End of Year Report

Since 2007 is rapidly approaching I thought that it would be fun to do a sports orientated end of year "school" report.

I will post to this shortly, but the general gist should be:

• The Top 3 photos that you have taken from this year that would be your 2006 "Portfolio"
  
• Things that you have enjoyed
  
• Things that you could have done better and want to do better or more of next year
  
• Anything else you can things of!

As I say, I will add my thoughts shortly to this!!

But in the meantime, Happy Christmas!!

Well Paul after much deliberation 3 photos from 2006 .
#1 for being the first shot i had published in the Rugby League Express

#2 because of it being on Display in the new stadium.
#3 for no other reason than i still like it & im fussy

things i have enjoyed , Being the Doncaster Lakers official photographer has to be top of the list.
things i could have done better, just about everything i am allways striving to improve.
things i want to do better this coming year would be to shoot tighter when i can & to get paid a bit more often.
anything else, just to be as good as i can possible be at as many sports or even other types of photography that i can be.
Best wishes for a Brilliant Christmas.
Steve.

[QUOTE=Tall_Paul_2000;​2434117]

• The Top 3 photos that you have taken from this year that would be your 2006 "Portfolio"
  
• Things that you have enjoyed
  
• Things that you could have done better and want to do better or more of next year
  
• Anything else you can things of!

[QUOTE]

Ok, I have finally put my butt in gear and sorted all this out!!

I've enjoyed getting back into photography and actually enjoying photography. I would be lying if I didn't admit to the fact that over the past 2 months I have enjoyed making money from the pictures that I have taken.

What could I have done better? Well the last 2 months has gone well, but I feel I have missed shots because at times my framing and general technique is poor. So that is a big area to work on.

I'd also like to take my shooting up a level (maybe start shooting agency stuff occasionally perhaps?!) and also shoot a wider variety of sports too. Hopefully I might do something about that in the new year.

As for the 3 pictures, well here goes (photos are shown at the bottom of the post):

1. Key moment for me this - this is the first picture that I had published in the local paper. Which was a rather key moment for this year for me.

2. This was the first keeper I had out of my first DSLR which I bought this year - hard to believe that was mid-September!

3. One of my favourite pictures of the year - and also a bit of a turning point recently when I realised that the standard of the photos that I was producing had increased considerably, in terms of composition, timing and exposure.

So thank you all so everyone for looking at this and hope you feel ready to share your views, comments and photos with us all too.

1.

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2.

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3.

Great idea for a thread and actually quite tricky, given the amount of stock I have archived/obtained in 2006. I have refrained from my Rugby stock as plenty of it and seen it all before....

The Top 3 photos that you have taken from this year that would be your 2006 "Portfolio"

First of all this shot as it was a standard sub off spec to Bristol's weekly sports news paper. However, upon receipt of this image they actually called to thank me and said they were blown away by it, which was nice. The funny thing? Well, it was my first match with my 300mm 2.8 and validated the purchase. It ended up being a full page print with a drop and looked amazing.

My second shot is an American Football shot. I have covered this on and off spec all year and been all over the UK shooting, notably the BritBowl in Sheffield which was great. This image has everything I love about the game and imagery, shot on my 100 - 400L before it was sold to a good home.


This shot was taken at Silverstone during a race. Generally, I find motorsports boring. However, I usually work the pit lane and find the other stuff and this moment conveys the boredom of a pit crew, waiting for ten seconds of action. Shot on my 5D with a 27 - 70mmL.


Things that you have enjoyed

I have just enjoyed the year in general. I have made some great new friends due to my passion/work and it has opened new doors both professionally/persona​lly. The highlights include a trip around silverstone in the boot of a safety car @ 80mph shooting cars on the track, the recent trip to Bayonne, all of the Prem Rugby I have covered and the Britbowl.

The recent award of an FA Licence is nice, though not in effect until next season.

Things that you have 'not' enjoyed

I have really gone off football to be honest. To many idiots in the game, to much violence on the pitch, no respect and a game that for me, simply does not lend itself to the camera like rugby.

Did not enjoy the sunday at Weston Beach Race, too cold, too wet and too many fumes, though the saturday was great and netted me a front cover.

Getting my laptop smashed to bits at an FA Cup game when working pitchside and all the 'away' fans laughing and chanting about my misfortune....

Things that you could have done better and want to do better or more of next year

Well, I lost £180.00 in image sales recently as my workflow was out and my wireless signal was crap. As such I have spent the last two weeks working on a new flow, sourcing the fastest download methods, labelling and tagging etc to the point where I can get the job done asap, until my workload dictates that I go FTP/wireless add on.

Other than that, I hope 2007 brings more of the same. I dont just shoot sport, I cover festivals, events, some news, corperate etc and look forward to it all starting all over again. The one thing that 2006 taught me is that I need not shoot 400 pix at each event, as much as stock is nice, its not needed sometimes.

I would like a g~mac, for PP at the office, a new 400mm 2.8 and an improved 3G signal sometime in 2007. With regards to framing, I have learnt to wait and watch the ebb and flow of the game arther than gun stuff that is too far away, which I know I will delete when in bridge.

Great thread Paul. I like posts like this as it makes me think about the last few months of shooting, it all seems a blur.

The Top 3 photos
1. My first PAID published image in September for this year. I had been covering the side for a few months and made contact with the Sports Editor and it went from there. I had an image published about 8 years ago but that does not count

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2. One of the local lads in action

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3. My first back page

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Things that you have enjoyed
Having people comment on my photos and doing something I love again. I always wanted to be a photographer but fell into a different industry years ago so being able to regain and relearn has been great.

Things that you have 'not' enjoyed
Realising there are plenty of very talanted photographers out there and it is going to be an uphill battle should I want to increase my exposure (to pun intended).

Things that you could have done better and want to do better or more of next year
Next year I am going to try and push my self as much as I can to put me out of my 'comfort zone'. I have a long list of sports that I want to try and cover.

Darren