Snowmore
The thaw has really set in over today. When I got up this morning to free the chooks and ducks there was still a reasonable amount on the ground and it was slick with ice everywhere too. Plans for a walk were rapidly shelved as it just wasn’t worth the risk of trying to get out and about. Come bedtime for the feathered family though and the snow was more or less gone with just a couple of lethal sections left on the drive - with overnight temperatures forecast to be above 0 and ongoing rain I am hoping that when the working week kicks off mobility will be much less frought with danger!
Next week is looking pretty reasonable at the moment. I have three jobs so far booked in, which is kinda okay if nothing else appears. I would like a couple more… but with only one last week and that the first of the year I can accept a slow week 2, and hopefully we will see the instructions build over the coming weeks. And building they need to do - I have a few things that need replacing or purchasing between now and June, and potentially some thereafter too. I tend to work kit until it really needs to be changed, so up this year are my iPad (which has been on the go since I started in commerical photography in 2021) and I am thinking of switching to a 2 in 1 Windows type device to give me more versatility and access to all the software I use for editing whilst out any about. Then, before summer, I want a real travel orientated camera… but one that is in the “professional quality” catagory - which is a term I hate because anything that I use to make saleable images is, by nature “professional”. In this instance, though, I mean something I can take proper landscape and travel photographs on that are of gallery quality. This is either going to be a Fujifilm X100 VI which is about minimum standard, or… if I can afford it… a Fujfilm GFX100RF, which would make a brilliant digital companion to my film cameras.
Later in the year, possibly early 2027, my thoughts are then to upgrade my landscape camera (currently a Nikon Z7II) with a Fujifilm GFX100 SII based system, the Z7II will then trickle down to being my commercial camera and the Z6II which I have used and abused heavily the last 3 years (bought second hand) can be used by anyone else in the family that shows any interest. It’s probably not really worth selling after that much work! I may move fully onto GFX in 27-28, we shall see… there are increasingly interesting lens choices coming which look like they are going to make it a very interesting system for both my property/architecural work and landscape/travel - the inner geek is quite excited!
I also need to change the car to something more long legged so that I don’t have to fear the winter quite so much, my range drops in the Toyota from 220 miles to 160 miles and that is just a bit too tight! Current thoughts are with the Volvo and Polestar families (used… someone else can take the depreciation hit!) - what I am really interested in, however, are the upcoming sodium based solid state batteries that seem to show incredible cold weather resistance whilst having staggering energy densities. They are starting to appear here and there in test beds so perhaps in another 2 or 3 years we will see them on the market.
Lots of thoughts and plans today - it’s January though… this is the month of planning for the future!
11th January 2026
