I didn’t do one of these end of year things last year, can’t remember why, but it being the end of a decade and all I thought I would.
I actually have very little to say regarding the end of the 10’s save for I’m glad I’m in the country I am now rather than the one I was when the decade started.
(Yes, even post the horrendous Dec 12th Election that has left me depressed and more scared for where this septic isle is headed than any election in my life)
Here’s what my end of year posts looked like 10 years ago:-
Unpublished 2009-Part 1
Unpublished 2009-Part 2
Anyway…….here’s some of what happened for me in the first half of 2019.
( As always probably more for my benefit than anyone else’s. )
January
I shot and edited a piece with Documentally on Neotists, a St. Neots based creative collective for Collusion to be shown at the Future Takeover event (blog post)……
which I also shot and edited a piece about (blog post)
I also made some Dal….
February
I Directed, shot & edited a film about the incredibly talented artist Michael Murfin to coincide with his exhibition “A State Of Change” containing his oil paintings recording the A14 upgrade project in Cambridgeshire. (Blog Post)
It was the first time I’ve shot a whole project in 4K for 1080p delivery and I was (and still am) very pleased with how it turned out.
On some mornings the light and Chiharu Gotoh looked lovely
I got my photo taken by the fucking legendary rock photographer Steve Gullick. Yes only on a phone, but I didn’t care, I’d joined an illustrious rank :)
March
I wrote a review of the Blind Spot Gear Power Junkie NP-F for Newshooter
My Russian lens obsession was picking up, but hadn’t peaked (yet)
I was practicing walk cycles.
I met up with the lovely and hugely talented Ben Chesterton from Duckrabbit, who I’d known for years online but never met in person. It would lead to lots of meetups and working together with Ben in 2019. A real pleasure.
For Chiharu Gotoh’s birthday I reposted this, one of my favorite photographs I’ve ever taken of her. It was no 1 on Flickr explore when I first posted it there 10 (?) years ago.
April
Martin Cooper’s feature documentary on contemporary calligraphers from around the world “Traces Of The Soul” that I DOP’d, Produced and did Motion Graphics for won Best Documentary and Most Beautiful Documentary at Master Of Art Film Festival in Bulgaria.
I revisited York, the city where I went (briefly) to University, for the 1st time in 29 years. It was……odd.
I was shooting for Duckrabbit at Cambridge University for some films encouraging BAME applications to University.
On camera telling us all about her experiences at Cambridge was the awesome Courtney Daniella.
Ben wrote eloquently about it and you can see the films HERE
I made a cartoon avatar of myself and animated it in character.
It’s best watched looping HERE
Steve Gullick was in character too, rude.
May
My Russian lens obsession was progressing, so I shot a little film with Chiharu Gotoh testing out the lovely flares of my new Mir 20M (blog post)
I helped out and supplied the kit when Curtis Gullick was shooting his short film “Turning 70” in my hallway.
I knew I wanted a tattoo of this Onorio Depiro illustration the first time I saw it. “Colourful Language” seemed very fitting :)
And then the obsession peaked, behold the Helios 40 85mm F1.5…..
The bokeh from it is something else…..
I didn’t fully write up my thoughts until……….
June
Steve Gullick released his second book of photos shot on his phone, so I made a little film to help promote it. Inevitably that Helios 40 was involved :) (blog post)
I did a number of animations for the ARRI course on MZed.
It was fun and required a stereotypical level of German precision.
I saw my first ever Cinnabar Moth. It was super cool.
I may or may not have gotten a year fucking older. I wasn’t taking it well.
And that was the “edited to make it all look rosy version” of the first half of 2019.
The rest in Part 2.
