The year that was

Posted by pireze on Dec 30, 2011 in Blog, Featured, Photo Thoughts | 1 comment

Amidst vivid dreams and vibrant colours, the year has passed. Already, the beginning has faded in my mind, like a negative exposed to light, and I must consult my gallery to once again jolt my memories of the precious months.

First of all, I would like to thank all my friends (you know who you are) and a special person who have supported me so much this year. I honestly don’t know what I would be doing at this point in my life were it not for the support.

As with previous years, 2011 has been a year of learning for me in the photographic arts. It has also been one of multiple transitions, some painful, most of them constructive.

And of course, I have taken photos. In my cosplay gallery, I count 73 albums from this year, exceeding my 2010 archive count by four. At the same time, 2011 has been the year I started fashion-type shoots, with four dedicated fashion shoots this year thanks largely to the lolita community (plus two events).

Most importantly, in August and September this year, I officially transitioned my long-running but embattled Hunting the Elusive blog hosted at this domain to a blog dedicated to photography, and started the pireze.net gallery on a separate host. This move disappointed many in the doujin artwork collection community, but in a way changing circumstances and ethical considerations made this inevitable.

Given the sheer length of the year, it’s hard to really sum up what I feel are some of my key achievements. Here is my attempt:

1. Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt photobook for Madara and Nadleeh. I still consider some of the shots I did for this project to be some of my greatest work yet, and set the foundation for later technical learnings.
2. Meeting so many new people (perhaps more within this year than I have in any one year previously) and shooting for them.
3. Photography panel for SMASH! and Animania. It was a great honour to be invited to talk about some of the issues very close to my heart, and showcase some of my work. I was honestly surprised at the turn out.
4. Learning to process. Continuing on from my beginnings in documentary style photography, I have learned much in the retouching side of photography. But still much more to come.
5. Learning to control lighting. On the technical side of things, I have learned to tightly control the spread of light to achieve the looks I want. No longer am I a believer in the need for soft, even lighting in every situation – I am now willing to impose lighting as befits the situation. Or even use no lighting at all.
6. Expanding my location list.

One of the first tasks facing me in the new year would be to re-assess my portfolio selection, since there are a number of shots from the latter part of 2011 that I feel deserve a place in there. For 2012, I hope to continue improving my skills, because growth is essential in the progress of any endeavour. I hope to do more shoots, and diversify into other photographic genres at the same time (with hopefully a focus on fashion). I will continue to work hard on cosplay photography, and I also hope to be able to meet many more new people and collaborate with them to bring more beauty into the world.

Have a happy new year!