The past 12 months have left me with little time to work on my Foundations In Photography and I am at risk of being withdrawn.

I’d love to continue, but it seems to be a good time to reflect on what I have learned and how I feel I have developed as a photographer.

My first love in photography was always landscape. Even with competing interests I’d say that it still is, though now with a very different approach.

Previously I wanted big vistas, blue sky, dramatic sunsets. Today it’s all about dark days, late evenings or night. Fog, mist, frost. Quiet, secretive times and places. Through this course I found Gregory Crewdson and Alexei Titarenko, and I’d love to develop their ‘feel’ in my landscapes.

The revelation for me on the course has been street photography. It’s an incredibly diverse – and some would say overcrowded – genre and very much en vogue. I’ve made a habit of taking my camera to work in London, and gone on a couple of StreetSnappers courses. What’s hammered home on these is the needs to focus – to understand what you enjoy making images of.

Rather then just following fashions for light/shadow, or weird juxtapositions, or endless pictures of people walking down streets, develop a style, a voice. Define projects and work to them. It’s great advice, and not just for street photography.

I’ve spent hours wandering the streets of cities at home and abroad, and what constantly draws me are tableaux, groups of figures representing a scene from a story, a story that’s made up by whoever is viewing.

Whatever the outcome of my extension request I’m going to continue to work through the Exercises and Assignments. Foundations In Photography has taught me so much, made me understand so much, that I can’t leave it here.