My 2024… May
I have reviewed my photos taken over the course of 2024 to pick out my favourites (and am taking my time uploading..!)
I have taken it month by month, picking my favourite 5 images from each month. Some months were harder than others to narrow it down; some months were hard to choose 5, as there were only 5 ones I really liked! Once I worked my way through each month, I was then be able to choose the top 5 for the entire year, titled ‘My 2024’
Next is May (a year ago) and the images are ordered from least favourite to most favourite. The top 3 images (bronze, silver, gold) go into the ‘My 2024’ final.
A strange theme of this month seems to be the sheer number of pictures I took at an aperture of f/11. I don’t even remember doing this. It feels like it must’ve been a fad I had got myself into, maybe for just 1 month only (we’ll see what comes in June). It’s quite a small aperture, something I wouldn’t go for now. I started my photography journey off by going for wide apertures - initially as wide as I could go - before reining this in. This brought about some smaller f/8’s, and now I operate around f/2.8-f/8. I can only assume that the low shutter speeds I was working with at the time for panning techniques required a smaller aperture to avoid over-exposure.
How strange!
'Motor Sport Can Be Dangerous’
May, 2024.
FIFTH PLACE. I took this photo at Oulton Park during a day of British Superbike racing. Sadly this is the straight after turn 1, where in the supersport class race 2 weeks ago 2 riders lost their lives and one was seriously injured. It feels quite powerful to be a photo of this sign, indicating how dangerous motor sports are, a year prior to this incident.
I like the photo for its depth and capturing a blurred bike in just the right spot.
'Resting in Bluebells’
May, 2024.
FOURTH PLACE. I can remember the exact moment when I was taking these photos. Me and dog were walking around Beacon Hill in Leicestershire, and I received an important call at the time. It was half brilliant, half annoying, because I was trying to photograph the dog in this moment of rest.
I used a long 400 mm lens for this photo, so had the challenge of keeping the dog at bay and still, whilst being far away from it and unable to direct and shout commands and properly be in control! He was very good and patient. I like the colour forming a purple vignette, and I quite like the depth of field too. He posed well!
'Welcome to Devon’
May, 2024.
BRONZE. I moved to Devon in May 2024. This photo was one I took with my 85 mm lens on the beach at Exmouth with tripod, which I played about with in my first week in my new job. The light was fantastic, and I was full of joy and excitement for having such easy access to the seaside and beach!
I love the colours, and the light rays. Photographing the sea and sunset and sunrise has been one of my great challenges since moving here
'Red vs. Yellow’
May, 2024.
SILVER. I was very impressed with the quality of the photograph and panning technique here when reviewing my photos. Again, this is race day at Oulton Park for the BSB in 2024. I love the colours and wheel blur against the detailed bikes.
'Skinner on his knee’
May, 2024.
GOLD. My favourite photograph in May is of Rory Skinner on his BMW sliding round a corner at the BSB event at Oulton Park. I was practicing panning loads here, and this one came out really well. The blur is beautifully portrayed against the clear detailed rear of the bike. The orange is perhaps distracting, but not overbearing. All the components came together here int he background. It can be hard to photograph motor sports due to the abundance of sponsoring on show (see silver medal winer above!!).
I was really pleased that I managed to capture exactly what I was going for with this shot.
As an aside, me and Luke managed to meet Rory Skinner in the paddock. And by meet, I mean we walked past as he was chatting to someone. But close to saying hi!
