While technically my photography hasn’t spanned 10 years, I thought I would take some time to highlight some of the photos that I consider the finest photos I have taken this decade.

This post contains photos of People.

Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC, USA – Shutter: 1/400 @ 300mm f/7.1 ISO 400

A photo of two girls standing on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial looking out across the deep blue river taken in September 2006.

Torbay Carnival, Devon, UK – Shutter: 1/400 @ 70mm f/4.0 ISO 1600

A member of the band Starskey performing at the Torbay Carnival in July 2007.

Party Near the Park, London, UK – Shutter: 1/20 @ 100mm f/2.8 ISO 400

Another photographer at the Party Neaar The Park getting his shot in June 2008.

Torbay Carnival, Devon, UK – Shutter: 1/100 @ 96mm f/4.0 ISO 1600

A member of the band Starskey performing at the Torbay Carnival in July 2007.

While technically my photography hasn’t spanned 10 years, I thought I would take some time to highlight some of the photos that I consider the finest photos I have taken this decade.

This post contains photos of The Natural World.

Paignton Zoo, Devon, UK – Shutter: 1/200 @ 300mm f/5.6 ISO 100

A Prairie Dog cautiously watches over the enclosure from a raised mound at Paignton Zoo in April 2007.

Paignton Zoo, Devon, UK – Shutter: 1/125 @ 209mm f/5 ISO 200

The sunlight shining through a leaf hanging over the walkway at Paignton Zoo in April 2007.

Cockington, Devon, UK – Shutter: 1/500 @ 300mm f/5.6 ISO 100

As the sun set over Cockington Village I snapped this shot in between the tall grass near a little stream, taken in May 2007.

Eden Project, Cornwall, UK – Shutter: 1/20 @ 100mm f/4.5 ISO 100

Water Droplets sitting on a flower at the Eden Project in March 2009.

UNCC, Charlotte, USA – Shutter: 1/250 @ 300mm f/5.6 ISO 400

Water Droplets sitting on a giant leaf in between the trees on the UNC Charlotte Campus in September 2006.

2007….another year, another story…another chance to look back.

It’s hard to believe that another year has gone by, another 365 days have passed – each day bringing its own unique set of challenges. It has been one of those years where a lot has happened, yet nothing has happened at the same time – coming off the high of America it was difficult to accept that it was over – and still is.

Although I would like to point out the bad I won’t, because although the year wasn’t spent across the Atlantic it was still a better year than some – just not as good as the previous.

There are a few things that started in 2007 that will continue into 2008…the Kingston University Student Ambassador role being one of them, there are a few of them scheduled so far this year and I hope more will be in the ramp up to September. More photography sessions are being planned at different locations – probably some more air shows too.

The work placement is going ok as well, by mid this year i will have completed 12 months in the big ‘ol world, just one gruelling year to go until graduation.

Overall 2008 shouldn’t be that bad, it’s just a wait and see game.

In life we use phrases to summarise our feelings and emotions, a lot of the time we all know what they are supposed to mean but until you find yourself in a situation to use them you don’t really have a clue what they really mean.

Time flies when you’re having fun – this is something that I’ve heard people say and understood the sentiment, but until this year I’ve never really had anything that earned the use of it.

If anyone had asked me a year and a half ago the question ‘Did I think I would have lived in America for 4 months’ I would have told them the only answer that would come to mind – No.

A lot has happened since the start of this year – most of it flashing past before I’ve had time to realise.

The beginning of the year saw the end of the first year at Kingston, to think that months had past from the time I first moved in, moving back to Torquay for the summer and leaving Kingston behind was strange enough, it doesn’t seem much of a problem in most people’s eyes but moving around so much, from uni to home from home to America back to home and now back to uni again takes its toll on you.

Summer came and went, in between was a hail storm, application processes for Kingston Study Abroad and UNC Charlotte Enrolment, Visa Application and anything else you can throw in for good measure.

August 15th came and I found myself 30,000 feet above ground cruising across the ocean in a US Airways 757 literally flying into the unknown. After a few days things settled down from mayhem to just madness and that’s where it pretty much stayed until the end.

Every day that came in between was an experience that I will never forget, the people, the place everything – My only wish is that I could still be there…

The future looks uncertain, next on the endless list of things to do is to find a flat, I can only imagine what a mess that is going to be…

Looking back 2006 was probably the best year of all so far, I just hope the trend continues.

To all that I know, Happy New Year and I wish you all the greatest success for 2007…whatever it brings.

If you read the archives you will see a completely different landscape, there are posts dating back to the dawn of time, some good some bad, updates were pretty regular and some of them were heartfelt.

The further you get towards the present you will see less updates and less of the ‘good ‘ol’ posts that I was once famous for. It has been noticed several times and constant reminders have been given but the fact is life got in the way, I’m not saying there wasn’t time – I’m just saying that I used the time in different ways.

The ramp up to coming over here to North Carolina was pretty stressful add to that the impending terror threat it was hard to find the time to sit down, clear my mind and write a good post.

Since coming over here I’ve posted a few, but nothing compared to the past, like I said, life got in the way.

I’ve written a few posts on saying goodbye’s and leaving, and I guess you can call this another one, In less than an hour I’ll be leaving my apartment here in Charlotte and jetting back home into the sunset.

Of course in reality there is no such this as ‘jetting off into the sunset’ we all know the metaphor, and using it within the context of going back to England isn’t really the right use.

The time I’ve spent over here has truly been a wonderful experience and I wish it never had to end, the fact is if it weren’t for things outside my control I would stay as long as I possibly could, the time has gone so quickly, I guess time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.

For all the people I’ve met over the past 4 months, to all the people that brightened up my day and to all the people that cared I wish you all goodbye, I wish you all the best in the future and I hope that someday we will meet again.

Farewell

So this brings us to the end of another year, as the clocks tick and the calendar in the sky turns over into 2006 the question on everyone’s mind is: What’s it going to be like next year?

To be perfectly honest, no one can know what 2006 will hold, no 1 person knows, and personally that’s the way I prefer it. I thought I would never say this, but there’s something exciting about looking down an unlit tunnel knowing that at some point there are good things that are going to happen during the 365 day walk to the end.

“The unknown frightens us, we all like to feel in control even though most of the time our power over most things is just an illusion, but I find the more we know about something the more we can convince ourselves we are in control of it”

The unknown is frightening, because it is the unknown, anything can happen, but at the same time it’s exciting, precisely for the reason that anything can happen, in the same way good things happened in 2005, good things will also happen in 2006, but at this moment in time, nobody knows what or when they will be.

There are many things that I regret from 2005, but over the last months I’ve realised one thing: It’s happened, it can’t be changed, so why worry, sure, be unhappy, but then move on, nothing ever happens to the person that is stuck in the past.

Most of the things that happened in 2005 are responsible for where and who I am today, they have transitioned from regret to lessons learned, confined to the area in my mind labelled: Things NOT to do in the future. But that’s ok, I’ve learned and moved on.

Despite everything that has happened the ups and the downs 2005 wasn’t a bad year, even though most of it was filled with worry, decision making wasn’t all that bad, and it wasn’t as if that much was riding on it, just the future of the rest of my life, no biggy. But it was fun, the random things that happened, the tourist attraction crawl towards the end and the events that I was part of all added up to the 2 best years so far, and I don’t think they’ll be easy to improve upon.

For the past few weeks the news channels have been playing clips of stories and interviews from the past year, looking back and reviewing things now that the initial excitement has died down. I can’t help wondering when these types of things are on what one about my year would be like. I can just imagine a clip of the news reader reading one of the many headline stories

“We are getting reports of increased stress levels in the Torbay area of the southwest, independent sources have confirmed that the situation is reaching a near critical level and are warning members of the public to stay in their homes until the situation has subsided”

Then it would fade into a clip of an interview with some random innocent bystander with a sparkly key to a ‘tracker and a piece of antique straw in his mouth.

“Well, I was just standing here, minding me own, and suddenly I saw him walking past all normal like, so I thought nothing of it, just carried on milking me cows and shaving me sheep, and suddenly I heard this great big explosion over the crest of that hill o’ver there, at first I thought it was just the tracker that little Jimmy was on backfiring, but then I thought to meself, hang on a second Mr brain, that don’t sound like no tracker to me, it sounds like one of those new jetty aircraft things that they are playing with these days, so I put down me sheep and looked around”

This is the part when the interviewer, not caring one bit about what this obviously unintelligent person was saying – says in a very sarcastic and uninterested tone of voice trying to fake enthusiasm that he didn’t feel “Go on, what happened next” leading the farmer to say:

“Well that’s when it goes all cloudy you see, I don’t remember much but from what that lovely ambulance woman said he just exploded with stress. The first thing I thought was how much it sounded like those jetty things, and then I remembered that I’d left me kettle on”.

Obviously the story would then be cross checked with other sources that were as equally credible, and then a conclusion would be made from there.

But I often do wonder what such a program would really be like, probably quite funny now that I can see the mistakes that I’ve made.

Reading through past posts is always interesting, perhaps because I can see exactly where I went wrong and still remember what I was thinking when I made them. The posts about the impending university move and also the saga that went with it brought all of the memories back, remembering all of the doubts and also thinking about how stupid some of the assumptions were, I guess it proves that making assumptions about the unknown can and almost always does bring with it a certain amount of avoidable apprehension, my theory was simple, expect the worst.

More recently the posts have had a happier aura about them, could this mean that I’m actually enjoying myself?

So my final word of 2005: Learn from the mistakes you made, if you don’t, then everything that happened has been wasted.