It seems like a good time to sit down and think about all the stuff going on this year. A little bit of it has already happened but there’s some big life stuff and trips coming up.
Moving House
We’re making the move over to Suffolk this year as long as everything goes to plan with the houses. We’re going to be living in a village that has a nature reserve and river within walking distance then we’ll have a whole lot of nature reserves within 20-30 minutes by car and some really amazing ones around an hour away. This is a really big change compared to where we live now and what we have access to. I’m hoping that it’ll mean a lot more photography and getting outside.
Trips
Due to a combination of bad luck (COVID pushing trips back) and stupidity (booking more trips), we’ve got a lot going on this year at a time when we should probably be saving for the house move! It’s exciting though. In May we’re both heading off up to Scotland for a long weekend and some varied hide photography. Immediately afterwards I should be jetting off to Hungary to go to Hortobágy National Park for yet more hide photography. Hopefully that’ll include some really exciting birds that we don’t get in the UK.
In August we’re travelling on a very long awaited safari in Botswana which has been towards the top of my bucket list for quite a while now. Finally at the end of the year we’re heading off to Costa Rica. I didn’t think we’d be able to go there for quite a while but some spots became available on a trip and we jumped on it. Not surprisingly.. we’ll be having a pretty cheap 2023!
Gear
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a Nikon Z9 and a 400mm f2.8 TC lens (has a built-in 1.4x teleconverter). This will be my main travel setup going forwards along with various other supporting lenses for when things gets a little wider. I need to spend more time with both camera and lens but so far I’ve been thrilled at the quality and features. Next month will be the first opportunity to take it to photography hides and I’m really excited to see how it goes.
Etsy Shop
I opened the Etsy shop at the start of the year and without much promotion I made a couple of sales, one of which included my first review.. thankfully a glowing 5 star review at that. I’ve since tried a little advertising (to no avail) and then posted a voucher on facebook that seems to have grabbed a few further sales. Hopefully other buyers will be more tempted if they see that I have a number of sales and positive reviews. I’m still very unconvinced that I’ll actually be able to make any money out of print sales but I’m going to contine to see if I can get anywhere with the rest of this year. Even if I don’t many it’ll be nice to think that my photos are up on some walls and people are enjoying them.