Hej hello friend!

Welcome back to another year-end review. Thank you for sticking with me for another wild ride. To me, 2023 was a really juicy year. Juicy in the same way that those oat clusters in Honey Bunches of Oats sometimes take in some of the delicious cereal milk and become a crunchy berry of sorts. Yknow? Ok, maybe not.

Every single year I try to do something slightly different from the previous years, both in an effort to improve but also to just keep things fresh. The function of doing an annual review serves as a celebration as well as a reflective tool for me. I’m a strong believer that while the practice should remain consistent, the methodologies needn’t remain stagnant. There should always be time made for experimentation! Anyways the little twist this go around is that I’m doing this review as a TWO-PART review!!!! That’s right boys, girls, and non-binary pals. You get to read my blatherings not just one, but twice! (Alexa, play “Feel Special” by TWICE). We’re gonna get into the first one today. The second will come later on.

This first part will be focused on personal and fun work. Not that the work I normally do isn’t fun. It’s that it doesn’t always quite fit into the food/still life portfolio I’m building, y’know? :) These photos are shot on all sorts of cameras, not just my normal kit. I’m a strong advocate for the premise that “gear doesn’t matter”, and that you should be able to create images you love on any camera. It’s something that I try as hard as I can to embrace; shooting on anything and everything I can get my hands on. Point and shoot cameras. Beginner cameras. Different camera brands. I think it’s important to get experience working with all of it.

For the NERDS that want the technical stuff, here’s a breakdown of the photos I shot and the different cameras I used to make this final selection. Something to note is that I omitted photos I took on my phone….because I don’t have time to sort through all of that haha.

Sony A7iii - The current workhorse camera in my kit. I use two of them! No complaints.


Fujifilm X-M1 - My first foray into the Fuji family! Not my last, for sure. In 2021 ish I got burnt out on taking photos and I wanted something fun and fresh to take around as an EDC camera outside of my phone. It because a bit burdensome to bring around with me everywhere, despite its already fairly compact form factor. So i sold it. But I’m eyeing the GFX100, X100V, or X-T5 though.

Nikon Coolpix S230S - This thing is so small, it’s perfect. The love of my life…sorta. The files are adequate, and the shooting experience is nice. :) The only downside to this cameras is that it only shoots JPG files, so the files go from “so shitty, they’re good” all the way back around to plain shitty really quickly. That being said, I still love her. I don’t use this camera that much these days but it’s great.

Ricoh GRiii - This is my new girl!! My everyday carry camera. My dream of having a high powered EDC kit is essentially contained within this body. It’s small, shoots RAW files (or JPG if you’re nasty), and has the simple point and shoot features while still giving me the option of full manual control if I want it. I’ve been using this thing a LOT.

Nintendo 3DS - What started as a bit has since turned into something moderately serious???? Ok, not serious. I’m never that serious. But it’s certainly something that’s become much more fun than I initially expected! Actually shooting with this camera is a bit of a pain in the ass, but it IS very fun. It also forces me to be more stark with my compositions due to the sensor being so so so so small. But that’s a pretty good tradeoff, wouldn’t you say?

This year was a bit of a bop. Took on my biggest client to date, got my new portfolio reviewed for the first time. Revamped my website. In total I took on 24 projects throughout the year, and shot about 30,000 photos (this part I’m unsure about). But all of that seems strangely….secondary? Because I guess my goal was to avoid burnout, and get into the practice of taking personal photos on a (near) weekly basis! Getting client work is always much appreciated but I think the importance of producing art just for yourself should come first. In my mind, that’s the key to longevity, or survival at the very least, as a creative professional. These photos aren’t going to end up in MoMA, or a show. But they kept my heart warm, and creative cup filled. And for the purpose of this first part in my annual review series: that’s more than enough.

If you’d like to make something awesome with me, call me beep me if you wanna reach me. Shoot me a message via instagram, email at winstonqzhou@gmail.com, or through my contact page.
As always, thank you to everyone who’s supported me, worked with me, or been a part of this year. I’m grateful. I’m grateful to be able to continue this journey. Please enjoy this selection of photos from this year.

-Winston

Thank you for taking the time to explore my 2023 with me. I’m grateful for your presence!
I’d love to work with you in 2024 — shoot me a message via my contact page.