December
At the time of writing, the total for December was 21 photographs, for a target of 25, with one session still to be processed. I am reasonably confident that the target will be met by this session, which also means that the quota for Q4 will also be met.
I did make it to the Severn Valley Railway’s diesel day on the 29th and also managed a couple of images at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway on the 27th. The other sessions were of Christmas lights in Evesham; I had planned to go further afield for some more, but for various reasons didn’t manage to do so.
Finally, the “Battle of Evesham 2018” collection has been removed from the site as the expected third party interest has not materialised.
2025 Review
The major change for 2025 was the purchase of a Sony A7III, with a view to eventually phasing out the A77. I’d initially intended to do this in 2026, but having been forced to bring forward my planned car replacement due to a terminal gearbox issue on my old car, I decided I may as well do the camera as well, as I’d had a lot of issues with low light on a quite a few railway sessions in 2024. The A7III would debut during my June holiday, and immediately start showing it was much better in low light than the A77 was; I don’t think the latter would have done as good a job at the Fleet Air Arm Museum as the former did.
The main downside with the change was having to move from A-mount lenses to FE-mount ones. At present I only have a mid-range FE mount zoom lens for the A7III, so the A77 is likely to still see some use in the near future, especially for long-range work. I did consider buying a lens adaptor but came to realise that this would result in limitations in resolution, so I abandoned the idea in favour of using FE-mount lenses instead.
From a production point of view, this was the best year since 2017, with the target of 650 being exceeded somewhat (currently 721, with the final figure awaiting the previously mentioned session to be processed), helped somewhat by a very dry spring and summer. I am very happy with this output, although I am conscious of the fact that just over a 100 of this total came from the Battle of Evesham event; evidently, I need at least one local, non-railway event to be sure of securing my targets in the future.
Sales-wise, from a quantity perspective, 2025 saw the most sales made in one year, with Redbubble getting the most transactions. From a revenue perspective, it was the best year since 2021, but I am still a long way off making enough money to cover hosting expenses.
From an activity point of view, the year went much as planned. I managed two holidays away from home, with the June holiday being very productive, and featuring the first time I’d ever visited Devon. The September holiday in North Wales was not quite as productive, but I still managed to meet the month’s target during the time away.
7 Railways were visited, with (not surprisingly) the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway getting 6 sessions (with 1 further session booked, but not taken up), and the Severn Valley Railway getting 4. I finally returned to the West Somerset Railway in June, 24 years after my last visit, and then came back in October for their gala; a total of 5 sessions in all for that railway. June also saw my first ever visit to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. The Dean Forest Railway got 2 sessions, and the Ffestiniog Railway and the Valley Railway Adventure got 1 each. The Perrygrove Railway wasn’t visited as there was no steam gala as such in 2025.
The number of National Trust visits ended up at 12, equalling my record of 2011, but unlike that year, all the 2025 visits required a membership card scan for either access or parking. One session didn’t see any photography as I was unaware that the property in question now permitted internal photography; I plan to revisit in 2026 to take advantage of this.
Of the 12 visits, 5 were first-time ones (for a target of 2), 3 were second-time visits, and the rest were mostly me taking my mother on her first visit to properties I’ve visited lots of times. I have more than recouped my membership fee for 2025 with this total; in fact, I’ve almost recouped my 2026 membership fee, before I’ve event started.
Unfortunately, my attempts to do either Cropthorne or Fladbury Walkabouts in 2025 met with failure. This was mainly due to the weather, but my car issues coincided with the former, and I suspect that if I had tried to do it, I would ended have to abandon the attempt.
Overall, I am extremely happy with the way 2025 has gone.
2026
Firstly, I’m leaving the overall production target for 2026
at 650 images, as I consider this a reasonable amount within the resources I
currently have. However, rather than
work to monthly targets, which tend to be a bit hit-and-miss at times, this
year I have decided to work to quarterly targets instead, with the added
element that production excesses/shortfalls will be factored into the next
quarter’s target (when I applied this method to the 2025 production figures, I
met the adjusted targets for all four quarters). The target for the first quarter is 65
images; this is a slight increase on previous years as I feel that I can
perhaps do more work in the first quarter than I can in the last, which will
get its base target reduced accordingly for 2026.
I hope to be able to take at least one holiday this year,
and as it’s the 20th anniversary of my first trip to Dorset, I plan
to go back to Swanage at some point (strictly speaking, it should perhaps be
Bournemouth, but I’ve always found Swanage to be a preferable base of
operations for my tastes in activities, and Bournemouth would probably require
more use of the car); this is likely to be either June/early July or September.
The destination for a second holiday (possibly with my mother) is still being
considered, and I am not ruling out the possibility of returning to the West
Somerset Railway for their autumn gala if finances and available work leave
permit; this will be decided later in the year.
I would like to obtain the same level of railway visits in
2026 that I managed in 2025, if not improve on them. I would be very surprised if I failed to
attend the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s steam gala, but I would like
to make a visit to the Dean Forest Railway at some point in the first half of
the year (with the line planning a spring steam gala, this seems very likely).
My
National Trust targets will be kept the same: 8 visits in total with at least
two first-time visits, and if possible, properties wanting a second or third
visit to be targeted. With a lot of
visits now being done with my mother, I would expect this target to be met (if
not exceeded) with relative ease.Supported Causes
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