2007 in Pictures

It seems every other photoblog has made some sort of review of the year in photos. I did do a sort of review on the 1year birthday of this blog, but it did cover a bit of 2006.

I'll attempt to do a 2007 only month by month, some of these shots haven't been featured on this site before so pay close attention!

For those who haven't been visiting my site for a while, here's a chance to get to know a bit more about me - quick intro... I'm from Madrid (Spain) but studying at a university (Loughborough) in the UK, worked as an intern for a year in Reading (UK).

January

Not a very exciting month, I spent a good part of it in Madrid helping out at my dad's shop in Madrid before going back to Reading for my placement job. Still getting to know my new camera (only about 2 months old at this point)

February

I ventured out to London (only 30mins away from Reading by train) a couple of times and visited friends in Nottingham. I flew back to Madrid for a long weekend to celebrate my parents 25th wedding anniversary. During my short stay in Madrid I attempted for the first time to seriously photography my own city after realising I had more photos of London than I did of Madrid!

March

I took an interest in exploring the town I lived in (Reading) and it's neighbouring towns/cities (Such as Oxford). I also attempted my first photos of fireworks with a dSLR with good results. More visits to London including a concert (of The Fray) where I took photos with a compact camera. I also organized Reading's first flickrmeet since I'd be living there - at the local cemetery and university campus. At work I volunteered as a photographer for the annual Red Nose Day (a big charity day in the UK and other parts of the world) - a couple of the photos I took were featured in our departments quarterly review.

April

Could easily be the best month of the year. The weather was becoming increasingly better for photography, and I joined the London Photography Meetup Group (highly recommended) - with which I went to Hastings. I also attended the first UK-wide flickr meetup at York. I attempted some proper wildlife photography (of deer) and stayed a couple of days in Madrid (for Easter) where I continued my documentation of the city as well as visiting a very large cathedral on the outskirts which I had never been to (El Escorial). Whilst in Madrid I shot one of the famed Easter processions.

May

Decent month with a lot going on. My cousin from Singapore (who I hadn't seen for atleast 10 years) was visiting the UK, took her to the town of Windsor (where the Queen sometimes lives). I visited my university (Loughborough) for the first time in a year since working as an intern and attended the annual international day and a breakdance competition - resulting in MANY portraits. I went back to Madrid for my birthday and practised some wildlife photography at the London Zoo. I also went to a puppet festival (Punch & Judy) in London with the LPMG. I also got a chance to photography some cygnets (baby Swans) near my house, which became my first image to feature on flickr's explore page.

June

The highlight of the month was a whole night I spent in London taking photos until sunrise with the LPMG. I also attended an official flickr event held at the Tate Britain museum in London (where some photos I took, along with thousands of others were on display on some screens). Continuing my exploration of England, I visited the town of Bath famous for it's Roman Baths which give it its name. That day, Bath happened to host a country wide Morris Dance Festival and a local boat festival. I also visited the town of Salisbury to attend a local flickrmeet and got a chance to see the famous Stonehenge.

July

The last month of my internship - my replacements arrived and I was to train them. I moved out of Reading and lived in Oxford for the month with another intern. I took my last photos of Reading and its surroundings (Mortimer). At work, we had an annual review day (presentation & chilling out) during which I took some photos - which were received well and shown in our department's displays as well as the following quarterly review (Unfortunately I wasn't there long enough to see that). On the whole, I didn't take too many photos this month. I also bought a macro lens (Canon 60mm) off a co-worker who didn't want it any more.

August

After working for a year I was ready to make the most out of my first holidays (longer than 4 days) in which I wasn't working at all. Summer time is great in Madrid, extremely hot but there are endless hours of daylight meaning more opportunities for taking photos. I covered a number of landmarks in and around Madrid. Madrid's most famous "fiesta" (Fiesta de la Paloma) happened and got some fireworks shots in as well. In celebrating India's 60 years of independence a large performance was on display in the city's oldest square (Plaza Mayor).

September

With one month to go before the start of my final year of university I went on a short trip to Amsterdam. In Madrid, I continued by exploration of the city took photos of the annual marathon as well as photos of a Real Madrid match in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

October

Back to Loughborough University (UK) for my final year of studies. A lot has changed, most of the people I knew had graduated the year before (they didn't do internships or were older than I was). Met a whole new bunch of people and stayed in the same halls of residence as my first year (I had enough of living in a shared house - no cooking no cleaning!). I covered a couple of sporting events (Fencing and Rugby). I became the chairman of the university's Photography Society and tried to capture the essence of Autumn. Since Loughborough is a tiny town, I spent a lot of weekends in neighbouring Nottingham where I attended my first "Navratri" a Hindu festival popular with Gujuratis.

November

Back With university work increasing I had less time for photography, most of the photos I took were over a few days. I tried to capture a few things around the campus, which I feel is still largely undocumented. I went to Liverpool for a day with the Singaporean society and took some photos on behalf of the ISA (International Students Association) and a guy running for a NUS delegate position (which he got). We (photography society) shot the annual Guy Fawkes bonfire and fireworks. Oh and I donated some blood too!

December

Before breaking off for the holidays we (the photography society) held 2 days out. The first was at Loughborough's abandoned hospital (quite an experience) and the 2nd was at the annual Nottingham German Christmas Market. When we broke off for the holidays I came to Madrid for a couple of days and took some photos of the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor and then went for 10days to the USA visiting New Jersey, New York and Washington DC. Most of the shots I took in the USA are still to be processed. I arrived back in Madrid on New Year's Eve.

So that was my year! Feel free to browse the best images I took each month via the navigator on the right-hand-side of this site.

What's in store for this year? Well I'm finishing my studies and need to think about settling down - I have a feeling I won't be travelling as much though.