New Year Musings........ — Steve Chivers Photography

Well, Christmas has been and gone. I can tell from the extra inches on my waistline that we had a great time! Indeed, we had a wonderful Christmas down in good old Plymouth. Despite Plymouth Argyle being bottom of the Championship, Southampton being bottom of the Premier League and the weather doing its best to spoil the party, we Janners are a tough lot and let nothing get in the way of a good party.

As usual it was all about the food and Christmas lunch with Mrs. C’s parents and sister was stellar. A starter of Scottish smoked salmon with lobster pots, followed by a roast lunch of Pork loin with the crispiest of crackling and a stuffed Duck, with the normal 5 veg, all washed down with a crisp white Burgundy and some delightful Fleurie. To finish, some unctuous Sharpham Brie, the smelliest Epoisse I could find and of course, the mandatory Vacherin Mont D’Or, coupled with a few glasses of Tawny Port…What is that Mrs. C, you have my doctor on the phone!

New Year meant the arrival of the kids and their partners.

There is nothing better than having a visit from the young flesh and blood and have everyone that you love sitting around the dinner table at the same time. Admittedly, with our lot, it is like feeding a plague of locusts but keeping to the family motto, we enjoyed good food, good conversation and we were all very jolly and cracked open the Bollie (more than once)!

Maybe, like many families, the challenge on New Years Eve is to actually get to midnight before falling asleep! Well we made it with a rousing chorus of Auld Lang Syne and for me, a few quiet moments to reflect on what has been and what has yet to come.

Sometimes January can bring a creative drought. However, this year I was keen to start 2025 with a flourish and make some bold plans for the coming year. I managed to create some wonderful memories in 2024 with 17 photoblogs, reflecting how busy we were. I am keen to maintain the creative momentum in 2025.

No better way to kick-off the process than to visit somewhere new. So, in the spirit of Carpe Diem we piled in to Bucephalus and made the short drive on to Dartmoor to visit Brent Tor Church, located just outside of the market town of Tavistock.

The weather was very January, with super bright sunlight and a bracing chill in the air. Indeed there was snow on the northern slopes and frost on the south-facing slopes. The ground was crunchy under foot but there was no better weather to help blow away the cobwebs and ignite the creative fires.

We arrived at the small car park at the base of Brent Tor around 10.30 a.m. to find it surprisingly empty, That suited me as I really wanted to have the place to myself.

I had chosen to start the year in full Noctilux mode. Although not known for its prowess as a landscape lens I find the 50 Noctilux F0.95 to be one of those lens that oozes creativity. Wide open is where the magic happens, with that razor thin depth of field and wonderful bokeh and subject separation. Stop it down and you have a very sharp everyday lens.

Now regular followers know that I love my M cameras and their beautifully manufactured manual focused lenses. However, for the Noctilux, by far the best platform is to manually adapt it to the Leica SL2 (or SL3 if you have upgraded). I find it balances beautifully on the SL2 and with that 5.76 million dot EVF and built-in image stabilization the SL2 helps make the Noctilux truly sing.

Of course, I should have brought my tripod and 24-90 L mount lens to fully capture Brent Tor Church and the surrounding countryside in all its winter glory but I was feeling liberated and just wanted to walk around grabbing a few images without all the clutter of too much gear. Perhaps that ought to be one of my New Year resolutions!

Giving Brent Tor Church the “Full Noctilux”.

By the time we had climbed Brent Tor and reached the church and I had gathered the images I wanted, it was clear that the crowds were staring to arrive with a vengeance and upon making it back to the car we found the carpark was full. Memo to me, always make sure you get here before 10.00 a.m. as the light is better and there are fewer people.

The Young People at the top of Brent Tor.

We then had our picnic (of course we had pork product in both natural form and via the obligatory pork pie), before taking the short drive into Tavistock for a stroll around the Pannier Market followed by a warming coffee.

As we were sitting in the coffee shop next to the Pannier Market I managed to capture this image of our beautiful daughter Anna. I think this might be one for the living room wall. A very special year for Anna as she and her partner Matthew have just announced their engagement. I think Matthew’s mother summed up our collective happiness by saying”It simply makes your heart sing with joy”. I am already blubbing and I haven’t even started my wedding speech!

Someone recently asked me how I intended to improve my photography. Crumpets, I didn’t realize it was that bad and I really don’t like to analyze my photography too much; I leave that to others. I prefer to enjoy the process and try to capture the moment and hopefully the end results speak for themselves…….or perhaps not?

Once you enter the world of social media and are brave enough to share your art online, you soon toughen up to those whose mission in life is to be unconstructively negative, and instead engage fully with that wonderful group of inspiring like-minded people who enjoy seeing the world through my lens, albeit with all its flaws. As I always say, you can only fail if you are brave enough to have a go.

However, if further pressed, I would say that I seek to put myself in places and with people, so as to create and record the fondest of memories. Maybe not the technical answer you were expecting but in my humble opinion, once you have great gear and a reasonable understanding and command of the exposure triangle, it should really be about composition and creativity.

I also intend to have a moment of true photographic liberation and make much more use of my wonderful Leica MP film camera. I would like to be detached from cables, devoid of lithium batteries and simple load up with Ilford Delta 400 and let it all hang out (metaphorically speaking)….sounds like a plan to me!

I even have no plans for buying any new gear (As I write this I have my fingers crossed and can hear Mrs. C saying that she has heard that old chestnut before, accompanied by a sigh of relief from my bank manager!). However, I really am blessed with some wonderful gear and I have no excuses for not getting out there and getting on with it.

On that note Q1 is already planned. We are off to Spain to visit my Mum in January, followed by a real treat as we visit the wonderful Gidleigh Park as a belated Christmas present to ourselves. February involves a visit to Dubai for some work and to see old friends. We are also excited to have our dear friends Jon and Rachel visiting us in Plymouth for the first time and then in March, a truly creative extravaganza is planned in Andalucia Spain…..hold that thought!

Finally, I believe everyone has a book in them and I am determined that this should be my ultimate creative project for 2025, or at least to formally start the process. I want to create an E-Book but I seem to be letting the technical challenge get in the way of the creative process. I keep stumbling on deciding what is the best software or platform to use so that I can easily combine prose and imagery? I feel that it should be about the content, not the form and technology. Perhaps that’s just me procrastinating but if anyone has some helpful ideas or solutions please let me know in the comments section.

So, it would seem that a plan for 2025 is already coming together and I hope to see you soon in my next blog, ”Starting the New Year At Home “ as Mrs. C and I travel out to Spain and start the year with a visit to my dear old mum.

Ah yes, “The Bench of Contemplation”. I captured this image of Matthew on a bench next to Brent Tor Church.

Matthew on the “Bench of Contemplation”.

So enough of my ramblings and musings and let us all hope for good health, good light and a creative 2025.

With warmest regards from Plymouth U.K.