Well, it is the last day of 2020 so as I usually do, I am spending a bit of time putting together a photography retrospective for the year. I don’t need to tell you that 2020 has been a year like no other – everyone knows that. Photographically for me it has been different….mainly because the ability to travel was significantly impacted and even though in Australia now there is some freedom to travel, you never know when you might score yourself two weeks quarantine based upon where you have been.
It has also been different as the majority of the photos that I share below have been captured with a neat little FujiFilm X100S! I’ve had the FujiFilm X100S for almost 5 years I think, but in March/April I purchased a compact little set of filters for the camera and it is really awesome! I have been so impressed by this little camera that I upgraded my main camera system to a FujiFilm XT-4 in late November this year. Truth be told, I haven’t fully put it through it’s paces photographing the usual landscape scenes I shoot, but I look forward to doing that in 2021.
January
Little did I know that one of the first images I took in January 2020 would truly reflect what was about to pan out for the year. I headed to the Sand Pumper Jetty at The Spit on the Gold Coast and captured this image.
For the Australia Day long weekend we went away on a family trip to Noosa. I was able to get out and capture a few images.
February
In February (on Valentine’s Day in fact) I ventured out and captured a few shots at Wilson’s Outlook. I didn’t get anything too spectacular. I can remember the best part about this photo outing was the take-home gelato pack I bought from the gelato shop down at Howard Smith Wharves – they had a special Valentines Day flavour…and it was awesome! Sorry – no photographs of that.
Also in February I headed out with the family and we took some family photos down at Roma Street Parklands. It was a fun afternoon!
March
In March we headed on a family trip out to Stanthorpe with the extended family. We have some family friends who own a Cabin on a block of land and we based ourselves there while visiting the Apple and Grape Festival. I took a couple of timelapses while we were away and also photographed the fireworks.
I also ventured out one night to capture some stars above the Ballandean Pyramid.
April
We weren’t allowed to leave the house in April unless it was for essential things. We had a rainbow lorikeet visit the back yard, so I photographed that and we also held a virtual birthday party for my son who turned 7!
May
When restrictions eased slightly, I headed out a couple of times to Shorncliffe and Mount Coot-tha to take some photos. Conditions weren’t that good but I captured a few frames.
I also headed out one Sunday evening to the CBD Botanical Gardens as sunset was shaping up pretty well. I have had an image like this in my mind to capture for a while and this particular sunset ended up being my most favourite photography outing for the year. I got to the location I wanted to be at and just sat and waited for the light to do it’s thing…and it didn’t disappoint. The top image was captured on my Canon 5D Mark II digital camera and the other using my panoramic film camera – FujiG617 with Velvia 50 film.
June
In June we headed out on a day trip up the Sunshine Coast to Buderim Forest Park.
I also ventured out to photograph a sunrise at Kangaroo Point Cliffs. I really wanted to test out some expired 220 film which I purchased rather cheaply a couple of years ago, so I fired off close to 8 shots this particular morning and had the film developed. It turned out quite good! Below is a pano each from my Fujifilm X100S, Canon 5D Mark II and my FujiG617 pan film camera!
July
Early in July, Cecily and I headed into the CBD for a run and there was fog still hanging around at about 9am, so since I had the X100S in the car I fired off a few frames to stitch together before we commenced our run.
I also ventured out to photograph the CBD from South Bank, however with construction of the new Queen’s Wharf precinct, there were barges in the river which made images look quite messy, so I went and photographed a bit up stream toward Kurilpa Bridge. I didn’t quite get exactly what I was after so will have to re-visit this location some time.
We also headed out for a family afternoon to South Bank in late July and I snapped this pano, again with the Fuji X100S and my small, portable NiSi filters.
August
In August we went on a family camping trip to Bigriggen at Rathdowney. I took a few pano’s during this trip too!
September/October
In late September/early October we went on a family holiday to Coolum. I quite a few photos during this trip. I took a few from the balcony of our apartment and some while photographing a sunset at Stumer’s Creek.
I also took some timelapse footage. Unfortunately some of it didn’t quite lapse together well and I haven’t had chance to fix it – but you get the idea.
In mid-October, I met up with my mate Chi and we ventured out and about around Brisbane to capture some jacaranda tree’s as they looked awesome this year! We went to New Farm Park and The University of Queensland.
Also in October, I took my camera along to my son’s last soccer game of the season and captured some images.
I also ventured out on Saturday afternoon and captured this image of a storm approaching the Brisbane CBD. I have wanted to capture an image such as this for a long time and I am so pleased I did.
November
As I stated earlier, I bought a FujiFilm XT-4 in November and ventured out to test it out one evening. I was hoping to capture some lightning as there were storms approaching the CBD, however the dissipated and I was left with just some dark night sky.
My Daughter also graduated from Kindy, so I took a few photos of her graduation and my son’s soccer break up was a colour run.
In late November, my wife and I went to Noosa for a couple of nights by ourselves. I took a few shots while we were out and about walking through the National Park and shot a sunset from Noosa main beach one evening.
December
In December I took photos at the usual work Christmas party and family Christmas gatherings. After Christmas we went to Caloundra for the day and I took a pano of King’s Beach which was really busy!
I also photographed the sunset this day down on some rocks near King’s Beach. This was probably the first real test of my XT-4 shooting in conditions I am used to using my filters and tripod etc. I still need to work on some of the finer aspects of focus with this camera and I do need to get an ultra wide lens also. I captured these couple of frames.
Conclusion
Well, thanks for reading about my photo adventures in 2020 and I hope you enjoyed viewing the images. Surprisingly to me, upon reflection, I did capture quite a lot on my camera this year. Having said that, I don’t feel too much of it is overly spectacular. I am really keen to photograph new places in awesome photography conditions, but who knows how the next 12 months will pan out! Hopefully I will continue to enjoy getting out to photograph and I look forward to continuing to share what I capture with my friends and family.
P.S. If you want to see more images captured in 2020 go to my 2020 Landscape Images page.