Now that we’re back into the swing of things, it’s about time I reflected on how far I’ve come in the last 12 months and some of the photographs I've made. I know that many people, photographers that I follow in particular, tend to do this at the end of the year, but for me the Christmas holiday break is all about family and friends, lots of relaxing, drinking, eating and unfettered laziness. I much prefer to do my reflection on the previous year once the new one has just started, the little cherubs are back at school and normal service is resumed.

There were a couple of key changes to my circumstances last year which, looking at Lightroom’s stats, resulted in a drastically reduced image count. The first and by far the biggest disruption was moving house. This happened in May which resulted in a near zero count for a couple of months and as the place we’ve moved to has required a significant amount of work, some of which I’ve done myself and the rest I’ve had to co-ordinate with plumbers, builders, decorators, carpet fitters etc etc, the opportunities to head out and shoot were drastically reduced. Evenings and weekends, which are my key times to make photographs consisted of more DIY in a few months than I think I’ve done in my entire life! And there’s still a veritable shedload to do. But it’s been equally rewarding as much as it’s been frustrating. The new house is a dream and in the few short months that we’ve been here, it’s become a bit of a party haven. As an added bonus, I now have a dedicated ~~man cave~~ office cum studio. It took a while to get it fitted out and set up as I wanted it but I now have a roll of white seamless suspended from the ceiling. I have enough room to leave lights and small sets out and shoot simple portraits or still life’s to my heart’s content. I only managed to finish this off just before Christmas and it really came into it’s own shooting group shots of the kids and all their cousins on Christmas day.

I’ve even had storage built for most of my vinyl and got the ol’ 1s and 2s set up again, though I’ve had very little chance to use them and I’ve hours ahead trying to sort all those 12”s out into some kind of order.

The second and equally relevant change was my shift to Fuji. Whilst I really love my Nikons they’re starting to get a little dated, and as I become more dated, I’m noticing the weight more and more, the lenses in particular. Sporting a fully laden backpack with two bodies, five lenses, and all the other assorted trinkets really begins to take its toll on my ageing spine if I walk any particular distance. So one of the main reasons I chose to jump into the Fuji brand was because of the size and weight. I’m not getting any younger and nor is my back. One thing that became very quickly apparent was that I seem to take far fewer frames with the Fuji gear compared to the Nikon. When I sit down and try and figure out why this is I think that the reason is twofold; the first is the clarity on the LCD screen on the back of the camera - it’s just so much easier to read and use than it was on my Nikons and I can tell very quickly whether I have tack sharp images or not. This could be partially to do with my failing eyesight but I’ve also found that one of the main limitations of the Fujis has forced me to think more when I shoot. With the Nikons at the single press of a button I could get them to shoot and nine bracket sequence. However the Fuji only allows a maximum of three in one go. I could dial the exposure compensation to +3 and -3 stops and still get the nine frames that I was looking for but I tend not to do this now. If it is a seriously contrasty scene that requires extremes of exposure, then I tend to dial in the brackets manually, probably shooting +3, 0 and -3. In other words only a third of the number of images. I do this quite a bit.

Hell Gill Pike."Such as spend their lives in cities, and their time in crouds (sic) will here meet with objects that will enlarge the mind, by contemplation, and raise it from nature to nature’s first cause. Whoever takes a walk into these scenes mu… — Hell Gill Pike.
"Such as spend their lives in cities, and their time in crouds (sic) will here meet with objects that will enlarge the mind, by contemplation, and raise it from nature to nature’s first cause. Whoever takes a walk into these scenes must return penetrated with a sense of the creator’s power in heaping mountains upon mountains, and enthroning rocks upon rocks. And such exhibitions of sublime and beautiful objects cannot but excite at once both rapture and reverence." Thomas West, 1778

The Cuillin Hills in the mist from the shores of Loch Scavaig, Elgol, Skye

Another contributing factor to my reduced frame count was that I did very few timelapse sequences last year compared to 2014, partly due to the afore mentioned time constraints but it also took me quite a while to figure out how to do this with my X-T1.

However a far bigger contributing factor than any of the above is that I’ve been in a bit of funk for a few months. With all the disruption and stuff, I really began to feel like I was losing my mojo in a big way. In fact it got to the point just before Christmas that I got so concerned about my creative state of mind that I started to invest a great deal of time working out how I get myself out of this hole. Having given myself a right good talking to, happily, I finally feel like I’m beginning to come out the other side, but more on that next week.

How's your year been? Are you in a better place than you were this time last year? Feel free to comment below

Looking back at 2015