I haven’t written up my annual photo project for a while, but it has continued – with 2023 marking my 13th year completed.

For some reason, this year saw a record number (11) of my photos featuring in Explore. This is flickr’s daily gallery showing 500 photos – and being there always adds a couple of thousand to your views. There is a bit of a mystery around how photos are selected – I think it may be a combination of algorithm and perhaps human intervention, you certainly see trends some days, with a lot of butterflies, or classic cars, or portraits, as though someone stumbled on a group. I always get a buzz to see one of my photos appearing though – and usually then scroll through all the others selected that day.

My “league table” this year is:

Tintern Abbey – on a wonderfully clear winter’s day

So, what kind of photos do I choose? Nature is definitely the most common subject. My top theme though was flowers, with 52 photos of them, including 10 orchids. Garden visitors can be relied on – but how many foxes? They featured 8 times (and one was even explored – see above – although not the one I’d have chosen!). Birds was another of the biggest categories, featuring 49 times, including 4 beautiful owls. Butterflies and other insects were close behind with 36. And 14 photos of fungi.

In other categories, I chose 4 ‘book related’ photos, and 7 libraries (down on previous totals). 26 feature buildings, and 10 modes of transport, although I only saw one steam train – must do better next year!

Most photos are taken close to home (137 in our house or garden), but this year was also a good one for travelling. Whether our colourful holiday in Antigua, visiting friends in Germany, and a lovely break in Norfolk, or a return to travelling for work – great memories from Cape Town and Accra, and a brief return to Scotland. I also spent lots of time exploring Kent – mostly woods or places along the coast, but a few towns, parks and castles too. I even spent an afternoon in a cemetery in my hunt for fungi!

Some may be repetitions of subjects – I long ago had to accept that not publishing another fox or robin would severely limit my options some days! But it can also be good to look back through albums and track the changing seasons – for example when first orchids flowered, or egyptian goslings seen in St James’ Park.

I still don’t take many photos of people – just 22 feature people in some way – but a few stand out: finally meeting one of my favourite authors: Grant Nix – although in a bookshop, not a library; and I love the energy of these singers in Cape Town. Other singers captured were Mel C at Chalfest, and one of my all time favourites: Midge Ure, at a memorable concert in the Royal Albert Hall.

Members of the IThemba youth choir, singing in the open air in Cape Town

Some photos mark regular events – the gorgeous Kew orchid festival, RIAT airshow (reminding me that this year was a total washout!) or our now traditional day out looking at London christmas lights and windows.

This year I have again enjoyed taking part in a couple of challenges. These can be good for inspiration when flagging – and some take me out of my comfort zone. Smile on Saturday is great for seeing how others interpret the theme, and yes, it usually does raise a smile! And 123 in 2023 was a wonderful list – I’m already looking forward to 124. I think the photos I’m most proud of were those that were inspired by the challenge: “slow shutter speed” – which, following a lesson and renewing my familiarity with my DSLR, resulted in this ghostly carousel for the photo diary, taken at the Rochester Christmas market (another photo from that session went into the 123 album).

Ghostly carousel

Statistics

And finally, a look at the numbers: the average number of views, thanks to all those in Explore, was 335. Most tend to be somewhere between 100-200.

Some that didn’t get high views, and that I liked include this delicate green veined orchid, this gorgeous butterfly, and the lightshow at the Wasserturm fountains in Mannheim. You can never really tell which are going to capture peoples attention.

The average number of comments per photo was 3 (many resulting from the groups they are in – the photo a day crowd do love seeing what others around the world are choosing – and so do I), and average number of “favourites” was 9.

Most viewed was my Explored photo of Tintern Abbey (see above) which now stands at no 21 in my all time list of most viewed photos, and the total number of views of photos in the 2023 photo a day set (as of today – 31 December) was 121,937.

And will I stop? I couldn’t, always having my camera with me and taking photos has become part of my daily habit. The albums provide a nice reminder, especially during grey days, of the variety of things I get up to, and more than once have surprised me that something either happened much more recently, or much longer ago than I thought. Although after reading about a man in Cambridge – who has decided to stop his project after 13 years, I can understand why – he has taken every single photo in Cambridge – so it is about time he allowed himself a bit of time in other places!