2011 – A Look Back

I wanted to put together a blog entry to look back photographically on 2011, an entry where I group together & highlight my very favourite captures of the past 12 months. I’ve done that but in the process I’ve come to the realisation that photography – including the on-line presence I’ve built around & to display my love for photography – is no longer just a hobby, it’s pretty much everything I do right now.

2011 was a very eventful & enjoyable year for me photography wise. This blog, the centre of my photography universe & only some 2-months-old at the turn of the year, started attracting a nice bit of attention from the wider photography community, aided, no doubt, by the expansion of my on-line presence – this year saw the birth of davidMbyrne.com my its dMb logo on flickr, facebook, twitter, Google+ and 500px. It’s safe to say that taking photographs, visiting photography-related websites & tending to my on-line presence easily monopolised the bulk of my time this year.

As for actual pictures. I have 5,062 of those on file for the year, which means I probably captured over twice that taking throw-aways into account. That number aside, picking my favourite pictures of the year wasn’t difficult – I tend to know as soon as I capture a picture if it’ll be a favourite or not & I could probably have picked the following 16 favourites from memory. Here they are, presented in chronological order.

1 || Amy Kim’s pre-Wedding Photo Shoot, Seoul, South Korea

I was very photographer for a few hours in February I got to a visit a real photo studio for the pre-wedding photo-shoot of a good friend, Amy Kim. While there I got to stick my camera over the shoulder of a professional photographer, one who didn’t mind me doing so. It was fun, a lot of fun.

2 || Dongdaemun, Seoul, South Korea

I captured the following picture while playing around with my camera on the streets of Dongdaemun in Seoul, always a busy & exciting place to be.

3 & 4 || Clare & Michael’s Wedding, Aughrim, Co. Wicklow, Ireland

The following two pictures were taken at a family wedding at home in Ireland in May, my first of two visits home this year.

5 || Bongeunsa Temple, Seoul, South Korea

Back in Seoul, I took this picture in the grounds of the Bongeunsa Temple. The temple was decorated for a recent Buddhist festival and the lantern canopy in the temple’s central courtyard proved to be very photogenic.

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davidMbyrne.com photography-related developments for: June 2011
After 3 years with my trusty EOS Kiss X2/450D, the first dSLR I ever bought, I finally got around to upgrading my main camera, opting for the Canon EOS 60D. It’s an awesome camera and there’s very little I dislike about it.

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6 || Stream Stroll, Seoul, South Korea

Taken in June with my as then 1-week-old EOS 60D, a (heavily cropped) picture of a bee on a flower by a stream in Seoul.

7 || Jeju-do, South Korea

Taken on a July visit to South Korea’s Jeju Island, a 1-second exposure inside the huge UNESCO-listed Manjanggul Lava-tube.

From the dMb Travel blog entry Jeju-do, South Korea. July 17th, 2011.

8 || Summer Reflections, Jochiwon, South Korea

I love reflections; I find them very photogenic & I have a lot of fun with them. This is my favourite reflection picture of the last year, that of a train carriage entering Jochiwon train station in Jochiwon, South Korea, on a steamy August day.

9 || TaLK Talent, Jochiwon, South Korea

The following picture was captured during a talent show in difficult photographic conditions (distant, moving subjects in low-light).

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davidMbyrne.com photography-related developments for: September 2011
As it turned out, I needed to upgrade my camera twice in the space of 4 months after I was relieved of my then 2-month-old 60D – & Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle lens – in the Philippines in September, easily the low point of the year. Yes, the 60D had impressed me enough during those aforementioned 2 months of use to ensure I wasn’t considering any other camera option when it came to (unexpectedly) replace it towards the end of the year (same goes for the Sigma 10-20mm lens, although it was some 2-years-old when we parted ways, having purchased it back in December 2009).

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10 || Gecko, Boracay, Philippines

The following image was captured using the macro mode of my IXUS 80IS point-and-shoot, having being releived of my primary camera, a picture of a tiny gecko on the inside of a lampshade in a backpackers resort on the Philippine island of Boracay.

See more from Boracay on the dMb Travel World Explore entry Boracay Island, Philippines. September 24th, 2011.

November was definitely my strongest month of 2011 photographically. I captured quite a few images I liked this month, most during a brief visit home, my second of the year.

11 || Lantern Festival, Seoul, South Korea

I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival in early November with the intentions of photographing em, lanterns. However, it was the crowds there that ended up being the attraction for me. I captured the following image of a congregation of Koreans from an elevated viewpoint as they walked by the edge of central Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon stream.

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davidMbyrne.com photography-related developments for: November 2011
I joined the Getty Images stock library and as I type I have 26 of my images for commercial sale through them on Getty Images. Let’s see what will come of this, if anything.

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12 || The Woods, Co. Roscommon, Ireland

If you go down to the woods today, you might just capture a picture like this, captured in Mote Park near Roscommon in the Irish midlands.

13 || Sunrise Dewdrop Reflections, Co. Roscommon, Ireland

The following image of dewdrops, cobwebs & light on a piece of barbed wire fencing was captured early in the morning shortly after sunrise. The  light to the rear was strong & beautifully diffuse; a golden period if ever there was one. If pushed, this is probably my absolute favourite picture of the year.

14 || Wicklow Harbour, Co. Wicklow, Ireland

I had difficulty sleeping on this particular morning in November so I found myself down on the East Pier in Wicklow, my hometown, before dawn where I captured this 6-second exposure of the end of the pier.

15 || Baby Ryan. Wicklow, Ireland

I knew going home in November that I’d be taking a lot of pictures of my then 3-week-old nephew Ryan. What I didn’t appreciate until then was that it is hard to get (good) pictures of such inanimate subjects, as 3-week-old babies tend to be. That said I do like this image, one not so much of Ryan himself but more his soother with him snoozing in the background.

16 || Ewha Campus Complex Silhouettes, Seoul, South Korea

Back in Seoul, South Korea, I paid a visit to the campus of the Ewha Women’s University on a bitterly cold December day with the intentions of photographing its architecturally splendid Ewha Campus Complex, a massive 6-level, hobbit-esque, underground building built into a valley near the main entrance to the campus. However, on this day the strong, low-lying sunlight meant silhouettes & shadows on the sunken central walkway of the structure were much more photogenic.

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Happy New Year everyone & all the best for your exploits, photography or otherwise, in 2013.

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