the models how I desired. In the end, I will not be paying for a unique pass again this year, it was a waste of money as the competition organisers were really sloppy, and just being a member of the general public I could still get the same shots if I so desired. The Eumundi green newspaper wanted to use my shots instead of the ones their media photographer took, only offering me “credit” compensation. I politely declined because credits’ don’t help me build a business.

June 2012

As winter set in, another small month occurred. I had the chance to get out and do some night photography around Swanbank power station. This night was okay, but I was beginning to feel the desire not to take so many photos and drive so far with little reward… escalating fuel costs and the desire to be elsewhere doing other things had prompted this thought. My year was coming closer and closer to my Iceland trip. I needed to save money and I needed to get my camera serviced.

I did however make use of a very foggy morning in the city. Waking up to a white-out outside my window, I bolted to work with camera, spending an hour roaming Southbank and surrounds for interesting shots of the city hiding behind the fog.

July 2012

July was the month of the dreaded camera service.

I was lined up to shoot my friends’ wedding in early August, and not long after that, off to Iceland. I chose to take my camera to the repair shop in early july. After a week they called back and said it was fixed, on further inspection, it wasn’t. I told them about the recurring issues and they took it back and found several more issues that needed fixing.

A week before the wedding I was due to shoot, I got my camera back, tested it, and the issue had gone away. Basically my precious D700 was not turning off its metering after a few seconds, and this was causing battery life to diminish and “funky” things to happen. I’m glad the problem got sorted before Iceland.. it would have most definitely ruined the trip had it not been attended to.

I must thank again, the wonderful techs at Andersons Camera for their assistance.

The only thing I did shoot was some cupcakes that I made, with my D300s.

August 2012

The big month before Iceland and The wedding!

In early august, I managed a quick trip up to Kondalilla Falls to take some shots for a local photography competition, to which I would eventually not use… I don’t know why this is, but you just can’t make art happen sometimes. Either way it was an enjoyable day out and I got a lovely calming rainforest shot:

I also visited my godson again, gosh he grows fast. We were playing with sticks in the park, a chance capture provided the perfect opportunity to perform some simple photoshop work….

And then the 11^th rolled around awfully fast…

Here’s some key shots.

You can find more about the wedding itself on the blog post I made for it.

September 2012

ICELAND was here. On the 2^nd I departed Brisbane International Airport for 24 wonderful days abroad to capture a place that I am still entranced by.

Of the many thousands of shots I took, here’s 7 different images from the same country. If you didn’t know that I had been to Iceland, you must have just found this blog!

October 2012

Having had a camera in my hand for three weeks straight, I was well and truly ready to put it down and do something else in October. This involved a lot of relaxing and taking stock of what I had shot, and processing it!

This month I also accepted an award in the QPWS “It’s Better Outdoors” Photo Competition. I won my category “Natural Wonders”

Most notably, October marked the time where I got given the opportunity to exhibit in a gallery collection, more permanently than the week-at-a-time exhibitions I had done in past years. My deepest heartfelt thanks go to David Murphy of the Cow’n'Calf gallery in Stanley, Tasmania. My work “The Epitome of Enchanted Elegance” is hanging in his wonderful rooms. I hope that in 2013 I can go visit it on the wall!

I managed only a shot of a cat this month, this being the best of them I felt.

November 2012

I managed to get up to Cairns for the eclipse this year. An unfortunate collection of circumstances meant that I was able to escape the madness of Brisbane for a few days, and be a drag-around up in Queensland’s’ tropical coast. Nevertheless, I felt I made good use of the time away and got some rather nice, if not iconic, shots.

On getting back, it was evident that the storm season was in full swing. I headed out one day, unsuccessfully, to chase storms. The next day however, was far more successful, instead of chasing the back end of the storms, we sat like ducks waiting in the path of two, and positioned ourselves perfectly, for a third. I was hopeful that the amazing storms would continue into December, however the season has been quite disappointing.

December 2012

Another small month. I had the chance thought to make a shoot, which I had had in my head for many years, come to life. Interestingly enough, it never really eventuated the way I had wanted it to. I’ll still go back one day and try to make it happen the way I see it in my head, but right now, the tides are not correct and the weather is unpredictable.

A few days ago (now that I’m all caught up on the year that was) I had a chance to catch up again with my Godson and his family, for a portrait session, mostly because they were all in Brisbane for once. I’m still processing these shots, I hope to be done soon. However, here’s a couple of shots that I quite enjoyed. It’s evident here how he’s grown so much!

And that wraps up my year.

The question often comes up… what am I doing in 2013? Anything planned?

I hope to have my D800 in the first quarter of the year, along with some long-overdue kit additions. How much I spend on this will determine how far I get to travel this year, I may just be doing another September / October trip somewhere. Will have to see how the finances pan out.

Not bad for my 40^th post on this blog. I often think that my thoughts are not worth reading, that nobody would want to hear what I think about my craft. In 2012 you’ve all proved me wrong. You’ve shown that you’re keen to read, to see and to somewhat experience what I am doing through my blog. Thank you to all my readers, sharers and followers. You all help me keep the faith in what I do. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not just another face in the crowd.

Hope you have a happy 2013!