New year thoughts, 2024

So here we are in a brand new year. I wonder what 2024 has got in store for us? Hopefully less war in the world and more prosperity (whatever your definition of that is) for all of us. For me, more prosperity is more time. Time with family, time travelling to interesting locations and of course more time taking photographs, which is when I am happiest.

Christmas 2023 was busy and it was good to leave the camera at home or a bit. For me the festive season is about family and I have emerged, as ever, feeling that I have eaten and drunk too much. I, like countless others have therefore decided to buy a pair of running shoes and go out for a couple of runs to try and lose a few kilos. This will benefit me later on in the year when I am out with my camera exploring. Hopefully, I can explore a few new areas this year.

Following on from Christmas was new year and that for most of us is a time to look back over the year that has just passed and to look ahead to the year to come.

Reflecting on 2023 my overwhelming feeling as we approached Christmas was that I had stood still photographically. I didn’t feel that I had taken anything stunning, anything that had propelled my photography forward, anything in fact that was any better than what came before it. But, recording my Christmas special (which you can watch here) I discovered some images to be proud of. I really like this one (below), which is a revisit and better than last year’s images from that location for instance. I have learned to wait for conditions to suit the mood I am after.

4 huts

I have certainly made progress with my woodland photography. Trips to Epping Forest north of London with Chris Shepherd and Delamere Forests in Cheshire whilst visiting a mate produced some of my greatest woodland images, and very different from my usual style but I am keen to explore this further in the autumn of 2024. Look at this example below for instance.

Autumn Trees

And, in October, I bought an infrared converted Nikon D7000 which I have only used a couple of times but can’t wait to use in better conditions next summer. Watch out for this on my YouTube channel.

So on reflection not a bad year at all with images. I have got the most out of every session and that’s as much as I can ask of myself. I have also produced a video every single Sunday since I launched the channel which, I guess, is an achievement in itself. But more about this in a sec.

The reason I think I felt relatively unmoved by my achievements this year has been the lack of decent weather. And what that means for a landscape photographer is colourful sunrises, storms with angry skies, snow, fog or even mist. At the back end of last year we had a hoar frost, which was magical and this year the only exceptional day has been a day of freezing fog when I photographed this.

Silver Birches

Apart from that one day I can’t really remember any great days weather wise, and when there have been I have been working in my teaching role. There is nothing more frustrating waking up all week to dull boring light only to witness a fantastic sunrise and brilliant conditions driving to teach at school or deliver a course! Trust me when I say that there have been a few this year. Next year (from July onwards) I have decided to limit my teaching time further so that I can be out on location more often. By that stage I am hoping to be getting close to the magical 1000 subscribers on YouTube so that I can earn the odd tenner!

Talking of conditions brings me nicely onto this year and a look forward at my plans.

So far I have only managed to get out with my camera once in 2024. The weather here in the east of the UK has been wet and grey with very little frost (always nice at sunrise) and sun. With grey conditions ruling the roost, the best approach in landscape photography is to try some long exposure seascapes. The unfortunate thing so far is that high tide at the present time is not high enough. Most of my favourite long exposure locations around here need a high tide of over 5m but at present they are just over 4m. Global warming seems to have had its affect and the snow we used to have yearly very rarely happens any more.

However, I am undeterred, surely the weather will change at some point? I make a point now of keeping the camera gear charged so I can react quickly. Santa has bought me some lovely Muck Boots which stay in the car and I’m getting better with all of the gear I need to have organised for all of my vlogging. The videos are improving I think?

Plans for 2024 are as follows:

I’ve got two trips to the Highlands of Scotland booked, one of my favourite places and I’m going to investigate the East coast of Scotland. Inevitably though, I’m sure I’ll stop off in wonderful Glencoe on the way. Look out for these videos and images at the end of March.

Before that though, in February, I’m meeting up with Garry back in Yorkshire to explore that wonderful county again. We had pencilled in a workshop there for the middle of February, but unfortunately we couldn’t sell all of the spaces so we will look at that again next year. However, it’s marked out in my diary so I’m going to photograph Yorkshire anyway. I love photographing the limestone and waterfalls.

The summer will bring with it the joys of infrared and then the autumn back into the forests. I’ve already said that I’m doing less teaching from July and this also means I won’t be on a school residential that we run in the middle of November. This is prime autumn woodland season so this year I will be able to shoot even more.

The end of October is also significant this year as I will turn 60. A big number. My amazing family want to treat me to something special and when asked I have mentioned revisiting Skye. This amazing place is right up there with Lofoten and Iceland as one of my dream locations in which to shoot landscapes.

Between all of these trips I have promised myself that I will visit, with a much more developed eye, my local area. Travel is great for photography and things always look magical when you have driven many miles but there is also some real beauty on your doorstep. The benefits are also obvious for the planet. Look out for videos about Norfolk (where we have a lovely holiday home) or from here in Essex. Especially having received this wonderful book in the post this morning.

And finally, of course, to release a YouTube video every Sunday. So far I’ve keep this up for a year and a half and I can’t see this ever changing. I’ve loved learning this new skill and I think I’ve produced some videos to be proud of. I hope you’ve enjoyed watching them? If you haven’t seen them then I would encourage you to go and have a look. Producing them have forced me out into the landscape and to think carefully about landscape photography. This in turn has meant I’ve improved my images and have been much more interesting to listen to (I hope) during my camera club talks. I’ve got quite a few of those to do next year as well!

So, here’s to 2024. Hopefully it will bring with it some great conditions which also coincide with my free time. If not there’s always next year. Thanks for reading this as ever and I look forward to talking to you at some point during the year. Have a great one!