New Year, new start etc

So, 2022 was interesting and a very productive year. I worked on a number of projects for a leading farming magazine and finally made the full-time transition into a photographer and videographer role.

As a result, that meant I didn’t stop for 5 minutes from September, all the way up to December, so yeah, as I said, very productive, both professionally, personally and mentally.

I expect (and hope), that 2023 has more of the same in store. I have several exciting projects in the pipeline – the first is a series of short films, that I am hoping to produce throughout the year… I will share more on this when I’m ready.

A behind-the-scenes shot from an assignment last year.

The second is more imminent, which is a series of educational videos produced for the National Farming Union. Again, I will share these once they are all signed off.

I have a feeling that my videography work will continue to grow this year. So it’s only natural that my targets align with my gut feeling; so I’m hoping to upgrade the cameras that I use this year.

For the last few months I’ve been using a Fujifilm X-H2s for various projects, which has been a complete pleasure to use. So if budget allows, I do plan to finally let go of my beloved X-T3s and replace them with an X-H2 and another X-H2s. They will become my new workhorses. I’m also tinkering with the idea of purchasing a Sony FX30, but we will see on that…

As it stands, I only have a handful of weddings lined up. When the pandemic and the lockdowns hit, I found myself wondering if it was a path I wanted to carry on with and ultimately decided I would only take on the work which came directly to me – so no more advertising, no more chasing clients and no more wedding fairs. I even stopped posting “if you need a wedding photographer…” on social media, so I was braced for this hit.

The important thing for me, was that clients were hiring me for the right reason, which is they saw my work and liked it (and so far, that appears to be the case). This rant is probably best saved for another blog post, but I feel it’s really important that somebody sees and appreciates your work before they hire you.

Additionally, I need to consider my time – I’m currently both employed and do the odd bit of freelance work, and I have a family to look after and want to spend time with.

Another thing I will try to do is maintain this website a little better.  Over the Christmas break I decided to give this place a little facelift.  2022 saw me take on so much more work than weddings, and having them altogether in the same place didn’t make much sense to me from a user point of view.

I mean, if someone is after a wedding photographer, the last thing they want to see is corporate portraits, landscape photos and event videos.  So I decided to use this site a portfolio for all my work that is not related to weddings.  And likewise, if a CEO or business owner is after a headshot, the last thing they want to see is confetti.

So I decided to update this site to be more of a portfolio of my work and have the blog site aside from that.  And, I have to say, now that I have put all my videos and my favourite images of 2022 into one place, I am really proud of the work I produced over the year.

Let’s all hope that 2023 is just as productive.

Happy New Year all!