Today marks the end of Year 8 for this photography website with 1,237 articles having been published since 2015, and 127 added this year. It certainly has been an interesting ride to be here with all of you again this year.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge. Photographs have been added to serve as visual breaks.

With the on again off again nature of COVID-19 it was a challenging year in terms of content. While I have an interest in a wide range of photographic subjects I ended up spending a lot of time with birds this year.

Even after capturing hundreds of thousands of images of birds over the years I still find them fascinating. I often spend much of my time simply observing their behaviour and learning to better anticipate what they may do.

Like all living things, birds follow strong instincts to procreate to continue the species. They build nests and feed young.

There is aggression from time to time. Sometimes caused by squabbles over territory, mating rights, or food.

When I witness such behaviour I think about humankind’s proclivity towards self-harm and needless greed.

We all do have basic needs like food and shelter. It is sobering to think of the millions of people around the world who lack even the most basic of life’s necessities.

I spent some time during Year 8 exploring with my camera gear. Pushing it… and myself… to learn more about what is possible.

Experimentation always pays dividends in terms of learning how to use the technology in our hands in perhaps slightly different ways, to capture the world around us.

I became a bit more focused on particular species of birds this year and spent more time photographing swallows in flight.

I love these little ‘pocket rockets’ and had hours of fun photographing them in our local area. It reminded me that we don’t have to travel to foreign lands to photograph nature.

Year 8 was one during which I spent more time photographing flowers… mainly using handheld in-camera focus stacking.

I gained a new appreciation for this technology. It is now my preferred way to photograph individual blossoms handheld with a macro lens.

Looking for light is something that we should do as photographers. Light creates mood and can communicate emotions.

Sometimes the simplest of subjects have a majesty about them if we can find the right light.

Year 8 found me spending time photographing dragonflies, mainly at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Like many photographers I love capturing images of things in flight. Precise moment captures provide an added challenge that I find invigorating.

Often nature will present ‘one of’ opportunities to us. We must be ready to respond immediately as that precise moment will never happen again.

Year 8 brought some changes. We decided to close portions of our client business that no longer made sense for us. That resulted in us selling some related equipment like business presentation gear, a laminator, and some camera supports used for video productions.

We also found some good, new homes for some of our older camera gear. There was a feeling of loss as that gear had many wonderful memories attached to it. But new memories are waiting to be made by extending the life and enjoyment of that camera equipment in the hands of new owners.

We published our Images of Ireland eBook in Year 8, and spent time working in earnest on a handheld bird photography eBook. We anticipate this eBook will be published in the first half of 2023.

It is sometimes hard to look into the future. There is one thing that is an absolute certainty. We will continue to use our Olympus kit and have no plans to change out any components. I anticipate shooting with my E-M1X bodies and complement of M.Zuiko lenses for many years to come. My E-M1X love grows with each passing year.

We’d like to thank each and every one of you for your support and patronage in Year 8. We look forward to continuing our relationship in 2023 and beyond.

Technical Note:

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files or from in-camera jpegs, using my standard approach in post. This is the 1,237 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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