This was a recent photographic challenge from the Australian Photography forum:

“Review the images that you have taken during the year. It’s up to you on how many images that you review, you have to make that decision. Choose 1 image per month & display them in this thread. It doesn’t have to be your best image. It can be an image that you consider a break through in your Photography skills. It can be an image that reflects that point in time.”

Sounds easy until you realise how many photographs you take in a year. I went through it anyway and have reproduced here what I posted for the challenge.

For a start, this was a timely challenge for me. I’ve only seriously become involved in photography this year so it’s interesting to see how it’s gone. I’ve always had a camera around but more for taking snaps and this year I put a lot more effort into the “art” and skills of photography. I’m also in the middle of re-visiting archives from during the year so a lot of it is fresh in my mind again.

These aren’t necessarily my best photographs this year, but I have a “thing” for panoramas so I’ll present them month by month as they were taken. Click on any of the images for a larger view.

January
It wasn’t a new years resolution as such, but towards the end of last year I thought I’d start taking this photography caper seriously. January in Sydney is a pretty easy subject to get started on.

February
During the summer months it’s pretty easy getting up for sunrises and in February I opened my Flickr account. This was my first image loaded on Flickr. (prints of this photograph are available for secure purchase here)

March
March was a good month with early efforts starting to pay off. I shot my best selling image year to date and had another published on the front page of the local paper (learning a lesson and resolving never to offer an image for publication for free again). The image I’ve included here is neither of those, but one from the archives I’d only just processed (yes, nine months later).

April
Much of my photography is around the coast because that’s where I live. I spend a lot of time in the bush and National Parks though and while I love being in the bush I don’t quite get the inspiration as I do around the beach. This was a mix of both a bit of bush close to the coast, and hard to believe it’s suburban Sydney.

May
Getting colder in May starts to test your dedication, especially getting up for sunrises. The main advantage though is that the days are getting shorter and while it’s getting a bit chilly, at least sunrise isn’t so early.

June
June was a bit quiet with some extreme weather in Sydney with a series of intense low pressure systems making it pretty wet so it was hard to get out too much. At least it helped fill the dams a bit and made for some interesting seascapes which I’ve always loved. To add some scale to this shot I waited ages for someone down near the pool to stand in front of it. Before this I probably would’ve taken a shot of the first wave and left. (Prints of this photograph are available for secure purchase here)

July
The low pressure systems continued into July and threw up some quality surf. Being an ex-surfer helps for knowing what makes a good surfing photo, the critical parts of the wave etc. The lesson here, know your subject. The bloke on this wave actually came up to me after the wave to see if I caught it. I was just as stoked as he was when he offered to buy it.

August
The V8 Supercars come to town in August. In previous years I’ve been happy to jag any shot as long as it was sharp but this year I made an effort with various techniques, particularly panning which by the end of the day was almost second nature. Being a huge fan of the V8′s anyway I need to remember sometimes though to stand back and watch the race and enjoy it from outside the viewfinder.

September
I spent most weekends in September in the bush. It’s a great time of year with all the wildflowers coming out. If it taught me one thing though is that I’m crap at photographing flowers so here’s a shot of the Sydney’s Northern Beaches instead, a shot I like to call a postcard from home.

October
This would have to be my favourite photograph of the year. Everything came together on this one, the planning, composition and processing. I still shoot a fair proportion of jpegs but images like this one really highlight the advantages of shooting raw. It was quite a transformation. (Prints of this photograph are available for secure purchase here).

November
When you think about it, if you have a bulb mode on your camera, capturing lightning isn’t all that hard. What is hard is giving it some scale or context. Often you see lightning images that are just that, lightning, with maybe a black silhouette of everything else. While they can still be spectacular it’s nice to get an idea of the surroundings. Ironically this is probably my best image for least effort. I was literally sitting on my couch when I shot this.

December
Earlier this month I was approached by Mark Ingram to provide some cityscape images for his stock library. Living out in Cobar, NSW doesn’t give him much opportunity to shoot the city, but it it’s a great opportunity for me. So now I’ve come full circle and finding new challenges in shooting the city again like I did in January. (Prints of this photograph are available for secure purchase here).