24 Comments
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Ben Rook's avatar

Nice write up, Xavi. The shot of Saltdean Lido gets my vote. 👏🏻😎

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thank you Ben, yes, that's one of my favourites too. Happy new year!

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Mark White's avatar

it looks like you had a great professionally creative year! congrats and sorry to read about your drunken run-in. stay strong in '25!

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thanks Mark, yes, it's been an interesting year. Can't complain. Happy '25!

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KewtieBird’s Photo Journey's avatar

Wow, what a year for you (personally and, indeed professionally)! Love your storytelling as well as all of your varied images. I have to say, my uber-fav here is the Saltdean Lido shot. Perfecto. Have a great bit relaxation and recuperation and all the best for a productive and positive 2025!

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Aw, thank you!! Yes, a very inspiring year indeed. That Lido shot is growing on me exponentially now. Happy holidays!

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Tom Bland's avatar

Looks like a great year Xavi, congrats. I can't even imagine how you did the stainless steel machine!

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thanks Tom, interesting year but yes, definitely great! Photographing the machine was kind of straight forward making sure I got as little reflections in as possible. Retouching was the most difficult part smoothing out the surfaces, creating textures, gradients, detail and dimension.

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Manuela Thames's avatar

My favorite one is the April portrait. Fantastic!

Sometimes channeling your anger makes for evocative and strong portraits!!

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Marcel Borgstijn's avatar

Looks like you had a (photographically) very interesting year. Love the variety of subjects you have shot.

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thank you Marcel. It was indeed a varied year. For the last decade my work was 99% food related. It was challenging stepping out of that comfort zone but rewarding to validate my skills go beyond one niche. Happy new year!

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

You have lots of interesting clients, Xavi. Good to see such a variety of high quality work. And you’re so right about the need to adapt in business. I celebrated 18 years in October and adaptability is certainly one of the traits I’ve learned. Here’s to a happy 2025.

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Ah, many thanks Andrew! Yes, I didn't realise how varied my work became this year until I started curating this review. If anything and as you say, adapting and innovating are essential for us.

What have you found to be your biggest challenge this year?

All the best for the coming year!

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I’ve had a good year in business. The main challenge has been encouraging clients to get a move on with projects! We make a good start and then they get waylaid by other priorities. It all eventually comes together and I’m fortunate to have enough clients so that I can deal with the ebbs and flows.

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Nice to hear considering all things over here. Funny how I hear similar stories from project managers and agencies. Glad you've managed to push through and thanks for sharing!

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Luz Mendes's avatar

Incredible piece of work. You definitely haven’t been ‘waiting for Godot’.😊

Happy New Year to you, Xavi. That 2025 be as fruitful as 2024 with even more new adventures.

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Haha love it! No, I have definitely not been waiting for Godot this year. Thank you for the warm wishes, and to you too!

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Susanne Helmert's avatar

That was an interesting review of 2024. Great work. I love the variety of the jobs you‘ve had. The photos for gobotanica are my favorite!

Your Christmas sounds wonderfully quiet and relaxing. All the best for you in 2025!

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thanks Susanne, hope you had a peaceful one too.

Glad you like them! gobotanica are one of my favourite people to work with, they're so genuine!

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Neil Scott's avatar

Such great work. Best of luck for 2025.

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Xavi Buendia's avatar

Thank you sir. Happy new year to you too!

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Juliette's avatar

That was a lot of fun, Xavi!! I love your work and enjoyed knowing more about you. I'd be really challenged to choose my favorite... they're all so good but maybe Saltdean Lido and the first image of Jordan. Happy new year!

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Kevin Hansen's avatar

Great work!

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perfectlight's avatar

happy new year!

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