2011, My Year Of Work, Film, And More Work...

As the year draws to a close, it's time for my regular look back at how I've done, and some of my favourite photos from 2011. This has been a hard year in terms of the day job - lots of extra hours and overtime, so I've taken a lot less photos than 2010.

2011 has also been the year when I've got into developing my own black and white film at home, and there's quite a few film photos in my "top nine". This was meant to be a year when I concentrated on projects instead of random photowalks, but time constraints have put paid to most of them.

This post however, is all about celebrating what I think I've done well, so let's take a look at my favourite photos, with a little about what I've learnt at the end.

The photo at the top of this post was taken at Lee On Solent, on an impromptu photo-walk around this small coastal part of Gosport. The above shot is of my son Oliver, taken down the road at Stokes Bay, as part of a set advertising some trainers.

The first of my film shots, taken with a cheap compact camera and with expired film, very early one morning at Portsmouth Harbour (from Gosport side).

I'd love to shoot more 120 roll film, for the look and feel, expecially like the photo above which was captured on a plastic Rand (Diana) camera.

My trusty Minolta SRT 101, with the 50mm f/1.4 gave me the shot of the grave-stone, and the Jessops expired / fogged / scratched film added plenty of atmosphere.

If you're in the market for an incredible compact 35mm film camera, you can't go wrong with the Olympus  Stylus Epic / Mju II, which took the above shot in London. Sharp, small and fast, it's only beat by the Olympus Trip 35 in my eyes, but that doesn't have auto-focus and is a bit bigger.

Playing around with lots of different film cameras has been a bit of theme this year, and the cheaper the better. I picked up a plastic Panorama camera for a couple of quid on the Isle of Wight, and I quite like the above shot.

A Mju II photo again, with good Ilford FP4 film, and developed at home.

Back to digital with a photo taken using my Canon EOS 350d / Rebel XT and a close-up filter on the front of my 18-55 lens.

So what's next? I've learnt that I've got to make more use of the time of got for photography, to get closer, and that a photo without at least one person in it, is incomplete.

I've still got to get my head around what I'll be aiming to achieve in 2012, but it will definitely include exploring more different places rather than worrying about completing projects, lots of smaller posts and more videos for the site, and with a bit of luck you'll be along for the ride.

Thanks to a great, if busy, 2011, and here's to a fabulously photographic 2012.

Cheers, Rob.

Comments

[Darron Barnes]

Hi Rob, some good work there and you seem to be a lot further than me with photography. I live just up the road from you in Wickham, we should hook up one day for a photo walk.

I have been collecting parts for self developing film but have yet to experiment. Family and our 17 month old has been keeping me busy lately, but I do hope to get out and do some more shooting soon.

What process do you use to develop your film? I have read some good things about developing film with coffee and vitamin C which I wouldn't mind having a go at. More info on that here; http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/07/skill-builder-caffenol-homebrew-film-developer.html

Hope to hear from you soon.

All the best for Christmas
Darron

[Rob_Nunn]

Hi Darron,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely have a go at developing with Cafenol soon - and thanks for your kind comments about my work.

Hope you have a great Christmas with your family, and keep in touch, a photowalk around Wickham sounds great!

Cheers, Rob.