My 2024 favourites - Vertical shots

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This is a separate post because I'm cross-posting to Instagram, which still doesn't support mixed aspect ratio photos in a single post for some bizarre reason!
Full size photos after the jump.

My 2024 favourites - October to December

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Of the 366 days, I posted backup photos on 61 occasions - roughly one in six posts on average.
The frequency of backup posts was variable, but trended upwards through the year.
October and November were the worst months, with 11 backups each, which coincides with me having a particularly bad time at work.

Fixer-Upper.
I fixed two slightly unhappy lenses this year.
Firstly, my EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, which had developed a weird fault years ago, not long after being repaired following a rather ignominious fall from a bit of staging, which broke it almost in half. The fault caused the lens to fail to focus at focal lengths around 135mm, and also caused the image stabiliser to jump as you zoomed through the same point. The fault turned out to be a slightly damaged sliding contact, which was easily corrected, and has restored the lens to perfect health.
The second repair escapade was on my EF-M 22mm, which had developed a very dodgy manual focus ring. I pulled the lens apart and found that the glue that holds the external ring to the encoder had failed, so a bit of glue was called into service, and that one's back in working order too.

Shopping.
I bought quite a lot of new toys this year, which I've mostly enjoyed.
This started out with the Sigma 150-600mm and matching 1.4x teleconverter. It's not an especially sharp lens, and the image stabiliser is a bit odd, but it does deliver acceptable results if you treat it right, and it is relatively cheap for the focal length.
In February, I finally went full-frame with the 6D Mark II, something I'd wanted to do for years. This was a great buy, and it's a lovely camera to use. I really like the built in GPS, which geotags your photos automatically at source.
In terms of glass, I picked up a few lenses on the used market, which I've been very pleased with - the EF24-105mm f/4L IS, which is a good general purpose lens on full frame; the very special purpose MP-E65mm f/2.8 Macro lens, the EF100mm f/2.8 L IS, and the EF85mm f/1.2.
Getting the MP-E65mm Macro lens pushed me towards focus stacking, which led to me buying the WeMacro automatic focus rail, which is very helpful.
After doing more stacked macro work, I found myself needing a more appropriate flash setup, so I bought four Godox MF12 macro flashes to go with the Xpro wireless trigger system, which I'd bought early in the year. This system has proved to be very useful, nice to work with, and reliable so far.

I bought a Manfrotto MK055CXPRO4BHQR tripod with an XPRO ball head, which has proved to be something of a disappointment.
It's really no smaller, lighter, or stiffer than my old 055 classic aluminium tripod, and the fourth leg section is too thin and annoyingly light, so it doesn't extend or retract under its own weight. The only real benefit I've found is that it isn't as cold to the touch as an aluminium one.
The XPRO tilting column is occasionally useful, but I've used it far less than I imagined when I bought it, and having no easy height adjustment in the horizontal mode is not great. I've also been pinched by the leg locks more times than I care to remember!
I wish I'd bought the 3-section version instead, with no head - The XPRO ball head is really poor, especially when the column is horizontal, and I quickly stopped using it in favour of my old 486RC2 head.
I'm rather tempted to ditch this tripod and look for something that suits me better.

My latest acquisition is a used EOS R5. I'm enjoying it so far - it's a step up in resolution and general performance, and the mirrorless system seems to work well. The only minor downsides I've found so far are the lack of inbuilt GPS, which feels like a retrograde move compared with the 6D II, and the shorter battery life, which I was expecting - a live video system clearly requires significantly more power than a mirror!

Full size photos after the jump. 

My 2024 favourites - July to September

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My most used camera was my EOS 6D Mark II, coming in at 72% of the shots.
The M6 Mark II came in at 9%, with the 80D at 7%, the Sony RX10V at 6% - a couple of other cameras made up the balance.
No real surprises there, I bought the 6D II in mid-February, and it was my main camera thereafter, although I used the M6 II when I wanted more resolution and/or the smaller sensor for its teleconverter effect (or both in several cases!).

My most used lens was the EF70-200 f/2.8 L IS, at 32%. Absolutely no surprise there, I love this lens.
I combined the numbers for the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro and the EF100mm f/2.8 L IS Macro, because they were used for essentially the same type of work. They came in at 18%.
The EF24-105mm f/4 L IS came in at 12%, the Sigma 150-600mm at 7%, and the EF50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro at 5%.
All of my other lenses came out at least once, but I'm not going to inflict every last statistic on you!
Full size photos after the jump.

My 2024 favourites - April to June

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I took roughly 20,000 shots (according to the camera's shutter count and a bit of informed guesswork), and kept about 6000 that I thought were worth editing.
The busiest month was May, with 819 photos added to the library, and the quietest was November, at 263.

I've found that I much prefer editing in Lightroom over Canon's DPP software. Lightroom is much more powerful in terms of its editing tools, and is substantially faster to export. It also has lens correction profiles for 3rd party lenses, which DPP does not.
DPP wins massively on initial sorting for the Canon cameras' files though - its Quick Check tool is a lot faster at parsing files for an initial cull, and it's very easy to zoom in to 100% to check details.

I've settled on a combined approach now, where I download everything from the cards onto the computer, and make an initial culling pass or two with DPP, marking files I want to keep or delete.
Once I'm happy with the final selection of keepers, I import only those files into Lightroom and make my edits there.
Unless I'm missing something in Lightroom, this is a much faster and more comfortable technique than fighting with the lightroom import window (which I find rather clunky, and where I inevitably press escape by mistake, then lose all my progress!).
This approach even works, (with some adaptations) for the files from the drone and Sony RX100V. These cameras only shoot RAW+JPEG, which I was initially irritated by, but I've now realised that DPP can read the JPEGs, which I can cull, and then it's relatively easy to use those files to cull through the RAWs, before finally deleting the JPEGs and taking the selected RAWs into Lightroom.
Full size photos after the jump.

My 2024 favourites - January to March

I'm really quite proud of having kept this project going all year.

It's been hard at times, but on the whole, it feels like it's been a bit easier than last time I completed a daily photoblog, back in 2009 (and definitely easier than my failed attempt in 2011!).
The next few posts will be a few of my favourites - one set from each quarter of the year, plus a set of portrait-orientation shots, (this is just because I'm cross-posting to Instagram, which still doesn't support mixed aspect ratio photos in a single post for some bizarre reason!)
I'm going to add some thoughts and silly little stats - Some of this will be geeky, so consider yourself warned!
Full size photos after the jump.

Go Away!

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And with that, my photo-a-day project for 2024 is complete!

It's been fun, although hard at some points.

I haven't quite decided what's next for me, but I am planning to carry on with the 52Frames project next year, at the very least.
Unlike the last time I completed one of these projects back in 2009, I don't feel desperate to stop, although my creativity feels like it's been at a relatively low ebb recently.

I created a little photomosaic with AndreaMosaic to celebrate - that's after the jump.

I'd Like My Money Back

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This beer's all head and no flavour!

Sunny Interval

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A lovely sunny day today seemed to have caused everyone to head out for a walk - I tried to visit two different parks, only to find their car parks completely full! I ended up back at my favourite riverside spot and had a pleasant little wander there instead.

I went out with an aim of getting a shot for 52Frames' latest challenge, "Redo" - where we are invited to revisit any challenge from the last year. As I've only been doing it for a few weeks, I elected to go for the challenge that was live when I first came across the project, "Fill The Frame". That shot is after the jump.

Willow (1)

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I've been trying out the autofocus capabilities of the R5 today. I'm pretty impressed so far, I have to say.

Transit, Luminously

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I set fire to my bank account (again) today, and bought a secondhand EOS R5 mirrorless camera body.

I've been hanging my nose over a decent mirrorless camera in general for a few months, and this one in particular for several weeks.
I was particularly keen on the idea of something with internal sensor-shift image stabilisation, which meant the R5 or R6, to stay both full-frame and maintain a price at least slightly below obscene.
The resolution of the R6 / R6 II is actually slightly lower than my 6D II, which encouraged me towards the R5, with its substantially higher resolution, and better dynamic range.

Not a bad start for its first outing, I think.
I love the intense halos around the red lights in this shot, and I rather like the effect of the mixed lighting colour temperatures across the frame.

Looming From The Mist

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And a bonus pic of Bailey (after the jump), just because I've not had one of him on here recently!

Maintain An Orderly Arrangement

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... And some other photos from a walk on Christmas day, after the jump.
A bit of a weird day in some ways. Lots of thoughts of those we can't be with, whether temporarily or permanently.
The weather was remarkably pleasant though!

Some Run, Some Walk, Some Sit On Benches

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Well, we potter around and crouch over benches, looking slightly insane and photographing the others, at least!

I've also included a bonus pic of Nottingham Castle after sunset (after the jump). I rather liked the colours.

Splat

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Some more playing with the Miops Splash this evening.
I need to get a UV filter for the macro lens when I'm subjecting it to this sort of abuse - I had to clean the lens multiple times during this shoot!

Each Lost In Our Own Little World

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I'd like to be a bit better at street photography, it's a genre that produces some fascinating images.
One of my problems is, I think, something of a lack of confidence and not wanting to be challenged by anyone.

I've recently been inspired by @leanderhoefler's work, particularly in terms of looking for layers of interest in the scene. You should check his work out.
@philpenman is also massively worth a look, if you're not already familiar with his work.

Last Light, Shortest Day

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I wanted to shoot something to mark the solstice today, and I'm quite happy with this as an answer to that.
Within a couple of minutes of taking this, the sun was lost to view behind a cloud bank, and set 24 minutes later, without returning to view.

The celestial pendulum starts its swing back again now.

One In, One Out

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This is a backup photo from yesterday's lovely post-sunset sky.

Anywhichway

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There was some beautiful light today, but I loved the look of this silhouetted fingerpost against the dusk sky.

What Do You Mean, Another One?

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I am most inconvenienced!
Well, not that inconvenienced, I suppose, all things considered.
By virtue of finishing work at lunchtime, I got to see some daylight for a change.

Follow That Plough!

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After a rather tiring day at work, followed by a request for some urgent 3D printing assistance from a friend, so it's a backup image again today, taken a couple of weeks ago.
I could have done with a longer lens here, but the longest I had on me was the 70-200mm.

I did take a load of photos at work today, but that's all technical secret squirrels stuff, so you can't see that!

I have just 4 hours of work left this year, and it can't be done soon enough.
It seems about half the people at work are quite ill again, and it's been horribly stressful being around them - and the stress doesn't go away after either, because I'm then worrying I've caught their bugs.
I'm evidently hugely in the minority caring about this, but I really struggle with it.

Inevitable Decay

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A macro look at a broken bit of my fence.
I thought it was rather interesting.

This is a 3x macro taken with the MP-E 65mm and the WeMacro focus rail. 60 shots stacked in Helicon Focus.

Damaged And Displaced

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Some of the damage from the recent storm we had. Pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.
I thought the broken fence panel and torn-off leaf fitted quite well into this week's #52frames challenge, which is Wabi Sabi.
Wabi Sabi is a Japanese term loosely meaning beauty in imperfection. As I understand it, it's rather more of a general philosophy than just that punchline, but the imperfection and impermanence of a fallen fence, rusted nail, and decaying leaf seemed fitting.

A Series Of Curves

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A backup photo again today - I had a very busy day running sound for In Disguise (the band I've got involved with recently), so I ended up not having time or energy to attend to photos (beyond a couple of snapshots, which I've included after the jump).

The new mixer worked excellently, and the band were very well received.

Bubbles Revisited

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Revisiting a subject I played with earlier in the year.
A few more after the jump.

Festive Finial

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Woohoo! A photo actually taken on the day for a change!

Radiance In Pink

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Yet another backup today.
I really liked the way that these pink rays shone out over the darkening sky. I don't think I've ever seen quite this effect before, but I enjoy it!

The technical demo to customers was, by a lot of very hard work, successful.
I got home and quickly fell asleep on the sofa.

Creativity Is Plugged Up.

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Another backup today.
A flat-out day at work in a fog of last-minute panic to present something partially believable to customers tomorrow.

Hardly a sustainable approach; I just hope we actually learn something about planning and over-promising from this.

Good Point(s)

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A busy day - my first day back at work after a week off today, followed by an evening of sound man duties, followed by doing a job for a friend, and finally wrapped up by preparing tools and running some 3D prints off for work tomorrow.
All this adds up to... you guessed it... another backup photo, shot on the first of December.

Incidentally, how on earth is it 1AM already? I guess that technically makes this late, but in my world, it's still tonight, not tomorrow, because I've not been to bed yet. Therefore, not late yet!
I shall cease my erratic blabbering now.
Good Night.

Watch The Raindrops

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I went out for a drive, thinking I might get a walk in.
I ultimately decided against walking in the rain, so I ended up parked for a while, listening to music, watching the rain on the windows, and contemplating life in general.

My December Tree

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It's been a while since I shared a photo of "my" tree, so here's a different angle of it from last week. This is therefore a backup photo (again).
I'm claiming storm Darragh is responsible for my lack of photograph today. A shameless get-out, I'm sure!

Unleash the Lego

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I have been re-acquainting myself with my old friend Lego over the last few days, so I thought I'd mark the occasion.

Melting in Progress

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A backup photo today, from my walk yesterday morning.
When I first walked across this field, the water drops on the grass were all frozen.
By the time I came back and set up the macro lens to take this one, all but the largest drops were thawed.
As I zoomed in on the large drop to check my focus, I could see little bubbles and liquid moving along the channels inside the drop. I'm not sure what would cause this, as I'd have expected it to thaw from the outside in!

They Say The Roots Go Down As Far As The Tree Goes Up

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I spotted this reflection on a walk this morning, and was reminded of this.
I got rather muddy taking this one, but did fortuitously avoid dunking the camera in the muddy puddle!

Blowin' Smoke

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23 of 24

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52Frames set a really interesting challenge this week: "Roll of 24".
This means shoot whatever you like, but act as if you only have a single 24-exposure roll of film in your camera.
This forces you to be much slower and more considered in your shooting, which is a far cry from firing off a burst of shots of each composition to make sure you get the shot you wanted.

I enjoyed this challenge.

I've included a contact sheet of the rest of my shots from the exercise after the jump.
I am really surprised by how happy I am with all of these shots. While there are some that are less good, I'm not truly disappointed by any of them, which is unusual!

Heading Home

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I went out in search of photos at what seems to count for late afternoon at this time of year - 3PM!
The sky was beautiful after sunset, so I was pleased to have caught this group of birds against the gradient.