Mid Year Image Review - The Hits
Last week I shared with you some of my images that didn’t make the cut in my mid year review. To balance things out, this week I’m going to share with you some of my more successful images!
The Mid Year Review
At the end of each year I like to take a look back the images I’ve captured and the select my favourites. This is always a useful exercise as it allows me to reflect and judge how my photography has developed over the year. A year is a long time though so I also like to have a quick review of images midway through the year. This is a useful exercise as it shows me that perhaps it’s not been such a bad year and it reminds me of some of the great adventures I’ve had. It also inspires me to plan more adventures for the remainder of the year!
Let’s take a look at 3 of my favourite images of the year so far. (If you want to see some of the images that didn’t make the cut and why, then check out my blog post from last week).
Snowdonia
My first big adventure of the year was a cracker. I was lucky enough to meet up with Nick Livesey in Snowdonia to discuss his book Photographing the Snowdonia Mountains. We spent the day wandering his local area, taking photographs and having a good old chat. You can see my photos and the video I made of my time with Nick here.
The image below was the first image I took that day and remains a firm favourite from the trip. It’s not a perfect image. I like the composition, with the warm sky and the distant mountains but with only a partial covering of snow in the foreground I feel it looks a little messy. I suspect the image has made it onto this blog post due to my attachment with the adventure rather than it is an amazing image. Still, I said I would share my favourite images, not necessarily my best!
Snowdon from Clogwyn Mawr, Capel Curig, Snowdonia National Park - Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 VR at 36 mm, f/11, 1/2 sec at ISO 64, polariser and ND grad.
Dartmoor
Given that Dartmoor is on my doorstep if would be unusual if this blog post hadn’t featured a photograph from there. You can read about how I captured the image below by reading this blog post here.
This image has definitely grown on me. I remember thinking it was OK at the time, but now that I look at it again several months later I rather like it. I like the row of tors on the left as they curve round to the distant tor and then on the right you have all the scattered boulders which also seem to curve in. Add in an interesting sky and I think I have a fairly decent image. It will be interesting to see how it fairs at the end of the year when compared with everything else.
Belstone Tor and Belstone Common at Dawn, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 @ 26 mm, f/13, 3 secs @ ISO 64.
Macro
And now for something completely different. Though the vast majority of my photography is landscape based, I have been wanting to try macro photography for some time. This year I finally got around to it and you read about how I captured the image below here.
The image isn’t perfect but I do love it. The tips of the wings are just falling out of focus, and my eye for composition in this genre needs developing, but I do love everything else about it. The Zeiss lens that I used as produced some wonderful bokeh and the D850 has rendered some beautiful detail in the butterfly. It’s an image that has solidified my desire to get a macro lens and I expect that the shots I take next spring will feature a lot of macro work.
Common Blue #1, Devon - Nikon D850, Zeiss 100mm f/2 at f/3.5, 1/400th second at ISO 1600
I hope you enjoyed these images. Remember to have a look at the links to the blog posts that go with these images to see more photographs and possibly even a video or two!
Do you review your images just once a year or a number of times over the year? Let me know in the comments below.
Mid Year Image Review - The Misses
Some images are destined to only ever sit on a hard drive. In this blog post I take a look at some of those images in my library and discuss why they never saw the light of today until now.
Confidence Boost
It’s about that time of year when I take a look back at the images I’ve captured over the last six months. Though I like to do a complete review at the end of a year to find my favourites, I also like to have a quick look at the midpoint of the year. This can be a useful thing to do particularly if you think the first half of the year hasn’t been a productive one. As I find with my annual reviews, I often find things were a little better than I remembered and I can take a little confidence boost from the images I see.
The Misses
As I ploughed through my images from the last six months I noticed that for some trips out with the camera I hadn’t even shared one image from that collection. This wasn’t an oversight on my part though. It’s just that I felt the images weren’t really good enough to share. It’s maybe the composition wasn’t quite right, or the light was flat, or the image just lacked “something”.
While it’s all very nice sharing my best images, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few of those images that never made it passed the import stage. Why? Well it’s just as important to review the images you don’t like as it is to review the images you do like. By also looking at the images you don’t like you can learn why and then take that knowledge out with you on the next shoot.
By me sharing some of “misses” you can hopefully see that life isn’t full of 5-star images and that there are lessons to be learnt from every frame we take.
Colmer’s Hill
Colmer’s Hill, Dorset - Nikon D850, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 82mm, f/8, 1/60th second at ISO 64.
First up we have this panoramic image of Colmer’s Hill in Dorset that I took back in February. This is a pleasing enough image in retrospect but I think the thing that catches my eye most about this photograph is the colour in the sky. But that’s about it really. There isn’t enough low lying mist to make the foreground interesting and to separate the hill from the surrounding landscape. I could have maybe lived with the lack of mist if there had been some light on Colmer’s Hill itself, but without that either, the image just lacks a bit of contrast and punch.
It’s one of those cases of being at a location to watch the sunrise was far more exciting than the resulting photograph.
Dawlish Warren
Dawlish Warren, Devon - Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 at 16mm, f/11, 0.4 seconds at ISO 64.
Dawlish Warren is definitely one of my favourite locations to photograph. I’ve blogged about it many times. When I was scanning through my catalogue I wasn’t surprised to find some unpublished images from that location. In retrospect though, I feel that I may have been a bit harsh with my initial critique of this image. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s an amazing image (I have better from there), but overall it’s a decent enough image.
I think the problem with this image for me is that the morning I shot it I was after something very specific so when I didn’t get it I probably just dismissed this image as not what I was after. I rather like the movement in the water and there is a bit of drama in the sky. The composition needs some work though. I’m not convinced that the central placement of the groyne marker works and while the I like the sky, I would have preferred there to be some cloud in the top right to stop the eye wandering off. Overall though it’s a better image than I first gave it credit for.
Wembury
Wembury, Devon - Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 at 24mm, f/13, 240 seconds at ISO 100.
This image was taken on my first visit to Wembury so getting a really good image without having explored the area first can be a bit of a challenge. As I look at this image I’m trying to put my finger on what I don’t like about it. I like the triangular shape of the rocks going from the left, out to sea and then out to the island but I would have preferred there to have been more horizontal separation between the rock in the sea and the island in the distance. However, moving about those slippy rocks is challenging and it might have been the best position I could find.
I do however like the pastel colours in the sky and the wispy look of the water from the long exposure, but I’m also not sure that the contrast between the lightness of the sea and sky is too much against the darkness of the rocks. I am definitely a little undecided by this image. However, what I do know is that I want to visit this location again.
In Summary
It certainly has been an interesting exercise writing this blog as it has got me to think a bit more about the images that I had previously rejected. In retrospect, they weren’t too bad at all. Not portfolio pieces or competition entries, but definitely images I would have been happy sharing on my blog. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to leave your images for a while before making any final decisions on them.
How long do you leave an image for before deciding on how good it is? Do you go back on a regular basis and review your images? Let me know in the comments below.
PS - Some Videos You Might Like
On the topic of image review, I thought you might like these videos which you might not have seen yet:
What's Your Photography Story?
In my first blog post of 2019 I share with you my 5 favourite images of 2018, and tell you how you can get involved in my latest community event, “What’s Your Photography Story?”.
Let’s All Look Back at Our Photography
At the end of every year, I always take a look back at the images I’ve taken that year and select my favourites. I do this for a number of reasons, but mostly to help me remember that my year as a landscape photographer was probably better than I remember! If your last shoot didn’t go well, it’s all too easy to focus on that one, regardless of what else you might have achieved that year.
As I was looking back through my images from 2018, I had the idea of looking at some photographers from much further back in time. In fact, I went all the way back to some of my earliest photographs. It was a really interesting experience as I could see how I have progressed as a photographer. Some of those images though represented significant moments in my journey as a landscape photographer.
Looking back and remembering the importance of some images got me thinking. Everyone else must also have photographs in their collection that represent significant moments in their life as a photographer. It was then I had the idea of collating some of those images and stories and then publishing them in a special community video.
In the video below, I’m going to kick things off with my photography story. I’ll take a look at how my photography has evolved over the years, and share some of my most important images. In the video I also ask you to share one of your most important images and the story behind it. If you would like your image and story to considered for the community video, then details on how to submit can be found later in this blog post.
Every Photographer and Photograph Has a Story
Hopefully, the video has reminded you of an image that you have taken that also has a good story, or marked an important milestone in your journey as a photographer. If so, and you would like the chance to have your story and image featured in a special community video, then you’ll find details on how to submit your image below.
I’m not necessarily looking to see your best image. I want to see images that have an interesting story attached to them. Maybe it was your first photograph, a photograph of a place that has special memories, the first photograph you had published. I may not be able to publish all submissions, so the more interesting your story and photo is, the more likely it will be included in the video!
How To Submit Your Story
What you need to prepare for submission:
Your Image - Images should be at least 3840px on the longest edge, please. I edit my video on a 4K timeline so the higher resolution your image is the better it will look. I can read most file types but if you can submit in JPG or TIFF that would be great. One image only, please.
Your Story - There is no word limit to your story, but please keep it short, concise and most importantly interesting. I would recommend keeping it as short as one or two paragraphs.
Additional Information - Please let me know your name so people know who you are when I read your story. When I display your image I can also display your website address or one of your social media handles. Please include details if you wish me to do this.
Submitting a Video - If you prefer to tell your story yourself, you can submit a video instead. Please keep video clips to a maximum of 30 to 60 seconds and the video file should be exported at a minimum resolution of 1080p. Remember to show your photograph in the video while you tell you story.
Submitting Your Images
Go to https://wetransfer.com/ - this is a free file transfer service and you don't need to register to use it.
Fill out the form as follows:
Add your files - this is where you attach your images (or video) for transfer.
Email to: yourstory@julianbaird.com
Your email: your email address ( Please use a valid email address though in case I need to contact you for further information.)
Message: Include the text for Your Story and the additional information I've requested above.
Hit the Transfer button
I really enjoyed the last community challenge, Let’s All Embrace The Grey, and the video I produced with all your photographs. Let’s hope we can all make something special again!
Closing date for all submissions is 31st January 2019. Thanks!
My 5 Favourite Images of 2018
And finally, in the video, I shared with you my 5 favourite images from 2018. It wasn’t easy to select just 5 but if you want to know how I did it I published a video last year for my 5 favourites of 2017. You can see that video here.
Happy 2019
All that remains for this blog post is for me to wish you a very happy 2019 and I hope you have a wonderful year of photography.
What photography adventures do you have planned for 2019? What are you looking forward to most? Do you have any goals for the year? Let me know in the comments below.
My 5 Favourite Images of 2017 and How to Find Yours
In the blog this week I take a look at my 5 favourite images from 2017. I also tell you why you should find your 5 favourites and show you how.
The How and Why
At the end of each year, I like to look back at the photographs I have taken. This reminds me not only that I had some challenges with my photography, but also that I had some successes. By putting these successful photographs into an annual collection it helps focus my mind for the following year and gives me plenty of inspiration and encouragement.
In the video below I share with you the process of how I select my 5 favourite images so that you can do the same.
My 5 Favourite Images of 2017
As with my image review from last year, this review has given me a lot of inspiration to take through into 2018. I went out over 50 times with the camera in 2017 and drove over 6000 miles, and it was great to see all that effort wasn't wasted!
So which one of my 5 images was your favourite? Have you gone through a similar process as well? Let me know in the comments below.