zondag 11 december 2011

Almost another year gone by

At the beginning of the year I wrote my first blog. I put down some goals for this year and now I'm looking back to this. What have I done? What didn't I do? And I'll once again look at the future. What are the plans for the future? What are the 2012 things I want to do?

First I'll look back to the year we still live in: 2011. I wanted to follow a band, touring with it and make a book of it. Things didn't work out, still want to do it. 2012 maybe, 2013 to be more realistic. I'm still improving my concertphotography, trying to put it to the next level. Trying to have my signature in the pictures I make. I'm now taking pictures for the site Dutch Distortion. It's a site which aims on the metal-side of music. I'm doing some of the live photography reports.
The fantasy shoot I had in mind also didn't happen. What happened is the plan to take several years for it and make it some bigger project. Character creation and storytelling. Won't tell more yet ;)
What did work out was the plan to do some more sportsphotography. Went to the Ajax youth team for most of the home games. I'm blogging about it, trying to see what players are the real talents and are the ones to make it to the first team. Visit my voetbalscout blog to see more of it.

That's not the only thing I did this year. I went to the KvK and now I'm officially running my own company as a freelance photographer. Upgraded my site seth-photography.com and now I'm working on it to improve and expand it. It was one of the big steps I have to do to be able to live my dream. Takes quite some time and in the beginning it doesn't work out that well yet. But for the next year, some shoots are planned :)

That was in short how photography worked out for me last year. For the upcoming year there are also some ideas, some wishes, some plans. First of all, I'm going to do some wedding shoots. I hope people will see that the wedding pictures are one of the most important pictures in life. You don't want to have it messed up, but well, people just don't want to spend that much money on it. Having a professional camera doesn't make you a good photographer. The challenge is to get the maximum out of the circumstances. I bet most pro photographers make better pictures with a compact camera than people who didn't take much pictures and by a €3000,- combination of camera with lenses. You have to know how photography works. This year I took the wedding pictures of my nephew and it was a real long day with only short moments to take a break. People underestimate how much work it is. And people mostly don't realize how much extra work it is to sort it all out and deliver only the quality you're aiming for. This is why professional photographers sometimes ask €1500,- or more for a wedding shoot. It has to be perfect and you don't get a second chance.

In 2012 I would like to go to Italy by car and do some landscape photography. I really love the scenery out there, the culture, the language and the country itself. On the road I want to capture the Swiss mountains, the Tuscan hills, the beauty of Rome, Milan and Florence. There are some really nice bands playing in Italy in a short amount of time this year and I hope it'll be able to shoot 2 or 3 shows out there. Visiting the Ferrari HQ in Maranello is also a wish for the upcoming year. This year I did a shoot in the Hessing building in Utrecht. The cars are really lovely and the building is a great work of architecture.

I'm currently working on a book with concertphotography. It'll contain the better pictures I took since I started to visit concerts with my camera. Some pictures made by a 2 megapixel compact camera, others made with a DSLR. Can't wait to see the result :)

2012 in short: Trip to Italy shooting landscape, concertphotography and cars. Having my first book with concertphotography ready. Doing some wedding/portrait shoots. Starting to work out the fantasy project (aiming for 2014/2015 to be ready). Doing more sportsphotography.