The year is coming to a close and I don't think I'll be taking any more photos that would make my favorites list as far as can I see. I haven't really gone out to shoot on my own desire since just before Thanksgiving so my camera is currently collecting some dust. So I've pretty much retired for the year and waiting for 2011!
I think I had a pretty good year with my photography. Met a good number of great photographers. Did a lot of street work, went to a protest or two and clocked a number of shutter clicks since I purchased my camera. I picked up the camera right around March and to date, I've logged over 7500 clicks so I put my camera to work this year. I went through all the photos I took this year and went through the short list of favorite photos. It was quite difficult to pick out just one favorite from this year but after a number of hours late last night/ early this morning, I've come up with one.
May of 2010. Me and a couple of friends decided to head out to DTLA to check out and photograph the May Day rally. This was my first experience in attending a large scale protest event. I've been to other protests which numbered in the couple of hundreds to close to/over a thousand but I've never been, nor seen something that ranged in the couple of thousands. Not sure of how many actually attended but I'd say it easily broke 10k and I'm being conservative with that number.
When I snapped this photo, the march was already well under way. This photo was taken about 3/4 of the way to the end of the march which eventually stopped at city hall. There was a large number of people supporting the passing of the Dream Act so this contingent of people were mainly (high school) students. They had a small drum line leading the pack which I thought was cool. The stuff they were playing had a good rhythm so people in and around the immediate area were getting down. Not necessarily dancing all that much but the rhythm set the mood. Out of nowhere, this woman stepped out of nowhere and started dancing and getting down which amped everyone up, took over and eventually lead the group.
This photo ended up being my favorite because of two things. First, the photographic style of photojournalism is my favorite to shoot. Raw, and nothing set up or posed. A lot of my favorites are usually this kind of photography which is why I love to go out and shoot street photography more than anything else. Catching the essence of a moment like these are what I search for which leads to reason number two: the context of this photo. This was a protest. Everyone here was fighting and supporting a reason or cause. Although this particular event was big, there were many causes and fights that people were supporting but we were all like minded people (left of center). Not that many people were..."festive" with respect to the fights but this group of students fighting for the dream act were and this woman especially. Dance as a form of protest isn't anything new, weird or out of the blue. I've seen it before at many events and seeing it is always a refreshing sight. In a way, her raw and passionate dance was kind of a big "fuck you" to anyone working against the passing of the Dream Act. I really enjoyed watching that and lucky enough to snap this shot up. I took a short video shot of this that can be seen here.
2011 is going to be another great year for me. Got some ambitious plans. Looking to pick up some new gear. Maybe a new film camera by way of medium format. Maybe a new DSLR. A couple of lenses and some lighting maybe. Also looking to venture out of town more. No specific areas just yet but for the moment, my eyes are set north. More of central California and definitely northern California. San Francisco is in my crosshairs. Anyway, I hope all you shooters had a great year in photography. Here's to next year. I look forward to what I can push myself to create and look forward to seeing all the great photos from you and other photographers!
-Q
I think I had a pretty good year with my photography. Met a good number of great photographers. Did a lot of street work, went to a protest or two and clocked a number of shutter clicks since I purchased my camera. I picked up the camera right around March and to date, I've logged over 7500 clicks so I put my camera to work this year. I went through all the photos I took this year and went through the short list of favorite photos. It was quite difficult to pick out just one favorite from this year but after a number of hours late last night/ early this morning, I've come up with one.
May of 2010. Me and a couple of friends decided to head out to DTLA to check out and photograph the May Day rally. This was my first experience in attending a large scale protest event. I've been to other protests which numbered in the couple of hundreds to close to/over a thousand but I've never been, nor seen something that ranged in the couple of thousands. Not sure of how many actually attended but I'd say it easily broke 10k and I'm being conservative with that number.
When I snapped this photo, the march was already well under way. This photo was taken about 3/4 of the way to the end of the march which eventually stopped at city hall. There was a large number of people supporting the passing of the Dream Act so this contingent of people were mainly (high school) students. They had a small drum line leading the pack which I thought was cool. The stuff they were playing had a good rhythm so people in and around the immediate area were getting down. Not necessarily dancing all that much but the rhythm set the mood. Out of nowhere, this woman stepped out of nowhere and started dancing and getting down which amped everyone up, took over and eventually lead the group.
This photo ended up being my favorite because of two things. First, the photographic style of photojournalism is my favorite to shoot. Raw, and nothing set up or posed. A lot of my favorites are usually this kind of photography which is why I love to go out and shoot street photography more than anything else. Catching the essence of a moment like these are what I search for which leads to reason number two: the context of this photo. This was a protest. Everyone here was fighting and supporting a reason or cause. Although this particular event was big, there were many causes and fights that people were supporting but we were all like minded people (left of center). Not that many people were..."festive" with respect to the fights but this group of students fighting for the dream act were and this woman especially. Dance as a form of protest isn't anything new, weird or out of the blue. I've seen it before at many events and seeing it is always a refreshing sight. In a way, her raw and passionate dance was kind of a big "fuck you" to anyone working against the passing of the Dream Act. I really enjoyed watching that and lucky enough to snap this shot up. I took a short video shot of this that can be seen here.
2011 is going to be another great year for me. Got some ambitious plans. Looking to pick up some new gear. Maybe a new film camera by way of medium format. Maybe a new DSLR. A couple of lenses and some lighting maybe. Also looking to venture out of town more. No specific areas just yet but for the moment, my eyes are set north. More of central California and definitely northern California. San Francisco is in my crosshairs. Anyway, I hope all you shooters had a great year in photography. Here's to next year. I look forward to what I can push myself to create and look forward to seeing all the great photos from you and other photographers!
-Q