Flickr is running their annual best shot of the year competition. So many many good photographs have already been submitted. Browsing the group reminds me I still have much to learn.

This is my submission.

The combination of the iPhone wide angle lens and the light from under the stairwell caught my eye. I continue to be thoroughly impressed with how well the iPhone handles indoor night shots.

I don't shoot as many photos as I used to. I still kinda sorta maintain a Flickr upload rate of once a day, but some days nothing. I mean for one, 2020 hasn't exactly provided an abundance of travel opportunity, and secondly my photography muse took a holiday. Something akin to photographer's writer's block I suppose.

A couple things happened recently that I hope will ignite the flame once again.

Firstly my old trusty DSLR workhouse of yore the Canon T2i started to literally fall apart at a shutter count of 28,947. Not necessarily the fault of the camera of course. Over the many years of ownership, she's survived being dropped, lost, found, dropped again, scraped, and dropped. The old girl deserves a happy retirement.

Secondly, I'm now the proud owner of a Canon 7D MkII. The best camera I've ever owned in my life. I already feel the enthusiasm to take her everywhere and shoot everything. I think this might be the start of something. Time will tell.

Always a nice surprise to find your shot featured in Flickr's Explore.

Nice little Flickr Explore surprise for this shot. Explore is pretty good these days and I'm liking their improvements.

York, 2019. Nice surprise for this to feature in Flickr's Explore today.

Flickr have opened up the your best shot of 2019 group for submissions. It's fun to go back through the year's uploads to pick just one in particular. It came down to two of them, both black & white shots (shocker).

This one of our cat Mary Poppins was in the running.

Don't Look At Me It Hurts

But I ended up going with this one because I'm a sucker for (a) black & white (b) vanishing points.

Hesitation Marks

Flickr still exists! You'll find me uploading photos at least a couple times a day. The place seems just as vibrant and engaging as it ever did.

Flickr groups is where the site still shines. Here are a few of my daily must visits. Clearly I still have much to learn, these folks are amazing.

• Catchy Colors. As the name implies, these are the photos that pop with color. Saturation heavy and quite wonderful.

• Vanishing Points. Think Piers reaching out to sea, straight roads in the desert stretching for miles. I could look at these all day.

• Sunset Light. Truly the best time of the day.

• The Skies Above. Sunsets, and sky, and clouds. Oh my.

• Less Is More. Minimalism at its finest.

• Black And White. Because I've never met a black and white photo I didn't like.

A fine pairing with that bottle of Pinot Noir on a Saturday afternoon.

Nice surprise to find this shot made Flickr Explore yesterday.

Nice little morning surprise. This was chosen for Flickr's Explore.

Nice surprise while sipping my coffee this morning. This shot being my 20th featured on Flickr Explore.