One great aspect of home printing on a proper photo printer is experimenting with different papers, some of which won’t be available through commercial printers. For instance I also use Hahnemuhle Natural Line papers and I have a great flower print on H’s rice paper which looks like an oriental watercolour. Canson do some great papers too.

I recently received a box of Hahnemuehle smooth white matte fine art print paper and found it impossible to tell which was the coated face. I know they are normally packed with the coated face upwards but it didn't look right and as a result I printed on the back face instead. I e-mailed a suggestion to Hahnemuehle that it would help greatly if they printed something like a logo on the back to make it much easier, and I also said that it was all very well for a photographer to sell a photo as printed on fine art museum quality paper but it would be great if this was verifiable for both the photographer's and the purchaser's benefit. To my surprise the board of directors is taking it seriously, and as a bonus they are sending me some sample sheets which are labelled. So, hat's off to Hahnemuehle for actually listening!

That was my first thought, but if the camera body is similarly sealed then I don’t see how that would work.

Except that it is supposed to be dust and weather resistant. Having said that I normally wipe the extended lens barrel if I have been photographing waves or in the rain, with a microfibre cloth I keep in the bag.

Do you think they would be interested in an old jar of pesto sauce from the back of the fridge?

How do you know you aren’t counting the same birds more than once?

This winter I have seen sod-all in the garden apart from a few sparrows, a couple of magpies, a robin, blackbird and pigeons. And a heron after my fish. Hardly worth the bother of a survey.

I see what Gareth is getting at but further away the runners would be much less significant whereas as you have caught it they form the focus of the picture - visualise it without them and you see what I mean.

These are all very original and beautiful, a great set.

Inspired by thingsihaveseen I am working on a photo book for self publication. For the last three years I have been photographing people and events at the local allotments which they use for publicity in their fight against the sale of their site for development - by the Church of England no less. Spurred on by the news that the planners, against the wishes of the parish council, have accepted in principle the site for new housing, my first idea was to have an exhibition of the best pictures but that cannot happen now. A new study by the University of Sheffield has shown since the pandemic that allotments benefit mental and physical health for young and old through working outside and by social interaction, which is what I am aiming to illustrate.

So, the idea of a photo book instead came to mind which, if and when a planning application is made, would be sent to each member of the planning committee and if all else fails it would be a record of what had been lost. An acquaintance has made lots of books using her photos on various themes using Blurb so with their software I am working my way through, which is a great way to fill cold wet days! The great thing with these self publication sites is you can print as few or as many as you like, and with Blurb this can be done on nice quality photo print paper.