Time for my annual collection, then.......

One or two 'firsts' this time:

I've deliberately omitted photos I've taken locally - that is, within a hundred miles of where I live - in favour of those I've taken further afield, when I've been travelling in our camper-van or, for the first time in a while, making a 'fly/drive' trip, in this case to Shetland. The decent weather this year also meant that I took more photographs than usual, so it was easy enough to leave out 'local' stuff - but it still proved very difficult to cram all I wanted into the 160 pages we have here. I just hope I've been able to make the right selections.

The other 'first' involves my processing software. For all the previous books in this series, I've relied on a judicious mix of iPhoto, Elements 8 and an ancient copy of Aperture, which came with my equally ancient computer Operating System - all of which I'd refused to upgrade for years, believing "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" Then it broke. I tried to upgrade the OS, failed, and brought the whole house down with it.

Eventually, I got it sorted and set off with a new OS, which supported none of the processing packages I used before. Obviously I had to get my head round 'Photos', which I don't much like, and up-to-date versions of Elements, Lightroom and some plug-ins, which - fortunately - I do. So, I'm still learning how to use these, which is why I'm not at all sure how the photos in this book will turn out. I'm looking forward to finding out.

Anyway, if you're looking, I hope you find something to enjoy here.