It is that time of year again, when I review my portrait photography from the last 12 months.
2013 has been a transitionary time. During the year I spent much more time outdoors using off camera flash than taking portraits in the studio.
One big change has been that to make it easier to work on the move, I made a rather large technology change. Very few of the images shown here were taken with my Canon 5D Mk II. In 2012 I invested in the Fujifilm Finepix X100 and this was a fantastic camera to carry around and use on the street. Having a fixed lens meant it didn't offer the flexibility of a DSLR, but the image quality was superb. There is nothing wrong with the Canon 5D Mk II, but once you add a grip and a large lens, everything starts getting rather heavy. After careful consideration, and trying cameras from Olympus, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm, 2013 saw me invest in my first Compact System Camera - the lovely Fujifilm Finepix X-E1. At the time, I felt this was the best of the Fujifilm X series cameras, and even offered improvements over their top of the line X-Pro1. The reduction in weight meant that I could carry the camera and lighting kit much easier than I ever could when I wanted to take my DSLR out for a strobist shoot.
I will highlight some of my favourite shoots, and finish with my favourite portrait for the year. However I realise that everyone has their own personal tastes and what I may choose could well be very different from someone else.
January
January was all about Bex Lendon. The first shoot of the year was at Ian's Studio, in a session being led by fellow photographer R J Bradbury. While the second shoot was at a meet-up for the Facebook group North West Shutterbugs.