2013 has been quite a year for my photographic endeavours. I have had the privilege of working for several new clients and continuing to provide services to many long term clients who form the back bone of my business.
Recently I was asked by a construction trade organization to contribute photographs for their annual report and some other publications. The asked me to review their membership list and send them all the photos that I had taken for their members so that they could chose the images they wanted. They meant well but this is not that practical a request owing to the number of projects and the size of the files. It did give me the chance to go back through my records to my first professional images which were made in 2008. In the end they received a series of low resolution PDF images but even that was a 70Mb ZIP file. What started out as a modest little business has become more than I ever hoped for, and I am both thankful and proud of what I've achieved. When I make make my way around town and see new buildings under construction I take note of the various consultants and contractors whose names are on the site sign, many of them are my clients so I find myself thinking 'I'll be getting a call about that building in about 18 months.'
As to highlights of 2013, a few things stand out. Photographing the historic Poole family residence in the autumn was extremely rewarding as was the chance to photograph the artwork of my friend Vaughan Hoy. Traveling to Portugal in May and later in the year to London and Prague afforded many great photo ops. A number of images taken over the last couple of years for Arrow Engineering are now hanging on the walls of their office; they are quite large and they look spectacular. I think I photographed about 100 people for work place portraits this year. In the spring I was asked to place a series of photos at 'Tix on the Square'; this is primarily an event ticketing outlet but they also sell local art, books etc. I wasn't sure what would sell (I'm still not really certain) so I decided on a series of black and white photos of Edmonton architectural landmarks. The title of the collection was borrowed from the Talking Heads song 'This Must Be the Place'. Although not a huge commercial success it was an enjoyable assignment and those who've seen this small collection have said nice things about it.
Mainstream Architectural photography assignments that stand out this year were the new SW Division Police Station (my grandfather was policeman and I thought of him the whole time I was on site and during the editing of the final photos), the Boyle Renaissance development in the inner city and a gig I did for the University of Alberta to photograph as number of their student residences. Transalta also asked me to photograph a number of their employees doing outside of work family activities; the images will be used in a company safety campaign.
There are a few interesting things planned for 2014, for instance I've been asked to serve as a juror in the first annual Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Alberta Chapter Architectural Photography Competition. (http://www.raic.org/alberta/index.php/2013/09/raic-alberta-chapter-photo-competition/). I'm really looking forward to this.
For my year end photo I've posted this shot which has appeared on my blog before. It is titled 'Same as It Ever Was'....another Talking Heads song title rip off! And in that theme I'll sign off for 2013 with best wishes for a Happy New Year to all and these lyrics from the aforementioned Talking Heads song 'This Must Be the Place';
Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me 'round
I feel numb - born with a weak heart
I guess we must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
We'll make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's alright I know nothing's wrong....
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