It's the end of another year, but more importantly it's the end of a decade.
It's fun to consider how much has changed in 10 years. It means something special to me because I began my professional career after graduating in 2009 so where I am today, working at ASU as a photographer and videographer, is very different than where I was in 2010, which was in Sudan.
I've had several years to develop the work I do, and I thought it would be fun to include a photograph from each year — not necessarily the "best" photo but ones that mean something to me. Also, I've included a look back at how photography is different today.
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2010 vs. now
Your go-to camera and gear:
2010: Canon 5D (photo only) with a Canon 28mm F2.8 prime and lots of 2GB and 4GB compact flash cards. My portable hard drive was maybe 256GB.
Now: Canon 5D Mark IV — with log — and the Canon 24-70mm F2.8. Several 64GB cards and always fully charged batteries.
How do you shoot? Manual, shutter priority, aperture priority or fully automatic?
2010: Manual but messed up exposures constantly.
Now: Manual but mess up only occasionally.
Types of assignments you shoot:
2010: Photojournalism — ranging from portraits and sports events to portraits.
Now: Portraits primarily and some event photography.
Your favorite music to edit to:
2010: Probably Kanye, Black Eyed Peas, Bebe and Cabas.
Now: Here's my Spotify playlist
Where do you find interesting photo content?
2010: APAD (A Photo A Day) website and just listservs in general, Lens blog, Sports shooter. Also fellow photographers' blogs, I was totally addicted to these.
Now: Definitely sites like womenphotograph.com, nativeagency.org, diversify.photo and technical blogs like PetaPixel for photo and video. For creative content I love Instagram and accounts like @everydayafrica or @everydaylatinamerica (there are so many) that allow you to find different and unique photographers from around the world.
What instantly make you feel more relaxed?
2010: Nothing, just pure anxiety thinking I'm going to mess up a photograph, spell a name incorrectly on captions or fail to find fast-enough Wi-Fi to deliver.
Now: Instant relaxation comes from knowing I have minimum three charged batteries, 10 high-speed cards (SD and Compact Flash), a hard drive and a fully charged laptop.
What does your workflow look like?
2010: Use Mac finder window to choose my favorite JPEGs (no RAWs because of space limitations) and open in Photoshop. Color edit and write a caption and then save with names like best_07 or favoriteone_02 or Thisistheone_04. I delivered through burned CDs or sending one photo per email until they were all delivered.
Now: I use the software Photomechanic to cull my take, then batch-rename RAW files to YYYYMMDDAssignmentName_001. I apply basic captions and metada to the RAW files and import into Lightroom. I can apply filters or batch-edit a take and then export into JPEGs and finish my captions in Photomechanic before delivering through Photoshelter or Dropbox.
Social media of choice:
2010: Facebook and Twitter.
Now: Instagram and VCSO.
Your favorite photographers (even though all photographers are awesome):
2010: Lynsey Addario, James Nachtwey, Damon Winters and pretty much every photographer because they all felt cooler than me.
Now: Love my local photographers. I've seen enough people drop in and make a quick, great photo and leave. It's a very different thing to stay in a community, do it justice and also produce compelling images. Some personal favorites locally on Instagram: @nickoza, @photochowder, @noemipossible, @ashponders, @hawthornephotos and @caitlin_oh.
What do you want to do when you grow up?
2010: Be a photographer who gets paid.
Now: Be retired and still take photos.
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