GRV-visuals2024-005

Visuals 2024

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A Year of Adventure, Exploration, and Creative Growth

From travel and adventure racing to 4WD, MTB, hiking, cycling, wildlife, and the great outdoors—I’ve had an incredible year of shooting for some fantastic clients and diving into loads of personal projects. My top 40 photos of the year were tough to narrow down. The experiences I had outdoors, capturing lifestyle imagery, are memories I’ll hold onto for years.

I’ve always enjoyed doing these year-in-review reflections. Looking back on trips, whether to new places or revisiting favorite events, it’s incredible to see how much content is created—but also how quickly it gets buried under the constant flow of new work. The pursuit of fresh ideas can sometimes overshadow what’s already been captured.


This year, I’ve taken the review process a step further. Not only am I critiquing what worked and what didn’t, but I’m also printing many of my favorites to hang in the office. These images will serve as weekly reminders, pushing me to start the new year with fresh ideas. My goal is to avoid repeating past work and instead dive deeper into what inspires me—to really examine why I shoot what I do and how I do it.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of repeating what works, but that rarely leads to creative growth. This review is about exploring what I don’t shoot, taking on new projects, and challenging myself to create something different. To that end, I’m already pushing into new territories for 2025. I’ve recently added a fisheye lens to my gear bag—a simple change, but one I’ve always wanted to try. It’s not groundbreaking, but it will definitely shake things up. I’ve also launched a new personal project, Rideavel—a vlog focused on bike touring, bikepacking, and gravel riding. It’s an opportunity for more time on the bike and in nature, two things that are bound to inspire new visuals.

Looking back at the nearly 50,000 images I shot in 2024, I see plenty of similarities in subject matter and style, but also plenty of a-ha moments that sparked new ideas. Focusing on a niche and becoming deeply familiar with it has its advantages, but I also believe in giving myself permission to refocus and explore other subjects. With years of experience behind me, I’m ready to bring fresh perspectives to new projects and industries.

So, why the change? Why not? It doesn’t mean abandoning past subjects or work, just a deliberate shift toward igniting new ideas. I’m excited to see which ones will catch fire and lead to something exciting.

Here’s to a successful, creative 2025! If you’re looking for fresh ideas to push your business forward in this ever-changing media landscape, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s see what we can create together.

All the best.

Gilbert

Reflecting on Visuals: Why 2023 Sucked and How 2024 Will Shine

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Yep, you heard me right – 2023 sucked. Well, at least from my perspective as a visual artist. Let me explain. As someone who likes to review my work at the end of each year to assess progress and set goals for improvement, skipping this routine in 2022 left me feeling adrift in 2023. Personal and logistical factors, like moving house after over two decades, consumed my attention and left little room for creative growth.

As I sat down to review my shots from 2023, I noticed a pattern: a stagnation in my work. While there was nothing inherently wrong with my photographs, they lacked innovation and novelty. After over a decade in the field, falling into the trap of repetition dealt a heavy blow to my creativity and left me feeling stuck in a rut.

However, it’s essential to acknowledge that 2023 wasn’t devoid of highlights. I had the opportunity to capture new events for fresh clients, such as Bicycle Network’s Orange Newcrest Orange Challenge and Quad Crown’s The Black Pearl stage race.  Plus regular commercial work for OzTent had me shooting lifestyle and studio product images for their new product ranges with occasional videos in the mix.  Despite these successes, complacency crept in, reminding me that coasting along without actively seeking growth can lead to stagnation.

Looking ahead to 2024, I’m determined to break free from this rut. Plans for travel photography adventures with my partner on touring bikes, exciting new roles with longstanding clients like Rocky Trail Entertainment, and a plethora of fresh projects signal a revitalization of my creative spirit. While event numbers may be on the decline compared to the hectic pace of 2023, I see this as an opportunity rather than a setback. Having some breathing room in my schedule will allow for deeper exploration, experimentation, and ultimately, more meaningful artistic output.

So here’s to 2024 – a year of renewed creativity, growth, and adventure in the world of visual storytelling. Let’s Go.

Visuals 2019

by BlogVisuals Annual

It’s that time. We all like to sit and reflect on the year that has just passed past us and recall the laughs, the challenges and the victories. Never is it an even balance for me with some years being a home run hit smashing it out of the park, others feel like they pass so quick that my list of goals feels neglected. 2019, feels a little of the latter but when I take the time to sit and do a proper review I always find that actually, the camera trigger button got quite a workout.

So after spending the best part of two days going through my Lightroom catalogue and the 44,580 images within the 2019 folder, I feel the number is low. This number feels low but is comparable to previous years, counting only the final “keepers” minus the countless rejects, timelapse images and test shots. Low as I felt I shot so much more than that, especially as I needed to do some big overhauls in my NAS storage and acquiring new USB drives to house all the content.

What I have not included in this number are all the video clips that I shot this year, as it was one of my main goals for 2019. Shooting four videos for one of my long-standing photographic clients allowed me to scratch an itch and I will be continuing that in 2020 but more on that in an upcoming post.

Lightroom offers a lot of info using the metadata captured in each frame, not very informative with a single frame but multiplied 44,580 times and some patterns start to appear. I won’t bore you with the details but I’ve seen a swing in my chosen focal length and a resounding consistency for one aperture. Little pieces of gold like this are a quick way to see new ways to mix up my style for the coming year.

More interestingly, for me anyway, even though I consciously made some decisions to shoot differently in 2019 my final 20+ images have one distinctive pattern to them, something I have always done and obviously appeals to my eyes. This creates a few questions in my head “Can I change my style, what means change and should I?”

This year saw less travel and more focus on local events with a resounding tilt to MTB racing. Each image has it’s own story to tell, click on any of the thumbnails to view it full screen and read the description about why it made my final selection. So without further ado here they are.

The midnight sun peaks below the cloud cover breaking thru the fog to light the numerous peaks that line the west coast of Lofoten Island, Norway

Visuals 2017

by BlogVisuals Annual
The midnight sun peaks below the cloud cover breaking thru the fog to light the numerous peaks that line the west coast of Lofoten Island, Norway

What a year!…

New events, places visited and people met and all through photography and an outdoor lifestyle at sporting events, traveling, and personal adventures.  

Meeting new photographers/videographers from the UK, Austria, Germany, and Italy while partaking in events in Austria, Italy, Iceland, and Norway were the highlights of my year.  Sharing a “van-life” adventure throughout Europe with my partner is something I will never forget.  Seeing how other photographers work and what they create has urged me on to do, see and improve even more in 2018.  

Below are some of my favourite images from the year covering mountain bike races, working with trail runners, exploring new countries and extending my array of images using new technologies like drones for aerial photography.  A big part of my work this year has been outdoor lifestyle and landscapes, not in the traditional sense of sunrises or panoramas but more about people in the landscape.  Showing how much is out there to discover and explore.

I hope your year was as magnificent as mine and that some of my images be an inspiration to get out, do more and see more in the next 12months as I do plan myself.  Enjoy.