As expected, it’s been a hell of a year.. I’m writing this post to put together 12 pictures, one for every month, and draw some conclusions and possibly a path forward. Seems like a lot, considering it’s 12:37 a.m… but i’ll try.
I’m probably not going to be picking the actual best shots, because my never-ending path to consolidating my archive is still ongoing. So i might be leaving out some good ones without even knowing. I also separated my Lightroom catalogue recently and broke it down by year and camera, so all this stuff is from the x100s.
January
First shot has nothing to do with street photography but it means a lot to me. Francesca followed me for a business trip and visited seattle for the first time. I was thrilled about her being there and stretched my wake hours to show her around. Up for work at 4 am, back to bed around 11 pm for a week, but well worth it. Also my luggage was lost and i got it two days before leaving… had to happen sooner or later.
February
Still on the tail end of Francesca’s tour, i continued to travel a lot on the weekends to meet up with her. The February shot is from a St. Valentine’s weekend where i purchased the ticket the on a late thursday night and left on Friday afternoon. Out and about while she was at work. I like the two couples hugging and the guy in the middle by himself. Sorry mate, better luck next year.
March
One of the few days with no rain. Francesca’s tour was over so she was spending more time with me. We just moved to the new apartment the month before and we used any time we could to look for furniture. Shot on the SS7 on the way to some lousy furniture shop. We ended up getting most of the stuff from my parents and buying cool little decorative objects from flea markets.
April
I struggled to pick a shot here and not because there were too many good ones… I spent most of the month down south with the exception of a couple of days in Napoli. April was characterized by some crazy ass working schedules, but luckily i made it through. This was a walk on a Saturday, which of course was also a holiday, just ignorantly roaming around Grottaglie. I stayed awhile after i found the truck, trying to get closer (i wanted a full frontal shot), but this was the best i could do. I’m 33 and can’t afford to trespass private property and still be professional.
May
No worries, he wasn’t dead. Just very, very tired and drunk. May was the most prolific month of the year with a whopping 2339 shots taken (that’s only counting this camera though). A lot things going on by scrolling the catalogue. The May 1st concert in Taranto. (temporarily) quitting smoking and telling myself to take a picture every time i wanted a cigarette. Beautiful week long trip to Lisbon (what a breather). And of course the long weekend up in Torino with Peppe, majestically pictured above, and my former Torino partner in crime Giggino. The shot is in black and white because around that time i started to shoot at very high iso at night to make up for shutter speed. The camera will boost up to 25600 but only if you give up raw, and only output being the jpeg.
June
I had two favorite shots for june, but i keep going back to this one. I like the diagonal given by the kid’s arms almost cutting the frame in two, the parallel with her shadow and the almost perpendicular of the bodies. I dunno, i liked it..
July
I can start listing the things i remember about July but this blog is not really about personal memories so this is why i picked this shot. I think that’s where i started steering towards the direction this blog is going to today. Instead of wasting mental energy on trying to develop long term projects, my output started to be more related to my walks. And so this shot is one of a few decent ones from a morning out in my old neighborhood.
August
This one is from my vacation in Slovenia. I’m hypnotized by the yellow of the building and new this shot was coming so stayed there sweating my eyes against the viewfinder waiting for one of the birds to fly off.I have the preview off after i shoot to not get distracted and “chimp”. Once it happened, i wanted to stay a little more, but it was fucking hot (39C) so i just hoped for the best and continued walking. I was debating on a couple more shots (prague for a business trip) but the yellow…. Plus i like the metaphor of the bird leaving. I like to think that’s gonna be me someday.
September
Seattle and just walking alone at night with the camera. Francesca likes this one a lot so i’m following her taste. In september i finally bought a new phone that has a very good camera (the LG G4) and started to get more comfortable with it just recently. Not with the phone itself, but with the fact i can use it for photography. In fact, i’m not taking the fuji for new years, but will just be with my phone. The picture above is from the x100s though.
October
If you’re crazy enough to read this blog, this shot also came up from a morning walk out, in particular at the Martina Franca flea market. Another one of those cases where i’m trying to stitch things together from single walks. Again, i’m noticing how none of these so-called best shots deserve a 5-star rating, but within their sets, they make more sense… i love this concept.
November
Literally no keepers in November, at least from my fuji camera. So here’s a pug from Bologna. This was also the month i started smoking again so the pug staring at me like i’m a dumbass totally makes sense.
December
There were other pictures that deserved to be here in this post, but this was a learning moment for me, or actually a proving moment. I always knew the advantages of busy gatherings for street photography, but that time i really took advantage of it. I was in the old town in Bari and was waiting on francesca to get hot chocolate which probably started preparation by planting cocoa. Anyways, it turned out i was at a corner of a busy intersection and just kept the camera to my face for a solid 10 minutes, no interruption. After a while, i was just wallpaper. People looked at me and then looked away since i was in that pose even before they arrived. I touched with hand the benefits and noticed the potential. I’ll always keep this in the back of my mind.
Conclusions:
I’ll draw those next post and maybe have the runner ups for the ones above – for now, thanks for sticking with this if you made it here. I learned a lot this year and i hope to continue on the same path the next. Hopefully more blog posts which would mean more pictures to share. Happy 2016 yall.
Francesco
Note: it’s now 2:05 am, and i had a great time writing this.
Frankie 