Firstly, let me wish you all a healthy and happy new year.

Hopefully it will prove a good one.

Fingers crossed!

From a photographic perspective, the weather has been kind on a couple of occasions, delivering some awesome Hoare Frost and I saw several images on social media that were simply inspired. Sadly, I wasn’t able to take advantage of it due to other commitments but it was great to see those images. There will always be other days!

What is more concerning at present, is this warm spell, which is so unseasonal. Don’t get me wrong, it means that the heating isnt going on at home saving dosh but they announced on the news before, that 2022 was the warmest year on record….Something is definitely changing….

Irrespective of the weather, I hope to venture out soon with my camera and make the most of what is left of the winter.

My talks resume shortly then it is a mixture of those along with workshops that Vicki and I are looking forward to.

A few weeks back I received an email asking me for an interview for ‘Outdoor Photography’ magazine. As a result, a feature article on yours truly will be appearing in it shortly. I will update when I know more. I enjoy writing features for magazines but it’s always different and an honour to be the subject.

Now that we are fully ensconced in the dark months, it has given me a proper opportunity to use a piece of kit that Benq sent to me several months back.

It is called the ‘Halo’ which is an illumination tool that delivers an even and true light across the screen. It simply sits on the rim of the monitor and does its job.

Very well!

I have used it now since the autumn and have to admit that it is a fabulous piece of kit.

Very simple to set up and use, you control it via a wireless wheel that sits on your desktop and allows you to match the output and balance the light with the screen.

I thought it would only be beneficial in the evenings but to be honest I haven’t removed it off my iMac and have no intention of doing so. I have it on in the day;ight and am very pleased with it. Well worth a look!

In the past, I used a USB desk lamp which was great but this is on another level and is controllable which is great for checking that your image on screen is true.

In other kit news, I have now decided to totally lighten the load of my camera bag and am using the smaller XF lenses that Fujifilm make. I did have an XF 50-140 lens which was really fantastic but weighed too much for me. I named it’ the beast.’Many will have no problem with it but for me it really is a heavy lens.

Don’t get me wrong it was and is a fabulous lens but my bag needed to lose weight and so it had to be sacrificed. It was fast at f2.8 throughout but I wasn’t using it at that focal length and its main purpose for me was distance. As I use a crop sensor, it had a 35mm equivalent of 75- 210 so I traded it in and purchased the Fujifilm XF 70-300. The other reason for despatching ‘the beast’ was because I had to carry a set of the LEE100 system filters along with my LEE85 system. With this new lens I don’t need too. It is so much lighter and has a huge 5 stops anti shake advantage!

Those of you who are in the same age bracket as me will understand how beneficial that is with hand held shots.

Getting old eh…..

So all that remains for me now is to get out and give it a test drive and that will happen a few times throughout January.

I am sure many who read this will have received some new photographic gear for Christmas and I hope you manage to venture out and enjoy the time out with your camera soon.

Regards

Mark