As I reflect back on 2018 and my photography and creative work I feel this year everything has started to come together for me both photographically and creatively.

I lost my both my partner and mother in 2015, it seems so long ago yet it feels like yesterday. I spent most of 2016 not really doing anything with the camera, just aimless shooting when I went out on my regular walks with the dog but never really feeling in the mood and I felt quite lost. I guess it was all part of the grieving process and somehow I got through it. I did a lot of thinking on those walks about why I take photographs and what was the point of it all, and whilst I would go back in time in a flash I think it pushed me somewhere else. I started to have a new thoughts and ideas about the direction I wanted to go with my work.

I spent a lot of time wandering on the moors around Marsden and a few trips to the Peak District, Northumberland, the Lake District and the North Norfolk coast. I really do love landscape photography but each time I went out I came back dissatisfied, not really knowing why. I think I was forcing it, doing the early mornings eventually takes its toll and while the dog was loving it I was getting more and more frustrated to the point where I almost gave up.

At the back end of 2017 I joined a local camera club There is nothing formal at all about it, no competitions, no big egos and if anything it is more a social group of people who just loving messing about with cameras, the main reason I joined it. I was soon roped in to doing presentations and small tutorials, which I love doing but it also made me think about trying something new with my photography. I had a sudden enthusiasm for my photography that had been missing in the mist of my grief. I decided to try some new things like still life, portraiture, kitted myself out some lighting and flash units, just basically got stuck into anything and everything, even buying some vintage lenses to play with and discovering the joys of soft focus.

I discovered a few things about myself over this year. I work better if I have a project with goals and objectives. I work better in the smaller more intimate landscape. I don’t need that BIG picture or need to visit the iconic locations to make images that mean something. I prefer to work with groups of images, bringing them together to show a sense of time and place and to make them more meaningful.

But the main thing I learnt was that I need to make images that mean something to me, are for me and not for anyone else.
If others like them that’s fine but if they don’t I’m fine with that too.

So, I set out to review 2018 and I found myself writing this down which is okay, I obviously needed to get it out. This year I’ve enjoyed my photography so much more and the images I’m showing here are just a few of the things I’ve done. However I’ve finally got around to doing much more digital art and creative work and this has been one of the best years for me creatively. I have renewed enthusiasm for doing my art work and it is probably something I will concentrate on a lot in the coming year.

Thank you for all the support I have received from both my Twitter and Facebook friends, your really are a great bunch, and you all kept me going with your kind words of support and enthusiasm when I was going through some hard times.

Here’s to a creative 2019