I now have 2 albums worth of my photographs that I’ve been taking over the past year. I’m quite proud of the progress that I’ve made.

I set up a invitation-only album on Picasa, where I invited my pro and semi-pro photographer friends to critique my work. I did get feedback and comments, but not as often and detailed as I wanted. People are busy. A few mentioned that it would be better to have it on Facebook. So, I did and used the configurable privacy settings on the album. Now even less comments. Oh well…

I’ve clocked up so far about 10 rolls of film, using what I learned at the Intermediate Course taken last year at the National College of Photography and what I’ve been picking up through advice and reading.

My biggest building area is grip; I have a bad shake. I’ve been working on it though. I’m getting there. Secondly, it’s composition.

I was going through film like socks; the people at the lab were duly falling in love with me. I’d say that I’ve gone through the initial high and taken enough photographs to know what I like and don’t like.

I enjoy photographing people, especially candids. I like capturing a simple moment. I also am getting into taking portraits. This recent trip in Egypt provided loads of opportunities for that as I was always around family and friends. More experimental/conceptual shots interest me as well. Finally, I really like doing closeups. I don’t have a macro lens to do them properly, but I make do with what I have.

The next step now is to deepen the skills and work more on the craft, both technical and artistic/creative. I’m going to re-study the course notes from last year and then work slowly through a photography textbook that I found in my father’s stask of books in Egypt. Great book – will get you guys the name.

I want to get into photography as a potential job. I’ve been encouraged from pro photog friends that I can make it. So, I’ll be watermarking my best photographs and uploading them to a subsite on Midiane.com. The subsite will effectively be my portfolio and sport some code to keep the photos away from Google.

Will write more as I progress in this area…