2nd year of Photography

4/27/2019 

(Just a month late to post)

Today marks the end of the year 2 of me dabbling in photography. It was a great second year. I learned a lot of new techniques and gained more commercial experience.

Let’s start off with the goals set out for last year.

  • Getting physical prints is a completely different ball game. You will require some knowledge of the color space, paper textures, printer, and ink. It was a big challenge, but I ultimately I got it done. Biggest lesson was understanding the difference between C- print versus inkjet. In the end, I settled for 340 gsm Canson Bartya Prestige paper (a gloss paper with extra smooth texture and deep color saturation when printed on) using Lucia EX pigments. In addition, learning about framing/mounting is even harder and it is shockingly expensive. Prints can be purchased here.
  • Right before my birthday trip to Olympic National Park, the Sigma Art for Sony series were released. And I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it The image quality was spectacular. I was really blown away about how much zoom a 135mm really is. Here are test shots with the 135mm Sigma Art F1.8. 
  • Lastly, Adobe can go straight to hell with that subscription model for that creative cloud suite. Unless you are going to use Lightroom, Illustrator  and Photoshop. I don’t feel it is necessary for Adobe Photoshop, and for the most of the post processing techniques can be achieved with Affinity Photo. For a perpetual license of 50 bucks; sign me up.


Overall, I accomplished most of my goals I set for myself last year. I think year 3’s goal will have to be bigger. 

Some of the year 2 key highlights were getting gigs with 500px Studios, attending Sony Alpha Be Alpha event, winning a photo contest and runner, approaching by others to do contracted works, getting physical prints and acrylic mounting works, meeting other creatives, and lastly opening a sole proprietorship for photography.   


Some goals for the end of Year 3:

  • Get published in a physical magazine
  • 50K in revenue for my business
  • Master Affinity Photos
  • Win an photography award
  • Sell all of my second year prints.
  • Get a sponsorship (highly unlikely, but a man can dream)


-Alex 


One Year of Photography

Exactly one year ago, I was lying in my bed scrolling through instagram believing I could take better pictures than half of the people on the app. One year later, I am a lot less presumptuous.   

While I’m still in the beginning stages of the journey, I have learned a lot and shot enough to have a general grasp of what is required in this field. I still have lots of room to improve, but these are some lessons I have taken away.  

Biggest lessons:

  • No cares about your photos.

Photography is very saturated field because of low barrier to entry. Everyone has his/her own style of photography and opinion about what constitute as a good photo. Despite these statements, you should keep on shooting, find an audience who do like your work, or just shoot for yourself.

  • Dissect another photographer’s work

It’s very easy to lose track in your own work and edits, but the fastest way to improve your skills is to analyze a better photographer’s work and edits. Study from the best to surpass the best.

  • Review old work and edits

If you look at your old work and don’t find it repulsive and ugly, you have plateau and your skills have not improved a lot. 

Cringe (one of my earliest shot)

In the upcoming year, I plan to: 

  • Get physical prints

Not to start a gallery or anything, but to improve my eye for composition and color. This guy explains it better.  

  • Get a telephoto lens

I spent my first year in photography in the super wide to standard focal lengths. It’s time to go in real close. Been looking to purchase to an 85mm to 200mm, been eyeing the Sigma Art 135mm real bad.

  • Learn Adobe PS

Been using mostly Capture One Pro for edits, and while Capture One Pro is a powerful raw editor it is time to take it to next level in photo editing.

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