2010 [explored]

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This post was inspired by Alesha's (vintageheart^) final self portrait and really great recap for the year.

This has been my biggest year yet, my life has changed so dramatically over these last twelve months. This is kinda long... see you at the end... if you make it.

Jan
I don't recall very much from the start of this year, the parts that I do remember were spending the Summer hanging out with friends mostly drinking, bumming around doing nothing in particular and getting hugely sunburned!

Feb
After going back to my job after a month's holidays things were great and I was feeling refreshed, but things started to change, managers started to clamp down on our every day activities. They were told to make us more productive and their way of doing so was to intimidate us. Intimidation didn't really work on me. I lost my love for my work there, I found it hard to stay motivated and didn't really enjoy things as much as I'd used to.

It also seemed that all the great people had quit and there was just a few of us left keeping the place alive. Nobody went out to lunch in the park anymore, nobody was laughing in the office except me and my good mate Mickey D (and we got told off for that a lot).

Mar
At the very start of March I decided to make myself a Flickr account and bought my first camera! My trusty Nikon D5000 because I wanted a new hobby, something to fill time on the weekends. I took a bunch of pictures that were really terrible and i knew it haha!

Just after I got my camera and in my search for hobbies I picked up that old deathtrap of a bike frame for $20 at a garage sale, kickstarting my love for fixed gear bikes (even if it wasn't a fixie for another month or two).

It was also the month that Perth had it's biggest storm in decades, and I took my first photograph that I was proud enough of to post.

Three days later I knew I really wanted to continue with photography so I bought myself my 50mm f/1.4G lens and was so excited. That same day just after lunch one of the managers came downstairs and told everyone else but five of us to go upstairs and wait there, the rest of us went into the board room. In there waited our boss with a letter addressed to each of us. He gave us a little bit of a speech about how he didn't want to have to do this, and handed us each out letters and told us to read it.

We had been made redundant, our jobs outsourced to the Philippines. We were given a cash payout for the remainder of the month and holiday pay. After that we were told to go back to our desks, pick up our belongings and leave the building.

So on the 25th of March I had found myself without a job. With the way work had been treating us it was almost a relief, cut loose I felt like I could drift and go anywhere.

Apr - Jun
Drift is just what I did over the next 3 months, I lived off my savings, didn't even look for a job and just enjoyed life, or wasted it, depending on how you look at it. I rode my bike every day with Jake and took heaps of pictures.

Jul
With money running out I started to look for a job, but everything in Perth wasn't really anything I was looking for, and I felt disheartened. Kind of got depressed with my failing job search and lack of ambition to even go for any interviews. So I decided to broaden my horizons and look for jobs in other cities, I started to look for jobs in Sydney and Melbourne. I had a couple of phone interviews but I wasn't exactly convinced that living so far away would gain me any points in an interview.

So with my last scratchings of money, about $400 I packed my bags and got a one way ticket 2800 kilometres away to Melbourne. I had organised to stay for a while with my granddad while looking for a job and a place to live. I got a job a week later working with a company which had employed 3 other people from my old workplace although they had all left either before or just as I started to work there.

Aug
Things were starting to look up, I had a job, I met a girl. I started taking Swing Dancing classes, I started riding my bike with a bunch of people called Some Bike Crew or SBC for short. For the first time in a long time I really started to enjoy life and I was meeting a lot of new people, I felt like I was really doing something again.

Sep
Things pretty much continued as normal through september, although I was starting to feel a little bit worn out because I lived so far away from work, It took me three hours of travel between home and work each day. And with social engagements some weeknights I wouldn't get home until after midnight and have to wake up at 6am to be off to work again the next day. I needed to get closer to everything, so I started to look for a place to live.

Oct
October was a pretty dark month for me, what I thought was a relationship fell apart, I felt like an Idiot. I went home, back to Perth. It was just what I needed at that point I spent time in the company of family and friends, it was refreshing to go back home.

Nov
Back in Melbourne again I really started to look for a new place to stay, I just had to get closer to work so that I could have some time in the morning and evenings to do things. And I found the perfect place, 12 kilometres away from work the perfect riding distance. Most of my time after that was spent purchasing things to fill up my new place and make it home.

I crashed my bike.

I met Alesha & Bek my first two flickr meetups and had a great time with each of them, they're really great friends :)

I also met Michelle on one of the SBC rides and had a great time riding and taking pictures with her.

Dec
Now it's just been pictures, beach, riding, SUMMER! Photo adventures with Logan, Alesha, and Michelle and a new bike!

What a year.

Anya Elizabeth, colinlogan, thebruneieye, alesha joy., and 100 other people added this photo to their favorites.

View 18 more comments

  1. Brendan_Timmons 29 months ago | reply

    I'm glad there was something in there you could relate to, and thank you for reading, my 2011 is off to a horrible start, but i'm sure it can only get better, right?

    And thank you all for reading / commenting.

  2. minniephoto 29 months ago | reply

    March makes me so mad, B-Timm. But I am so glad that it got you out of there, as you were far too talented for that stinky place.

    And I am so glad it has worked out so well for you! Hoorah for Melbourne. I haven't got a bike yet, and this makes me want to get one again although I live in about the only place in Melbourne that is hilly, and I am lazy.

    All the best for 2011, buddy.

  3. and in a breath... 29 months ago | reply

    Really love the lighting in this one.
    Your bike looks fantastic!

  4. Miguel A. Robles G. 29 months ago | reply

    Brilliant photo. Great post-production.

  5. AIV_photography 29 months ago | reply

    love the lighting.

  6. Brendan_Timmons 29 months ago | reply

    Yeah i'm glad i got out of there too :) Get a biiiiike! melbourne is just made for bikes, you get everywhere faster than in a car (mostly).

  7. minniephoto 29 months ago | reply

    I don't have a car either! I'm a public transport enthusiast... :(

  8. a bird flies by 29 months ago | reply

    uh, i haven't seen these photos.
    it's very nice to allow us an insight into your life from 2010. i appreciate the honesty and it's very interesting being a little part of it. at least flickr really can be something like a diary.

    and your decision, buying a camera was the best thing ever. i love how you're looking straight to the camera. very intense. and nice composition.

    i hope things are better now. i really do.

  9. telfa 29 months ago | reply

    this is awesome mate

  10. Robyn Swallow 29 months ago | reply

    What a sum up !!!!!
    I love your bike too....

  11. Bex Photography (Bek Walker) [deleted] 29 months ago | reply

    special place for me i see! :)

    love this shot, its powerful!
    and if this was shot in Melbourne THEN i am THERE!!! looove this!

  12. under the bonsai 28 months ago | reply

    great shot, love your expression and the dof!
    wow, some year you have had, thank you for opening up!

  13. She's Six Steps Off [deleted] 28 months ago | reply

    fantastic portrait! great location and focal point.

  14. AlanaK168 25 months ago | reply

    Bike looks naked. There's like 5 stickers in total.
    Also, I like that shirt.

  15. aclara10 23 months ago | reply

    me gusta mucho el momento y la sensación de profundidad
    un saludo

  16. lameato feliz 22 months ago | reply

    excelente!

  17. GoOverseas 21 months ago | reply

    Hello!

    Just wanted to let you know we included this photo in article we put together about effective ways to take portraits while traveling abroad: www.gooverseas.com/go-abroad-blog/how-photograph-people-w... We hope your photo will inspire others to continue taking great shots!

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  18. Brendan_Timmons 21 months ago | reply

    Hey! It's a cool article, thanks for letting me know!

  19. Cody Crazybull Photography 6 months ago | reply

    Well that's one way to completely ruin a nice track bike

  20. Eloise Claire 6 months ago | reply

    Such a cool shot! Love the 50mm prime!

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