Two months into 2018, I finally get the guts to do a short review of my 2017, photographically speaking.
Let’s dive straight into it.
The year started with a seemingly simple self-challenge, to shoot a photo series every week from January to December. I say ‘seemingly’ because if you include the conceptualization, execution, editing and sharing of the series, you basically have no time to rest by the time the next week rolls in.
New Year’s Day found me at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Nanyuki and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to immerse myself in two of my favorite genres – expansive landscapes and simple (yet well-done) architecture.
The landscapes were even more breathtaking. The longest lens I had for this trip was my 50mm f/1.8 [you can go ahead and laugh at me now], so I wasn’t able to make those intimate images of wildlife. I instead chose to compose some shots of the minimal kind.
Despite my lack of preparedness, this location did give me the lift I needed. We can safely say that week 01 was a breeze.
I came back to Nairobi a couple of days later and drew up an ideal list of what, how and when to shoot but, I soon realized that doing a list was child’s play. The real work is actually finding my subjects and more-so something fresh – not necessarily new, but fresh. I did find myself going back to the same spots, just to try and catch the best light possible. Sometimes it worked and other times it ended up being a total disaster.
That said, here’s a selection of the images I was able to create over the first half of the year. Some are shared on my instagram gallery, but cropped to fit the platform.
I have tried as much as possible to arrange them chronologically.
The first half of the year was a success in terms of staying true to the course, because by mid-year, creating something every week started becoming second-nature.
I didn’t need calendars, reminders or any form of motivation as was the case earlier on in the year.
More importantly, I was slowly getting to define my areas of focus [pun intended].
In addition to all the shooting, I started scrap-booking. I’d do 4×6 prints and stick them up on blank pages, sketch or write up the necessary notes beside every photo [to help me in my next shoots of similar nature].
This helped me in several ways;
I started getting a feel of what my work was like on print, thus, what needed to be adjusted in terms of my post-processing.
I could reference my work offline, make the necessary notes and adjust accordingly for the next assignment.
It became a way of measuring my progress. Were the images made in June better than those I made in February? I sure hoped so!
Next time, I’ll share more of the images I made in the second half of the challenge. Finally, in the last part, I’ll share what I’ve learnt from the whole experience.
Adios.
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