Around this time last year, as I reflected on the year 2018, some of the goals I set myself, around my hobbies at least, were:
Create opportunities to try something new and expose myself to as many genres as possible
Capture as many images as possible, mostly good ones
Share with my community, either through this site or through my Instagram account
I wanted to share some of the highlights from my work in 2019 to see if you will agree with me that I am able to meet my goals.
Talking for new things, Flash Photography is something I always avoided delving into probably because of the amount of work and technique involved, costs and also due to the space the equipment requires.
As we near the end of 2019, I shed my inhibitions and started playing with Flash Photography very seriously.
I wanted to share that output first, with this image I took at home a few days back, which will probably be the last image I produce in 2019!
The most convenient way for me to expose myself to new genres was to learn by attending Photography Workshops. I also follow the local calendar of events to try to attend some of them when possible. On top of this I have my annual visits to India to meet family and the trips to the Zoos and parks with the family. This has ensured that learning and sharing has been a continuous cycle.
Over the past few years, I have attended the meetups run by #NANPA which has helped my #NaturePhotography skills immensely and also provided me exposure to some of the most talented Nature Photographers in my area. It also helped me gain awareness of some local nature refuges such as the Hagerman National Wild Life Refuge and Tandy Hills Natural Area.
One of the pictures I captured at Hagerman last year even made it to my 2020 Calendar!
I have made excuses over the years to visit the Zoos but this year, I attended a special tour of the Zoo for Photographers at the Dallas Zoo which helped me get some shots that I could never have in the past. In spite of this, I did my usual annual trip to the Fort Worth Zoo too :)
I have covered a lot about my trip to #Hyderabad, India through my blog posts this year so let me try not to repeat much of it but if you have not, please do catch up on my blog posts on my trip where I covered Street Photography and Architectural Photography from Hyderabad. Here are some samples:
The Snake Workshop that I attended earlier in the year has to be the boldest and the weirdest I have ever done. But the organizer, Don Champlin, made it a very pleasant experience. Being an avid photographer and a snake handler definitely helped!
As with most other workshops, I met some very amazing people including some expert snake handlers from the area, and most of all, captured some pretty awesome images, as you can see.
One of the genres where I have been investing a lot of time over the years through these Photo Workshops has been People Photography. One of the intents has been to gain familiarity with Flash Photography while also learning to getting comfortable with people.
To this end the North Texas Photography Club run by Reuben Mendiola has been immensely helpful. Reuben mixed up his workshops a bit this year and this has helped me get exposed to some new aspects of people photography as you can see from below.
I have been contemplating dabbling with Food Photography for a while but my phobia with Flash equipment and dealing with any props as such never really let me do much in this genre. Thankfully the North Texas Photography Club did some Food and Product focused workshops recently and this has renewed my interest in this genre.
I hope to spend some more time on this genre in the coming year. Here are some I captured in the recent workshops:
As I alluded earlier, I have always ensured that I keep tab on local events and attend them as frequently as possible and of course, with my camera equipment in tow. I have been a regular at the Texas State Fair over the years.
This year, I also had the opportunity to see the North Texas Fair and Rodeo in Denton. This gave me a great opportunity to meet and capture images of the riders behind the scenes in addition to capturing some amazing pictures of the event itself.
I also attended a Food Photography Workshop held by the Dallas Morning News at the Dallas Farmers Market. I have to admit that I did not take any good pictures of note at all at this event but I had a chance to meet and get to know some of the amazing photography staff at the Dallas Morning News.
As I went over the images I captured over the last year, I felt eternally grateful and thankful to all those who helped me whether it was adjusting their schedules to accommodate me or letting me participate or titbit here or there.
I want to extend the goals I had set in 2019 into 2020 as well so that these become a 'habit' with me and I am able to share much better work as time passes by. I sincerely hope my upcoming trip to Hawaii will be the first big step in that direction.
Cheers.
Please stop by and look at the work of the below who have been instrumental in making 2019 a successful year for me!
@navinsigamany @donchamplin @hydwalkingco @mendiola_photography @nwinphoto @gtpatrick.tx @sean.fitzgerald @siaphotogs @photosbylesko @nanpapix @thebiteshot
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