2022 Calendar

December 08, 2021 in being a photographer

As we approach the end of 2021, it’s once more time to look back and reflect on my year as a photographer. It’s been fantastic, despite the Covid restrictions which prevented any corporate work until the autumn. I’ve delivered 150 jobs, 30% of them from returning customers. I’m so grateful to all my clients for their confidence and for their overwhelmingly positive feedback. It really has been a pleasure.

As usual, I’ve sorted through the tens of thousands of images shot during the past 12 months in order to put together my calendar for the year ahead for family and friends. The photos I shot for clients are included with their kind permission.

Cover

Foire du Midi, Brussels, 13 August 2021
Nikon D850, 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/250 sec at f/4.0, ISO 64

January

Girl in a hammock, Brussels, 13 June 2021
Nikon D850, 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/250 sec at f/4.0, ISO 200

February

Brussels 20km race, 12 September 2021
Nikon D850, 300mm f/2.8 lens, 1/1000 sec at f/6.7, ISO 1100

March

April

Studio portrait of a young boy, 18 October 2020
Nikon D850, 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/250 sec at f/8.0, ISO 64

May

Birthday party, Brussels, 8 May 2021
Nikon D850, 50mm f/1.4 lens, 1/250 sec at f/8.0, ISO 400

June

Demonstration, central Brussels, 29 May 2021
Nikon D850, 24mm f/1.8 lens, 1/500 sec at f/8.0, ISO 100

July

August

Green Moon Tribe concert, Muziekpublique, Brussels, 16 June 2021
Nikon D850, 300mm f/2.8 lens, 1/250 sec at f/4.0, ISO 1600

September

Waiting for ice-cream, Rouge-Cloître, Brussels, 20 June 2021
Nikon D850, 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/350 sec at f/4.0, ISO 64

October

In the gardens of the Palais Royal, Brussels, 12 August 2021
Nikon D850, 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/250 sec at f/4.8, ISO 64

November

Three friends, late summer eveing, Ixelles, 8 October 2021
Fujifilm X100T, 23mm fixed lens, 1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600

December

Studio portrait of a young woman, 21 August 2021
Nikon D850, 85mm f/1.8 lens, 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 64

2020 – it could have been worse

December 21, 2020 in being a photographer

I count myself extremely lucky. I have not caught the coronavirus. I have not had to endure confinement alone, or in a tiny apartment. And I no longer rely on my photographic work to pay a mortgage or university fees.

But many others have suffered and are suffering horribly. I’m especially conscious of the difficulties of younger photographers.

2020 didn’t work out anything like I’d expected. Many personal and professional plans had to be abandoned. But I can still find a lot of positives to draw from this year – above all, the rich and intense encounters that I have had with my wonderful subjects. The pleasure that my photographs have given them is the fuel that propels me forward into 2021.

2020 has seen an unprecedented number of jobs cancelled or postponed, sometimes several times. I still have bookings for weddings originally planned during the summer, for which the couples concerned now have tentative dates in 2021. I had two periods of complete shutdown, in April-May and again in November, and no conference work at all (and very little corporate work of any kind) after mid-March. So I lost three whole months out of my year, as well as most of the corporate work that had accounted for 55% of my income in 2019.

Despite that, I delivered nearly 100 contracts, up 15% from the previous year, though revenue was down by 18%. From June onwards I focused my online marketing exclusively towards the private market. In particular, I shot a large number of portrait sessions – income from portrait work tripled compared with 2019. Surprisingly, given the general anxiety about social distancing, over 70% of portrait sessions were shot in the studio, up from 50% the year before.

Saturdays continued to be my busiest working day of the week in 2020, and Wednesdays were still the day on which the largest number of people got in touch for the first time. (I’ve never understood why Wednesday would be the day people are most likely to think about hiring a photographer.) I continued to advertise online with Google Ads. But an increasing number of leads and contracts came from ‘free’ sources, especially from Google My Business and from previous customers. GMB and organic search accounted for nearly 20% of delivered contracts, and repeat business for nearly 25%.

I improved as a photographer. Of course I did – I learn from every job I do!

More specifically, I finally accepted the advice of my friend and colleague Phil Mortreux (Hire him, he’s a brilliant film-maker and photographer!) that shooting exclusively in RAW would allow me to deliver higher numbers of really top-quality images from each shoot.

Second, I continued to develop my portrait studio. I added a pair of Elinchrom ELC-500 studio lights. These have been a pleasure to work with from the start, and really do give me complete freedom to light my subjects in all the ways I want. And I acquired two gorgeous collage backdrops created by British artist Gail Fox. I cannot wait to start shooting portraits against these in 2021.

Finally, I refined the way I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my images, including the integration of a number of tricks taught to me by Phil Mortreux. (Thanks, Phil!) I have a light-touch approach to post-processing, but Lightroom is critical in enabling me to deliver clean, sharp, colour-balanced image files to my clients quickly.

2021 calendar

October 20, 2020 in being a photographer

As I do every year around this time, I’ve been going through the thousands of images I’ve shot in the past 12 months in order to choose 13 for the calendar that I’ll have printed as a gift for clients, family and friends. Here’s my selection, with a few notes on each image.