Just checking in with my review of the year

[Rufus]

2020 has been a very quiet year for me, photography-wise. My efforts have been directed towards:

(a) establishing a workflow for basic processing in Lightroom prior to editing in Photoshop, moving between the two applications and creating a masterfile.
(b) a better understanding of the print module in LR and obtaining more satisfactory printed output using my new printer.

Meanwhile I have been lurking in the forum's shadows keeping up to date with most of the posts, most of the time. Now is a good time to thank the band of regular contributors who keep the forum vibrant, inspirational and educational and facilitate the competitions.

So why have I taken so few photos this year? The reason is not Covid-19 as such, although that has meant less inclination to venture out. No, the main reason is that I spent time at the beginning of the year preparing to move home and downsize after 30 years. We put our house on the market in March, two weeks before our national lockdown , and moved in September. Since then I have made a start on getting quotes for various repair and refurbishment works which will probably take much of next year.

I am now esconced in a village near Cambridge UK where the landscape is renowned for its flatness and 180 degrees of sky. No more New Forest ponies and seascapes, so I shall have to adapt my photography to suit.

That being said, I do live on a hill...it is at least 250 feet above sea level

[escape]

Thank you, David, for posting your review. I would be interested in seeing photos of the village. Hopefully, you will be able to get out soon and take some photos.

[Manfred M]

David - changing houses after 30 years is going to be pretty traumatic and doing so during the COVID-19 shut down is going to make things even more challenging.

It looks like you will have plenty of new surroundings to explore. I'm getting to know the refurbishment work all too well. When COVID hit, our travel plans were put on hold and the travel budget was turned over to the home renovation budget. With no travel in the foreseeable future, that trend is continuing and the workers will be back in the house in about 2 months.

I'm hoping to get motivated to do some winter photography over the next few months, but do want some snow on the ground first. The white stuff is very late this year, but I'm sure it's coming, eventually.

[rpcrowe]

We are fortunate in not having our incomes diminished by COVID-19 based unemployment as have many families throughout the world... In fact our expenses have been drastically reduced since we don't travel - even locally. Our rescue operations and the resulting expenses have also been cut down drastically.

We have been spending our time and some of our money in upgrading our home. We have replaced the windows of our kitchen and dining nook with updated and more energy efficient types. We have anew neighbor whose son is building his resume as a handy-man. As a result, we are taking care of many small jobs that were nice to have but small.

We have installed a fountain/birdbath outside our kitchen window and are gratified to see robins and other birds make frequent use of it.

We are installing some LED lighting in our pool area...

Hopefully, I will be in line (80-years old with some underlying medical conditions) for the vaccine fairly shortly.

Until then, we are living carefully because of the upsurge in COVID-19 transmission here in California...