Back in 2009, I started doing a month-by-month review of the photography highlights of the previous year. You can find all of them in this flickr set, or in this post from January 2009 and this post from January of 2010. I have put these together so I could track my progress and growth as a photographer over the years. I really don’t plan to put them into an album, although I could if I wanted to. This is just an annual exercise I go through to examine what I’ve learned (or not) about photography. It’s actually very helpful to do this and I’ve certainly learned a lot from looking at last years photos as a whole.
Here’s my photography year-in-review for 2010 - Each mosaic is linked back to my flickr account if you want to see the pictures individually.
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January
January was such a dreary month that I had a hard time feeling inspired in the photography department. A set of new valentine dishes, some pink s'mores, and frosted heart cookies helped me find my motivation. I practiced using aperture priority mode and working on depth of field.
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February
I practiced some food and object photography in February. I tried to pay attention to backgrounds in photos and zoom in more to avoid distracting elements. The camera photo is one of my favorites from the entire year.
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March
March was all about color for me. Almost all the pictures I took that month are very colorful. I think I was craving that after a long and gray winter. I also felt more playful with my photography that month.
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April
A trip to Scottsdale, Arizona gave me plenty of wonderful outside photo opportunities. I really worked on composition in my photos in April.
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May
Doing the Ali Edwards Week in the Life project helped me capture a lot of simple, everyday scenes. It was one of my favorite photography months because I felt like I truly captured our life.
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June
June was a fun photography month for me because I did a lot of local exploring. My Mom came to town and we went on a big photowalk. My photography was also featured on Katrina Kennedy’s blog which was a huge honor for me.
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July
I didn’t pay too much attention to photography in July. I guess I was just having fun and enjoying the summer. We did travel to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and I made sure to take all of those pictures that I have not captured in the past (buildings & environment).
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August
August was pretty much a dream month for the photographer in me. We went to Seattle and Alaska and there were so many amazing things to take pictures of! It was the month I took the very most photos during the entire year.
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September
I visited some very rural areas of Utah (Elberta & Ophir) which made for some really cool photo opportunities. I also made my annual trip to Gardner Village to see the witches.
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October
Another dream photography experience was our trip to Yellowstone Park in Montana. The weather was perfect and the scenery was just amazing!
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November
I didn’t take very many pictures in November. If it hadn’t been for Thanksgiving and a big snowstorm, I might have never even taken my camera out of the bag. I really didn’t feel very inspired and I got sick at the end of the month.
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December
I had HUGE plans for all the great photos I was going to take in December. I had lists of prompts to follow and plenty of inspiration, but I was sick almost the entire month. My family was sick almost the entire month. All those plans just didn’t happen. Thank goodness we had a fun overnight getaway to Grand America for my hubby’s company party, or I would have nothing at all to show for December in the photo department.
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My Year in Photography:
- My November and December pictures were a disappointment to me. I really did drop the ball the last 2 months of the year. I think besides being sick, I was just creatively burned out. This exercise helped me realize that.
- I improved in several areas of photography during the year, but I think composition was the area where I grew the most.
- I feel like the area I need to work the most on is portraiture and pictures of people in general. Notice that only 1 photo (in November) is of a person. My people pictures just weren’t very stellar. It’s not for a lack of subjects – I’m surrounded by beautiful people, it was about my ability to capture them.
Now I’m ready for a whole new year to learn and grow as a photographer!
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