Since it’s the last day of 2010 now seems like a good time to take stock and look back at my photographic output from this year to see how its evolved since 2009.

I spent some time this evening looking back over my very best shots from this year, and I’m relieved to see that I’ve continued to hone my skills when it comes to the basics, my shots on average are just that little bit tighter than they were in 2009. The compositions are more finely tuned and imaginative, and the post-processing that little bit more subtle and effective. My HDRs in particular look a lot more natural than they did the year before. There’s absolutely nothing un-expected or interesting here – when you do something more you get better at it! What is interesting is in how my style has changed – how I’ve started to do things I never did before.

Without a shadow of a doubt the biggest change in 2010 is that I got over my phobia of shooting against the light. From the first time my father showed me how to shoot with his Olympus OM-1, he always drilled it in to my head that you should feel the sun on the back of your head when you’re shooting – in other words, you shoot away from the sun, never into it. Well – this year I made a concerted effort to break that rule, and I’m very happy with some of the results.

The first real success I had shooting against the light in 2010 was in January – it had snowed heavily, and there was a strange mist hanging over Carton Estate, when the sun broke through some gaps in the clouds and put on one hell of a light show. I did my best to capture the wondrous scene before me, and was rather surprised with how well the shot worked (once the appropriate post-processing had been applied to widen out the dynamic range back to about what the eye can see).

Winter in Carton
on Flickr – Full-Size

Although this first shot was shooting against the light, it wasn’t quite shooting straight into the sun. The best result I had doing that was the sunset below taken from Jackson’s Bridge between Maynooth and Kilcock looking west along the Royal Canal:

Sunset at the 14th Lock
on Flickr – Full-Size

I also took the idea of shooting against the light and applied it to my on-going butterfly project. I figured that light shining through a butterfly wings could make for much more interesting butterfly shots than I’d been shooting before. I think the shot below is the best example of the kind of results I got shooting butterflies against the light.

Backlit Green-veined White
on Flickr – Full-Size

As well as making a concerted effort to shoot against the light, I also made a concerted effort to get more imaginative with my butterfly shots – to try for less typical poses, to get better light (be that front of back), and to get smoother and darker backgrounds. Until this year my butterfly shots were almost all either exactly side-on or from directly above, I did my best to break those habits in 2010. To me this was a logical evolution, I had ‘documentary’ shots of all the common species already, so what was the point in shooting more of the same?

The two shots below are two of my favourite butterfly shots of 2011 2010 which were shot looking at the butterfly from an angle, rather than perpendicular to the open or closed wings:

Green-veined White on Dandelion
on Flickr – Full-Size

Wood White
on Flickr – Full-Size

I didn’t rule out shooting perpendicular to the wings, but when I did, I worked hard on getting a good background. What do I mean by that? Ideally one that’s dark and smooth enough to let the butterfly really stand out.

Common Blue Butterfly
on Flickr – Full-Size

Common Blue Butterfly
on Flickr – Full-Size

As well as continuing to improve my butterfly shots, I also continued to try to shoot better shots of trains. This year I tried to do two things with my train shots, show trains within their landscape, and get trains in interesting light. The three shots below are my favourite of my best railway landscape shots of the year:

A winter commute
on Flickr – Full-Size

Sligo Bound in Winter
on Flickr – Full-Size

Evening along the Royal Canal
on Flickr – Full-Size

You could argue that the light in the last two of those shots is quite interesting, but nearly to the same extent as the two shots below. I think the second of these two if my very favourite shot of the whole year.

Evening Commuter
on Flickr – Full-Size

RPSI Rail Tour at Dusk
on Flickr – Full-Size

Finally, well as making an effort to get shots of trains within landscapes, I also put a lot of effort into shooting better landscapes in general this year. Landscapes have always given me trouble, so I put a lot of thought into shooting the few that I did this year, and I have to say I think it was worth the effort I put into it. I found that I really liked converting landscapes to monochrome to add more drama to the skies, and to bring out the textures better. I didn’t really think I’d enjoy monochrome work, since I’m normally such a colour junkie, but I really surprised myself on this one. The three landscape shots below are my picks from the year, and surprisingly, two of them are monochrome!

The Sleigh Beigh Way
on Flickr – Full-Size

Rathcoffey Castle
on Flickr – Full-Size

Glendalough Monochrome
on Flickr – Full-Size

I have no idea what 2011 will bring, but I sure hope it’s as good a year for me photographically as 2010 was. One thing I know for sure, expect to see a lot more iPhone photos in the list for next year – I’m really starting to appreciate having a good camera with me at all times – I think I’ll miss a lot less shots in 2011 because of that simple fact.