For the longest while now, I’ve had a profound curiosity to digital SLRs. I’ve always appreciated a good photograph and I often got frustrated by the point-and-shoot I was using. In the middle of 2008, my curiosity drove me so far as to buy the Canon XSi (the T1i predecessor) which had been released for about 4 months at the time. I was ecstatic and took a lot of pictures on a road trip to Vancouver but at the same time, I was suffering from buyer’s remorse. The guilt was so heavy that I ended up returning the camera a week later. There was nothing wrong with the camera in itself; I just couldn’t justify having such an expensive toy at the time.

When the T1i was released in April of this year, my curiosity was resurrected. I was so relieved I didn’t settle for the XSi since the T1i offered a wide range of new features including 1080P (though only at 20 fps) video capturing, a better image processor, wider range in ISO, and an improved user interface. It also supports a lot of amateur settings that are more commonly found on point-and-shoot cameras such as sports or portrait mode.

Here are some of the pictures I took over the long weekend and you can find more on flickr:

As an amateur photographer, I think the T1i is the perfect camera for those that have always wanted to start taking better pictures than their point-and-shoots but didn’t know a whole lot about photography. The camera with a lens will run you about $850 CAD. I purchased the camera with two lenses for $1050 CAD and while that buyer’s remorse was creeping back, I’m confident that I’ll be keeping this one for a while.

Initially, I went for something extravagant. I wanted a design that would show off my Photoshop skills with a nice mix of bright colors. Needless to say, my non-design friends described it as being too “flamboyant” and it looked like I was “trying too hard”. Here’s how that design looked:

One important lesson I learned from the first comp was that I shouldn’t ask too many non-design friends for their advice — especially at the same time. Everybody has an opinion about design and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s something I learned in a SXSW panel but the first time I experienced it. I started from scratch with a focus on my goals and how the site should reflect me as a freelance designer. Sadly, I was so discouraged from the result that I shelved the project altogether and went on my hiatus. On the bright side, the second comp was the foundation that led to the design that you see today:

I continued where I left off in mid-August and iterated on the above comp many times. I also learned about Site Sprint. Site Sprint was a project to encourage designers to quickly design and release their site instead of always pushing it for later like I was. The deadline was September 1st and it helped me stay motivated because I felt accountable. After many late nights, I finally was satisfied with how it looked. The portfolio thumbnails rotating on the front page was heavily inspired by the interface in Time Machine (Mac OSX).

Overall, I have to admit that this experience of redesigning for myself was painful and I agree with what Lea said: you are your worst client.

Personally, it’s been a roller coaster year with lots of changes, growth, and challenges. I worked at a company called Spheric for almost two years until April 2009. Afterwards, I took a long break and re-evaluated things. Part of me was unsatisfied with the work that I was doing and there were enough frustrating moments at Spheric which led me to really pause and think about whether I wanted to continue down this road. Don’t get me wrong, I still love design, the web and technology in general but I’m not the biggest fan of aggressive deadlines, tough clients, the corporate hierarchy, and the endless meetings about nothing.

I took the break as an opportunity to travel and for two and a half weeks in late June, I went to Capetown, South Africa where I did some volunteer work. The trip was incredible and I learned a lot about myself.

The summer continued to rock on with a bachelor trip to Las Vegas and my best friend’s wedding soon after. Inevitably, reality kicked in and I had to get back to work. I started off with the redesign of this site and decided (for now) that freelance was the way to go. Freelance work, in my experience, is a lot harder than working for a company. I tend to work more, there’s uncertainty, and being your own boss requires a lot of self-discipline. Regardless, the pros of freelance outweighed the cons of a company and since August, I’ve been taking on projects. If you need design work, have a look at my portfolio and get in touch. I’m taking projects for mid-September and onward.

How has 2009 gone for you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!