This post is going to be a little different to the others that I normally post, that’s because this post represents a special occasion as it marks my 25th birthday. This may or may not come as a surprise to some of my readers, but photography was not always a passion or interest of mine. It was about 9 years ago when I first picked up a camera (Panasonic DMC-LZ20) and showed any sort of interest in photography.
I remember going out with friends on a sunny Saturday afternoon with my camera, messing around taking photos just having a nice day out. I remember one photo that I had taken, of a friend, holding a tennis ball close to his face, the reason why I liked this photo at the time was because of how the camera had focused on the tennis ball and had the words “Slazenger Wimbledon ultra” clearly written and had him slightly blurred in the background. At the time I had no real idea what I was doing, I was just pointing and shooting, changing the settings and that was about it. I knew nothing about camera angles or the technical language of photography. At the time I just wanted to be able to capture moments with friends and then look back at them and smile. This was short-lived however because at the time I was unsure about what I wanted to do, go to university, get a job, do an apprenticeship all options that played on my mind and took my focus off photography.
My interest in photography eventually came back when I went to university and got to my second year. This was mostly due to the fact that I was studying Media & Communications and got the chance to work with a number of high-tech cameras, adobe software and other equipment.
I remember doing the Middle Kid photoshoot (see previous blog post)and once again becoming fascinated with being out taking photos, using the different modes on the camera and putting the vision that I had into a reality, making content that would be engaging. I loved every minute of this project, the planning, the photoshoot and the editing. It helped me to rediscover my love for photography, this time though it felt different, this time it felt like I was learning things for the first time and wasn’t just purely pointing and shooting.
It was at university when I started to learn how to edit photos and use different forms of editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. At the time most of my edits consisted of cropping, sharpening, blurring and the removal of small objects, so it was a big thing when I finally learnt how to change the background to black & white while keeping the main subject in colour. After this, a lot of my edits started to incorporate this effect, over time I managed to develop and expand my skills and knowledge in photography from what I had learnt at university in particular third year when I was doing my dissertation, I started to think about camera angles, lighting positioning and colours being used.
After leaving university my interest in photography had grown significantly, unfortunately for me though, I no longer had the access to the high-tech camera equipment that the university used to provide me with. Furthermore, the Panasonic DMC-LZ20 camera that I very first used I no longer had. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t without a camera for long as a was gifted with a new camera for my 21st birthday, a Panasonic Lumix TZ 60.
It was this camera that helped start ExpressCreativity0121and that’s because the camera was small and compact it meant that I was able to travel to different cities across the country taking photos and exploring without having to worry about it being stolen or broken. This photo was taken in London and it is of the London eye, with this photo I wanted to try put all the knowledge, skill and experience that I had got from university and experiment a little. I wanted to do two things with this photo, one is making it look old and the other to make it look like a painting instead of a photo.
There were a few adjustments that I made to make this possible, firstly I changed the photo to black & white because old photos used to always come out in black & white naturally. The second adjustment that I made was changing the contrast of the clouds and the river, I made both of them brighter by doing this it meant that you could see the ripples in the river and bumps in the clouds more clearly. The final adjustment that I made was blurring parts of the photo, I did this to give a paintbrush effect of slight smudging details and natural errors that you would expect from a painter to make when painting.
While I didn’t think that much of this photo and edit and I know that there was a lot more that I need to do and learn, it did get the ball rolling in the terms of being creative with my edits and wanting to go out and take more photos and continue expressing myself and creativity through photography.
It was about a year later when I brought my first camera a Canon 700D. For many people, when you buy your first camera all you want to do is go out and take photos, however, this wasn’t entirely true for me. I was nervous it had been a while since I had last used a DSLR camera and wanted to get my confidence back, so I read photography books messed around with modes just trying to be as prepared and confident as I could be before I went out to take photos.
Over the following years, my photography interest changed, when I first got a camera taking photos of nature and wildlife were my main interests. One of the reasons why I took photos of this nature was because the subjects didn’t move, there were no complaints and no deadlines. This meant that it was perfect for me to practise my skills without any pressure.
After the interest in nature and wildlife, it began to move to street art and graffiti. I loved seeing the creativity of other people and still do love seeing it. Street art graffiti has taken me to so many different cities across the country and to other countries. It’s never the same, each city has its own take on street art, this shouldn’t come as a surprise though as creativity is unique to each individual which is what makes it so special. It also helped me with inspiration, yes street art isn’t photography however the use of colours and shading are all something that has to be admired this is why I try and incorporate or consider these details into my photos when editing them.
My interest have always been constantly changing, but I do this to improve my skills and knowledge. Over the past few months, my interest has been in Landscape photography and most recently night-time photography. Landscape photography has always been a huge success on social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest, while it is also one of the main types of photo genres that are sold.
We are now brought up to date to the year 2021, I still feel like I have so much to learn with night-time photography as there are many more photos I want to take and experiment with and I’ll continue learning and developing my skills in all areas of photography. I have my eyes set on improving in Portrait photography and also buying new lenses like a Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Lens for my travel photography or a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens. I’m also looking to get a new camera however I haven’t quite decided on what camera to get just yet but if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
Thank you for once again taking the time to read my blog post this one in particular, has been long so thank you for sticking with it, I wish you all the best. I’m now off to celebrate as best I can, turning 25 in lockdown.
ExpressCreativity0121 