It’s been a successful failure. I didn’t actually get my camera out each and every week, but I’ve done enough to fill in for 52 sessions worth. And I’ve used my camera a lot more, and learnt a lot about photography.

Am I getting any better? As an exercise I went through and graded each of my ‘weekly 5′ photos on one through five stars. It took a couple of passes, as initially I had nothing at five stars and only about six at four stars. In the end I had:

• 1 star: 56 photos
• 2 stars: 101 photos
• 3 stars: 60 photos
• 4 stars: 33 photos
• 5 stars: 10 photos

We’ll get to my top 10 for the year in a minute, but there was definitely a slight trend towards improvement: less bad photos, more good photos in the later weeks. Still, that means that out of the 3,862 photos that I took in 2009 there are only 43 photos that I’m quite or very happy with – a bit over 1 per cent. Not bad for a beginner, I suppose.

I won’t be doing this next year, but I’m going to try and get out at least once a month or so just to take photos. I’m also about halfway through making up my 260 main photos for the year into a couple of books, which I’ll pay the ridiculous charges of Apple to get printed in hardback as a memento of my year.

Would I do it again? Probably. I’d probably tweak the rules, maybe only saying ‘take 10, choose 1′. Sometimes I found it hard to stretch a subject out to 30 photos, and it was especially hard to then find 5 of those that were distinct and interesting individually. Still, that was part of the exercise as well.

So now, as the grand finale for the 52/30/5 project, my 10 favourite photos of the year (in chronological order):

So what’s in store for next year? Stay tuned tomorrow for the official announcement.

The full set is on Flickr.

A windsurfer on the lake:

A swan and a gosling:

Buildings in the Kingston Foreshore (known as the Daleks):

The lake front at Grevillea Park:

And Lake Burley Griffin looking towards the Carillion:

The full set is on Flickr.

The basketball hoop:

A nearby slide:

Monkey bars:

Ducks taking flight:

And a tower that is part of the play ground:

The full set is on Flickr.

The full set is on Flickr.

Edison park has been suffering from the drought, the normal pond has been drained and has grown over:

The wooden path to the middle of the pond:

An anchor (a memorial for something or other) in the park:

And a swing:

The full set is on Flickr.

The building:

The flag and coat of arms from the front:

And one of the car parks:

The full set is on Flickr.

Old Parliament House in HDR:

The War Memorial over the lake:

The National Portrait Gallery:

The High Court:

And the surprisingly Christmas-y local map sign:

The full set is on Flickr.

A seagull:

Birds surrounding a tree:

A cycle path:

Contrails in the sky:

A magpie in a tree:

The full set is available on Flickr.

Week 44 was taken at Telopea Park near Kingston.

The park:

A storm drain:

Some cyclists passing through:

A HDR view of a tree:

And a tree in the bright sunshine:

The full set is on Flickr.

The full set is on Flickr.

The full set is on Flickr.

First, some passing bird (not an ornithologist either):

A swan:

And the swans and their cygnets:

The full set if on Flickr.

The full set is on Flickr.

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First up, a few photos of the recent John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) building:

And secondly, a few ducks that were wondering around Sullivan’s Creek near the School of Law:

The full set is on Flickr.

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I was mainly focusing on public sculpture around the Civic area. A strange bird statue on top of a poster stand:

Some grafitti that appears to be taken from Where the Wild Things Are:

A metal sheep:

Another more abstract sculpture:

And a building that has a few Government departments in it, including the Department of Resources Energy and Tourism:

The full set can be found on Flickr.

A transformer on a power pole:

Someone who needs to mow their grass. The recent rain has created this problem a lot lately:

A view down towards the Fadden shops and the Fadden valley:

One of the houses with a good view on Bugden Avenue:

And the sun reflected on the road:

The full set is on Flickr.

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A phone tower:

A view down to Australia’s Parliament House:

Three Poles:

And the restaurant at the top of the hill (I don’t know the name: it changes every six months or so):

And a plant. No, botany is not my strong suit:

The full set is on Flickr.

A Detroit Electric, an electric car from pre-WW2.

A modified VW Beetle with fully electric conversion:

An electric race car:

A few electric bicycles:

And finally, a Tesla Roadster:

The full set is on Flickr.

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An elephant walking along the road. As it turns out, a bull elephant can move pretty quickly when it’s right next to your car:

Some hippos lying around:

A gnu:

An elephant herd:

And a giraffe:

The full set is on Flickr.