At the end of each year I run through my photos from each month of that year and try to pick my favourite from each month. This year hasn't been the best for me photographically however. For weeks at a time I 'lost my mojo' and when I did pick up the camera I found that I didn't want to travel far to get a photo. In fact apart from March (Norfolk) and August (holiday in Kefalonia) every photo here was taken within a few minutes drive from home. From October to December I only have 110 images on my hard drive which is less than I'd normally have in an average month. Anyway here are my 12 personal favourite images from this year. I hope you enjoy them.

JANUARY

Chesterton windmill usually features heavily in my photos because it's a great landmark photographically and is a 5 minute drive from home. Often I can look out of the kitchen window, see a great sky developing and be there to grab a shot. This was just one of those occasions.

FEBRUARY

February was snowy for periods and I had quite a few photos to choose from but this image stood out for me. I remember sitting watching a Muntjac deer move silently through the trees a hundred metres from me and then suddenly looking around and the mist was glowing a pastel gold. The ethereal view it gave off was breathtaking and this image takes me straight back to the feeling and sounds of that morning. This was also one of the last images I took on my Fujifilm XT2 before moving to the Panasonic G9.

MARCH

With a new camera (Panasonic G9) I decided to give it a road test and Willow and I headed to Norfolk for an overnighter. Kudos to Travelodge for allowing dogs in rooms (although the extra fee is a bit of an eyebrow raiser). This is Thurne Mill just before dawn.

APRIL

These pines and I have a long relationship. They sit in fields on Bredon Hill and, in Spring, the sun rises behind them allowing a shot from the path. Fortunately on this morning the sky lit up beautifully which made the pre-dawn slog up the hill well worth it!

MAY

Along with my G9 I bought a Panasonic Leica 100-400mm telephoto lens and with some warmer weather and longer evenings was keen to test it. Whilst walking the dog one evening I spotted a fox in a meadow. The next evening I saw it again. On the third evening I came with the camera and sat under an oak and waited. After a while a dog fox ghosted into sight. One minute it wasn't there and the next it was. It was intent on voles in the long grass and I sat entranced as it cocked its head left and right to try to hear them, then pounced and carried on. Eventually it weaved its way to within 30 feet of me and I had to adjust my lens to the shortest setting to keep it in frame. I rattled off loads of images with my heart pounding in my chest with excitement. Then I noticed another fox to my right. The dog fox shot off to greet it before they both carried on hunting. I managed to get a short video clip of them below:

JUNE

Just an evening dog walk with my wife but the meadow we were in had quite a few common blue butterflies. I only had my telephoto lens with me but it did a beautiful job of blurring the background grass.

JULY

Whilst June's butterfly shot was opportunistic this one wasn't. I was on Bredon Hill just after dawn with one eye looking out for hares and the other looking for butterflies. This pair were still too cold to react to my presence and I got several images of them both before the sun warmed them and they were off into the early sunshine.

AUGUST

This was a holiday snap from our fortnight in Southern Kefalonia. There were wildfires on the mainland and the locals told me that this was what gave rise to the most intense coloured dawn I can remember seeing. These rock formations at Limenia Beach were a perfect focal point.

SEPTEMBER

Things went a bit awry for me photographically in September and this was one of the few times I picked up a camera. On this morning I dragged my middle son out of bed telling him that watching red deer during the Rut is something not to be missed. He didnt look convinced but came along anyway.

I've been coming to Bradgate Park most Autumns to photograph the rut but the colour and atmosphere of the light on this morning, shining through a low mist, was breathtaking. To be able to share it with one of my sons was the icing on the cake. He said to me as we walked back to the car "if I'd stayed in bed I would have missed all of this". A blog from that special Autumn morning with many other images can be found here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/JY1PMPSYQyIVz/

OCTOBER

Autumn seemed to never come and then was over in a flash. I took a visit to Burnham Beeches in late October but there was still an awful lot of green on the trees. I was hoping for a nippy morning to get some mist to rise but it never really happened and this 'haze' through the trees was the best I got. By the time I had a chance to return the gales and rain had brought nearly all the leaves down. Next year maybe.....

NOVEMBER

This was another pure fluke of a shot and a reminder why you should always carry a camera. With cloud forecast I only grabbed my camera bag on a whim but my chosen dog walk location was beautifully foggy and I was able to capture this image.

DECEMBER

December was a poor month photographically and this is one of only 10 images I have and it's from the only time out with my camera. Again this was just a dog walk 5 minutes from home with my wife but I brought the camera along (just to remind my self what it looked like!)

Well that's it for another year. Thanks for all the clicks, comments, likes etc on my social media pages over the last 12 months. They mean a lot. Here's hoping to a successful year of images in 2020.