2017 Inspirations – Photography
Posted: Sun 8 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017 Inspirations, Change, Creativity, Day Trips, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Photography, Single Life, Thoughts, Travel 3 Comments »As things change for me in 2017 – well, as I do new stuff, or restart old stuff – I’m hoping/intending/planning to write more about it here on D4D as well, along with things about what’s driving those choices. So there’s a new subject/category to cover it all. And this is where it all starts.
As long-term readers know, I was into photography for a long time, did pretty well at it, and even ended up taking a course while I was in Norfolk in order to better understand what the hell I was trying to do.
But since Norfolk and Suffolk, I’ve been doing a lot less photography. Some of that is due to my mobile phone, where the pixel count is higher than the SLR I still have. It’s also about faff – lugging an SLR around for the day (particularly when doing anything else, like one of my idiotically long walks) is a hefty job anyway, and it’s simply never ready for a quick photo. Using the SLR is a much bigger commitment in many ways, and over the last four years, I really haven’t been making that commitment.
This year, I want to change that, and do more where I actually go out with the SLR, with the intention of taking photos.
The first real inspiration for that has been this story on the BBC, of Dean Saunderson’s photos of a deserted Nottingham on Christmas morning. It’s something that works for me, having been to many places at ungodly-o’clock, and seeing them with very few people around. Oxford, for example, is beautiful at 5am on a summer Sunday morning – and the same applies for many other cities. So this is a theme/topic/idea I could get into, and will probably have a few goes at over this year.
We’ll see at the end of the year how I do on these inspirations. It’s going to be a year where I (hopefully) figure out more about the things I want to continue doing, and which ones I’ll be happier to leave by the wayside in order to do other things.
You thought about changing the tech? Drop the bulky SLR (sell it?) and go for a mirrorless camera?
Seen some great stuff with Fuji X-T2… http://www.iand.net
I’ve thought about it – but for now, I’ll stick with the bulky SLR. If it’s something I opt for not continuing past 2017, there’s no point in chucking £x00 at it first!
Seriously, I’ll see how I do with the old gear. No point selling it – it’s an EOS20D, so we’re looking at something… ten-plus years old (having just looked back on D4D, I got it in Oct 2005, so 11-ish years ago) which just wouldn’t get much any more. If I still do turn out some decent stuff this year, I might look at an upgrade, but we’ll see.
Interestingly, I’ve also today come across my old Flickr page, which has inspired me rather more.
Now if only Flickr and Yahoo weren’t such withering piles of foetid shite…