What Nicola Did in 2011 • Nicola Taylor Photographer

Ok, so I know these posts are cheesy but I can’t help myself. I feel a pathological need around New Year, and again around my birthday, to take stock of everything I’ve done in the last year. This is a good exercise generally for reminding yourself how far you’ve come. Hint: It’s always much further than you think.

For me, this year, in particular, has been a groundbreaking explosion of new life and new activity which I could never have predicted in advance but somehow, now that it has happened, it feels as if it could not have been any other way. I tell you all of this, not to show off, but to show anyone feeling stuck that things can change very quickly indeed. Wherever you are in your life right now, whether you’re looking back on 2011 with pride or with disappointment, know that change comes quickly once you invite it in. Sometimes the journey from here to there is a lot shorter than it seems.

Here are the highlights of my 2011:

Shot my first composite self portrait

Met two of my photographic heroes, Miss Aniela and Brooke Shaden, at a workshop in an abandoned theatre in Eastbourne

Got into my bathtub and played the Drama Queen

Grew four arms

Shot my first levitation image

Poured four pints of milk onto my kitchen floor

Got a little obsessed with mannequins

Threw buckets of water and fish onto my kitchen table (don’t tell my housemates) then spent the next four hours trying to get rid of the smell

Got in the washing machine

Had a leg moment, probably sparked by the mannequins.

Got a picture Explored on Flickr – it’s still my most viewed image

Shot a fantastically talented fashion designer in an old abandoned factory

Took my first location self portraits by jumping into a rock pool in Devon, in front of twenty of my classmates.

Spent a spring evening bouncing on a trampoline in my garden while someone threw flour at me.

Produced the first images in the Tales from the Moors Country series. Here are my favourites:

Attended a workshop with another amazing photographer, Drew Gardner, where he took this lovely pic of me downing a pint which always comes highly ranked by the search engines – yay! At least it makes me work harder to get my own images ranked and knock this one down the rankings!
Assisted top photojournalist and filmmaker Edmond Terakopian on a fundraising film for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, (where I met Prince Andrew) and a shoot in Alex James’ cheese laboratory! Here’s a shot of me standing in for Alex.

Shot in the woods in Essex on a workshop with the lovely and amazingly talentedRosie Hardy

Presented my portfolio for assessment at London College of Communication and received a Distinction

Exhibited my work for the very first time at the LCC end of year show.

Ended one blog and began another.
Had buckets and buckets of water thrown over me for an image that I just could not get to work : (

Offered my work for sale for the first time at an art and craft fair. By the end of the year I was regularly selling work in person, online and in galleries.
Began offering greetings cards and postcards of my work.

Entered LOTS of competitions. Didn’t win most of them, but had a few successes.

One of Visual Overture Magazine’s Emerging Artists, Fall 2011
Won the Fashion Photography Exposed Competition on Melissa Rodwell’s very popular blog, The Fashion Photography Blog

Shortlisted for the World Photography Gala Awards, Interregional Competition
Shortlisted for the Cannes Also Photography Competition
Shortlisted for Aesthetica Magazine Creative Works Competition and featured in their 2012 Creative Works Annual
Shortlisted for the Camera Obscura Winter Professional Photography Competition
Two images gained an honourable mention in Brooke Shaden’s monthly photography competition

And the biggie…..won a competition to be featured in a short film, sponsored by Stoli vodka, about creativity in the UK…….oh, and a trip to the Playboy Mansion was the second part of the prize. Random? Yes. Am I complaining? Absolutely not!

So 2011 has been utterly life changing. Thank you to everyone who has cheered me on from the sidelines, even if it’s been silently. Perhaps you’ll see me again here next year talking about how disastrous 2012 was, but somehow I feel that a year where you get to party at the Playboy Mansion can’t be all bad!