It was almost a year ago when I launched my first set of Lightroom presets. I had ported my popular "Film Candy" set from Aperture. Since then I've ported most of the rest of the sets that I had previously released for Aperture to Lightroom and they have been really well received. However, I've also been working on some new presets, which aren't versions of previous Aperture looks. In fact, ever since I released Film Candy nearly a year ago, I've been working on Film Candy 2

It's that time of the year again, when the excitement of the new year is still fresh and I decide to make lots of resolutions for myself that I invariably won't actually keep. Ok, I'm kidding.... well, sort of. I did actually keep some of my resolutions last year, but this time, instead of resolutions as such, I'm setting myself some photography related goals to achieve throughout the year. Most of these are just ideas, that I've jotted down. Even if they never actually happen, it can be helpful to think out loud like this, even if it's just to give yourself some direction. 

Because of the wonderful new EU Vat laws (yes, I'm being sarcastic) I've had to change the way the download store works. Basically the EU has decided to change the way VAT is charged for electronic download sales between EU countries. Up till now, when selling to another EU country you would charge vat based on the address of the seller, in my case Ireland. However, starting on the 1st of January, you now have to charge VAT based on the address of the buyer rather than the seller. 

After a very mild winter so far here in Dublin, we had the first severe frost of the year yesterday. I awoke to a beautiful covering of white across the ground. The fields surrounding where I live were glistening with their white crystal coverings, and the rooftops were as white as if it had snowed. I had been planning to head out to do some photography anyway, so the winter scene was a bonus.

I just wanted to wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas from her in Dublin. (And happy holidays for those who don't celebrate Christmas). Thank you all for your support and for all the kind comments and encouragement that I've received over the past year. To keep in the festive spirit, here's a few photos of the decorations around Dublin

I spent a few days in London a few weeks ago, and I spent most of the time in the lovely Russell Square area. I did't get much time for photography, but I did get to take some shots around the square with my Trusty Fuji X-E1. The weather was pretty miserable and gloomy, but that just made for some more moody images. These were processed with Lightroom using my Monolith for Lightroom Presets

If you live in or work near our capital here in Ireland, you've probably seen this already, but there's a pretty great Christmas Market in Dublin City at the moment. The market runs along the north side of Stephen's Green, and, I have to say, is very impressive. The stands run practically the full length of the green and consist of everything from food, and sweets to hand made gifts and other trinkets. 

There was an unusually foggy day here in Dublin about two weeks ago. Not just a little foggy, but pea soup kind of fog. I had been heading into the city anyway, so I brought my trusty little Fuji with me to get some pictures of the murk. 

I was coming back from a week in London on Saturday, and our flight was approaching Dublin at sunset. The view out the window of the plane was amazing with the sun just sitting above the clouds. As we began our descent it looked even more impressive, so I grabbed my iPhone and fired up the hyper lapse app, and recorded our descent through the clouds, and then down until we landed. 

I love how the light changes throughout the seasons. Every season has it's own quality of light, and it makes images taken during that time unique. It also depends on where you are in the world, as different latitudes, and even different places on the same latitude can have differing characteristics to the light. Here in Ireland, because we're fairly far north, our seasons vary dramatically throughout the year. While not as much as countries like Norway, we do get significantly different light in winter than we do in summer. 

I've had a busy month, and I haven't been able to get out shooting for one reason or another. I've been doing some animation work this last few weeks, and so I've been stuck in-front of my computer for much of the time. The few days I've had off, the weather hasn't been great. It's funny, but every time I'm away from shooting for any length of time (even more than a few days) I start to get antsy. Some would probably call this an addiction, but I prefer to think of it as knowing what your true calling is. When you can feel it in your bones, you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. 

I've been a bit remiss with posting here lately and I have a few ongoing subjects that I know I've promised which have been getting delayed. I'm still working on a detailed report on Capture One Pro 8 for Fuji users, but I've been swamped with work so it's taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. I am writing a first impressions report thought, and I'll have that up shortly. I'm going to be doing a lot of design and animation work for the next few months, so the blog might be a bit quieter than usual for a while, but I'll do my best to keep the updates coming. In the mean time, I do have some random bits and pieces of news to report, so in no particular order...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece about what the then rumoured 5K iMac would mean that for photographers, and how you would now be pixel peeping on such a display even just looking at images. It was sort of a tongue in cheek piece, but now that the Retina iMac is real, I thought it would be important to have another look at the implications of a 5k display for photographers. If you're considering one of these new iMacs (I know I am !) then there are a few things you may want to ponder first!

Lately I've been writing a lot about using Photo Ninja in conjunction with Lightroom for processing files from Fuji's X-Trans sensors. I've been promising to write about the workflow for using Photo Ninja with Lightroom for some time, so here it is, finally! 

A while ago I posted the list of photography blogs that I keep in a folder of bookmarks in my browser's favourites bar, and I check them every day. Since I posted that some have stopped updating, while I've also discovered some new sources of inspiration.