Capture the moment

2011 is going to be pass by really quickly in the next few days and this is the time to reflect on what I have learned in the past 12 months in the area of photography. To see my best shots from this year, check out my gallery.

At a glance, all my shots from this year mainly focused on landscape, objects, and texture. I took a lot of picture of the space around me, the places i visited, and any interesting artifacts at those places. Toward the end of the year, I started to photograph flowers and other object that requires macro. I suppose the challenge for next year will be to really work on capturing people - both candidate and modelled shots.

This is a shot taken later in the year, which I got right in one shot.

It’s probably not apparently through the end product, but I notice the amount of time I invest in post-processing is incrementally shorter and most of the time I had the exposure just right so there was almost no need for any post processing adjustment. I made this huge leap after reading a book specifically on exposure technique - Exposure: from snapshot to great shot. Although there are still much work to be done in the flash photography area and for the shots which has very high contrast.

This is a shot which was exposed correctly upfront and the composition was well balanced to bring out the contrast between the weary sunset sky and the joyful ferris wheel.

In terms of composition, my ability to compose is improving but it is very hard to gauge exactly what considered to be an improved composition. This is probably an area which will require a lot of reading and experimenting to improve. 

Overall, it’s a productive year for my first year as a photographer. I want to use this skill to tell untold story of different parts of people’s lives (ugly and good). Let’s travel the hidden path and capture interesting things to show the world.