As I looked through the collection, I made over 30,000 exposures. However, it was a busy year in many other areas of my life, as we welcomed a new child into our family, and as I tried to focus on my health and on professional side of my life. In other words, I do wish I made more images. Good thing there’s always next year, right?

In terms of my direction last year, I gravitated heavily towards black and white images. I included few color images in the end – but mostly because these are family photographs. I can’t exclude them even if they mean more to me than they mean to others. The pictures I take of my family have as much meaning as anything else I capture with my camera.

Without further adieu, here they my favorite images from 2011. As you take a look through these, I’d love to hear which are your favorite.

San Francisco Summer

Profile of San Francisco

The Arrival of the April Storm at Big Sur

Waiting

A to B

In Hermitage

Elektrozavodskaya Station

New Beginning

Ukraine Kiev Temple

Where I Belong

New Life

Family

Innocent Joy

I’ve been going through a bit of a slow period with my photography in the past couple of months. I have not been shooting much, and it’s for various reasons. I’d like to just say I’ve been so busy with other things – but it’s not just that. Sometimes we all go through periods when we’re reevaluating our priorities when it comes to life, work, family, and art. That’s been my case. I think I’ve been thinking too much.

To help me battle those daemons that have been forcing me to keep my camera down, I decided to start an exercise that got me into photography – taking photo a day (or more). Last time I did this, I lasted for about 140 days and gave up. It was too much stress. But my photography improved greatly during that time.

I have lots of people whose work I follow who post pictures every day – for example, Thomas Hawk, G Dan Mitchell, Jeremy Brooks. Some of them don’t take pictures every day, but a common factor that unites their work is that they post pictures regularly.

I’d like to get back to making photography a bigger part of my life, namely, taking more pictures. And I’m not going to stress as much about the subject matter, or if I’m doing it for a project. The main purpose of this exercise would be to visually document my life.

The other day I was watching a documentary on big wave surfers. The big waves come very rarely for them – maybe one or two weekends during the whole winter, if that. One thing that caught my attention is that they have to stay in best shape regardless if they want to stay alive in those huge 100-foot waves. So they regularly hit the gym, and surf smaller waves.

I’m still trying to find projects to shoot that I’m passionate about. Some of these projects I can’t work on regularly. I find no interest in shooting Big Sur during boring weather. I can’t shoot some of the buildings I want to shoot because I’m not close to them. But this shouldn’t stop me from going out and shooting other things, if just “to stay in shape,” like these surfers.

I expect that most of these “photo a day” pictures will be taken with an iPhone, like the one above taken this afternoon in Utah. But it’s more about the exercise, than the content One thing I’m learning – it’s a lot easier to find creativity in our lives when we’re working on creating something new every day, even if it’s something as insignificant as pictures taken with an iPhone. At the same time, I’ll continue to work on my other, more focused photography projects.

I started a blog “IM Daily” where I will post these images I take every day. Here is the link – http://im-daily.tumblr.com/ It has RSS feed if you wish to subscribe this way. Also, if you’re on Instamatic, feel free to add me – my user name is “Ivan Makarov.”

Not yet sure where this journey will take me, but I’m exited to start.

This was the question recently explored by the fellow photographer G Dan Mitchell, whose blog I regularly read. Well, Dan’s question was more about how he names his own work, but the discussion in the comments went that way and made me think about my own work.

There’s really three schools of thoughts on the subject.

First, there’s a group of photographers who give no titles to their photographs. If a photograph speaks on its own, it’s best not to interrupt. I’d say there are not too many photographers today who do that, but I see it here and there. William Eggleston didn’t name any of his. The way we post our photographs on blogs or on Flickr “Untitled” is what shows up, because online tools by default want a title. Sometimes these photographers don’t name the photographs, but name sets or projects. See for example this set by Cole Thompson.

Second, there’s a group of photographers who use plain titles for their photographs – mainly describing the subject. This was certainly an approach taken by many classic photographers in the past, such as Ansel Adams or today by Michael Kenna. Dan uses that approach for his photography, saying that his reason for that “is that it is my hope that the photograph can speak for itself through whatever it is and does as a photograph.”

Third, there’s a growing group of photographers who use titles as an extension of a photograph – directing the viewer to look for something. A good example of that “Looking Ahead” photograph. The title serves as a context. Sometimes the title is not so obvious, and makes viewer stop and wonder why.

Of course none of these approaches are right or wrong – they all have their purposes and meaning. Some stick to one specific approach. I tend to use all of the three at different times for different purposes, and I certainly appreciate all of them.

To me photography is about telling stories. I see it the same way I see a book or a movie. Sometimes the title is simple – such as “Anna Karenina”, or “Forrest Gump.” Other times, the title is all part of telling that story – such as “War and Peace” or “Crash.”

My recent Walt Disney Concert Hall set did not have a specific title – it was all about the place, the light and the shapes. It’s the same way with my LDS Temples project. But other photographs have titles that help them tell the story, such as “Sitting on the Edge of the World” or “Links into the Past.”

Whatever comes to mind, I see naming photographs as an important part of the creative process.

Would love to hear other thoughts on the topic.

UPDATE: Good discussion on the topic started in Hotbox group. Check it out here.

First, there is no point hiding that income because the IRS already knows about it. I also tell other photographers to declare all other income they earned from photography during the year, just to be safe. That includes print sales, photo shoot fees, and any other income earned with the camera.

Second, photographers have to decide how they want to treat  that income on the tax return – as a hobby income or a business income. I wrote more about this decision here. But essentially – it boils down to two things – (1) how serious are you about the photography? Are you serious enough that you’re trying to turn it into a profitable venture? (2) how afraid you are of the IRS audit? When Schedule C is filed together with form 1040, chances of an IRS audit down the road increase significantly. All tax returns can get audited, of course, and we have no idea exactly how IRS chooses the returns for audit. But those that have Schedule C get audited more often than those that don’t.

Finally, another point I wanted to bring up here is something that’s been in the news earlier this week. The new budget for 2012 that Pres. Obama just released this week has this as part of it -

President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget doesn’t cut much of anything (see above), and certainly not the Internal Revenue Service. The White House is requesting that the most beloved of all government agencies get an additional 5,100 agents next year, no doubt to wring further tax revenue from Americans. The White House wants to give the IRS a 9.4% raise in fiscal 2012, to $13.28 billion. Reuters reports this would allow for a roughly 5% increase in agency manpower to 100,537, including $460 million more for tax enforcement than in 2010.

More audits and more tax reassessments for all us, as we try to help the government balance its budget. Keep that all in mind as you are thinking about what to do with that money you might have earned through your photography.

Not only holidays is a great time to recharge and spend time with the family. The end of the year is also a good time to look back on the year and think about all the good things that have happened during it. Every year for the past few years I took time to go through my archives and compile a list of my favorite images from the year. You can see the previous years here – 2009 and 2008. It’s time to do this exercise for 2010.

In terms of photography, it’s been a busy year. Well, at least the first half of it. I didn’t shoot as much during the second half since I was busy with non-photography things.  But nonetheless, looking back at my favorite shoots and images, they were all distributed evenly during the year.

With that, let’s jump right into it. Take a look below and please share a thought about which of these images of mine was your favorite.

First, I’ll start with few of of my favorite images from the side of my photography that I didn’t discuss all that much on this blog. Last year I actually had the honor of shooting five different weddings. All of these are either friends I know in my non-photography life, or referrals from friends whose weddings I shot in the past. I don’t spend any time marketing myself as a wedding photographer, but when I get asked to shoot a wedding, I can’t say no.

Here is a beautiful bride Jaclyn, whose wedding I shot here in San Jose back in November. I love this image for how it captures the light of the day, the bride and also San Jose scenery, which is the area where both bride and groom grew up and are now living.

In September I flew to Maryland to shoot Sue and Curt’s wedding. It was a perfect time to be there and the wedding turned out to be just as beautiful. Yep, Curt wore shorts for the wedding.

Here is Dana and Aaron, who got married in Oakland back in July. Again, a perfect summer day, and I love how this one turned out from the standpoint of color, emotion and composition.

Here is a bridal shot of Sara, whose wedding I shot back in May. It was a first wedding of the year, and we stopped in Monterey to take pictures of Sara in her beautiful dress. The weather was a typical Monterey weather for springtime, but we still had a great time. I love how this one captures both the bride and the local landscape.

Now to some personal work.

I was on my way to work one morning in downtown San Jose and was passing the St James Catherdal that I see almost every day. I noticed this guy sitting on the stairs after the service in the morning and couldn’t help but grab a picture of the scene. I was jealous. Sometimes we all need to take a moment to think about things, or just pause.

In the fall I stayed in downtown LA a couple of times for work. When there, I spent time photographing Disney Concern Hall – beautiful piece of architecture designed by Frank Gehry. In the coming weeks I’ll finally release the full set of these photographs, as I still have to go through them all. But so far, this one is one of my favorites.

Garrapata Beach back in February. This was the night that the Pacific Ocean fried my laptop and also the night when the waves were both big yet so peaceful. One of my favorite places in Northern California.

Utah Lake and Provo Canyon in the background. Visiting this place with my camera four years ago helped me fall in love with nature and landscape photography. I’m glad I had a chance to witness this memorable winter sunset few weeks ago.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple near Salt Lake City, Utah. This was perhaps the craziest sunset of the year, as we drove into the valley on July 3rd, when they were celebrating Independence Day in Utah. What a light that was, and what a view.

And this is perhaps my favorite picture that I took last year. This is Oakland Temple, with the city of Oakland and San Francisco in the background. I waited for these conditions and this kind of light for years, and it finally came. I can still smell the freshness of the after-storm air from that night.

Thanks to all of you who supported me during 2010. If you have any thoughts about the work I shared, please feel free to leave a comment. I am always happy to hear from you.

One of the popular spots in San Jose is this complex called Santana Row. It’s an upscale shopping mall and apartment complex located near Campbell. The architecture is beautiful, the restaurants are great, and the rent there is expensive. As it’s a great place to live in for young people, several San Jose Sharks and San Francisco 49ers players live there. It’s a fun area to hang out at, and I thought it would be a good place for some photography.

It turns out it’s not. Photography in Santana Row is not allowed, according to the security guard who approached me shortly after I pulled out my camera to take some pictures of this wall of color in one of the alleys (pictured above). He stated that it’s a private property, which is it is, and that the management of Santana Row insisted that no pictures of the exterior should be taken.

I respect their rights and I stopped taking pictures without too much arguing. The whole property is private, including the sidewalks.

But what a stupid decision by the management.

Why is that a crime to take photos there, especially since the owners spent so much money on architecture of the place? What evil will my pictures do to their business that I shouldn’t be taking them?

But one thing is certain. After that experience, I’m not spending a single dollar at Santana Row.

The portfolio that Scott presents in the issue of Lenswork has been shot over a span of 20+ years, but it’s hard to tell the difference between the shots taken with large format cameras back in the day, and with digital cameras of today. The reason for that is that when the new digital era came along, Scott decided to embrace it, but he wanted his style and the quality of his work to stay the same. Today’s digital cameras do not have the same dynamic range as medium and large format cameras, nor resolution.

What Scott does to compensate for that are two things that I found interesting – (1) he takes as much information as he can for the scene by bracketing his exposures three times, (2) he takes 9 pictures of the same scene to expand the resolution of the final image. In other words, he takes 27 shots of one scene, and then blends the exposures to expand the dynamic range, and also creates a composite panorama photo that rivals the resolution of a large format camera.

I took a similar approach to one shot when I was in Yosemite last week, where I took 17 shots of the same scene and then created a composite that turned out to be 96 megapixels wide. I’ll post my results later this week. What I’ve learned with that experiment  is that with higher resolution, the quality of the image increases overall, no matter what size we’re looking at. The more detail camera captures, the sharper the photo is to begin with.

This approach to photography only works with still subjects, and I have no desire to try it on a beach when taking a picture of moving waves and clouds. This approach will also never work on my 2 year old, who can’t sit still for a single frame, let alone 27.  But when it comes to architecture and still life – I think this method is worth experimenting with, and I’ll do some more testing in the future.

To see more work by Scott, click here. He also has an article on that technique here.

One of the books I’ve been reading is a classic by William Zinsser, On Writing Well. In a chapter on finding one’s own style, the author talks about how writers often find themselves in a creative rut, as they begin working on a project. As photographers, we can certainly relate to the following words:

Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being examined for a hernia, and as for confidence, see how stiffly he sits, glaring at the screen that awaits his words. See how often he gets up to look for something to eat or drink. A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing. I can testify from my newspaper days that the number of trips to the cooler per reporter-hour far exceeds the body’s need for fluids.

What can be done to put the writer out of these miseries? Unfortunately, no cure has been found. I can only offer the consoling thought that you are not alone. Some days will go better than others. Some will go so badly that you’ll despair of ever writing again. We have all had many of those days and will have many more.

In the past few years since I started doing photography, I can’t tell you how many times I felt like giving up and selling all my camera equipment. Sometimes I think about at an assignment or a project I decided I need to do, and there is no energy to begin. Other times, I simply don’t want to do anything related to photography because I feel no inspiration whatsoever.

I do think there is a cure – at least for photographers.

Nothing cures the creative rut better than actually getting the camera out and taking pictures. Sometimes I just start taking pictures of something in my backyard, or of my kids – and all of a sudden, the ideas begin flowing back again. Nothing can beat that in my experience.

But the bottom line here is that if you feel stressed or lack ideas or energy, it’s nothing to be too afraid of. It happens to all creative people.

I’m glad to say I filed my taxes last weekend. It took me several days to put everything together, but it’s good to be done and start worrying about another year. As a reminder, here are couple of articles I wrote last year that may help you with your taxes for 2009 and maybe even 2010 if you plan ahead. I updated those articles recently, and I hope you find them useful. Again, feel free to leave a comment to these articles if you have a tax question, of send me an email and I’ll be happy to help.

Tax Tips for Part-Time Photographers

Sales Tax Tips For Photographers in California

In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know that one of my favorite landscape photographers Don Smith recently published another ebook, Refined Vision, 50 Lessons Designed to Improve Your Digital Landscape Photography, this time it’s available both in PDF and print version via Blurb. I wrote earlier about Don’s book on Big Sur, and this time he published a book that has slightly different content and contains his advice to those who love shooting landscape photography.

Here is what I loved about the book.

First, I’ve read many books on landscape photography in an effort to educate myself. They are typically targeted towards beginners, and cover such topics as why one should be shooting with a tripod, how to get a good exposure, and how to handle color. Usually, you read one, you’ve read them all. Don’s book goes a step further and includes various topics typically not covered in this book, such as how to measure perspective, how to space elements, how to choose foreground or how to get the best shots at night (his chapter on shooting moonbows is worth the price you’ll pay for the book alone). Don also spends some time sharing how his creative thoughts work in the field, as well as his workflow from shooting to print.

Second, the book provides a good balance of text and photos. It is 161 pages long, and includes a great collection of outstanding landscape images. On top of that however, the pages of the book are full of good text, and the advice that Don typically shares with his student during his workshops. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of text, because this is where in my mind the book is the most valuable.

Third, Don designed a book in a way that each lessons builds off each other. This is a logical way to present them and makes the flow of his vision easy to follow and easy to read.

To read more about the book or purchase your copy, please visit Don’s site.