March
The word I would use for March is: frustrating. I wanted 30 images, but only got 10, which was mainly down to the weather. There was very little sunshine, and most days saw some rain; in some instances, quite heavy. I still have one activity from 2023 that keeps getting postponed due to the venue having issues with their car park becoming waterlogged due to the rain, and I didn’t help myself by scheduling an optician’s appointment on one of the rare weekend days when the weather was good enough to permit some photography.
I ended up with two railway-themed sessions, recording activity in Evesham. The first was the return of 46100 “Royal Scot” to the birthplace of its creator, which I didn’t know for certain was happening until the tour came through, and the second was a ballast train for the engineering work east of Evesham later in the month. I didn’t make a good job of the first (a combination of overcast conditions and overcompensation for skyline burnout), but didn’t too badly on the second.
I did consider upgrading my 18-250mm lens as a result of the issues with the “Royal Scot” session, but have decided to wait until my next camera body upgrade before purchasing any new lenses, as I may have to change the lens mount when I do this. I am currently planning to work through the 9xxxx series of images with the Sony A77, and then consider a body change once that is done, probably in around 3 or 4 years.
The issue of smaller prints remains unresolved. I may give the matter some more thought in April, but I don’t consider it a major priority at present.
Table Removal
This has now been completed, having taken 14 months to do so. Since I didn’t visit the National Trust
property relating to the final collection during March, I decided not to put
off the conversion any longer.
As of the end of March, the total number of photographs on
this site stands at 3,970 over 106 collections.
I’ve succeeded in reducing the site total to less than 4,000, but this
is unlikely to remain the case for long.
April
I am hoping that April proves to be more productive than
March. I’ve got a week’s holiday off
work during the month, and I plan to make at least one National Trust
visit. Although I am behind in my
production total for the year, I am not massively behind, and I would like to
think that providing the weather co-operates, I can get back on track during
April (I need 61 or more to do this, and I managed 100 in 2023).
I’ve also been somewhat organised with my holiday planning
this year as I’ve booked two holidays away from home. The first one is planned for North Wales in
the early summer and the second is for Dorset in September. The Welsh holiday is something I’ve been intending
to do for some time, and represents a start on my “To Do” list that I made at
the start of 2020.
My
mother has also informed me that she intends to join the NT as well, so this
could see me returning to local properties in the next few months that I have
visited recently in order so she can see them.Supported Causes
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