Happy New Year!!

I hope all my readers had a great Christmas, and that you are all set for 2026.  I’ve already done my first two club talks.  I’m looking forward to the next one, which is next week.

A few days ago we went to the Worcester Christmas Tree Festival in the cloisters at the Cathedral.  It’s a fab display over over 100 trees that have different themes.  Some are from schools, some from companies, and some from charities.

I took my OM-1 and my 9-18mm lens.  Here I’ve set the shutter speed to a few seconds and walked quickly down the cloister.  I love the light streaks from the closest trees. If you do this sort of image you need to make sure that you have a clear route to walk into!

Once again there was a really cool “tree” from National Grid – those folks who shift electricity around the country.  It was called the “National Gridsmas Tree”.  It was in the shape of an electricity pylon, and had little workmen and a helicopter.  This is a straight image taken with my mobile phone. I liked the shape of the lights, so thought I would try a “Zoom Burst” image.

This is that Zoom Burst image!  The Zoom Burst technique involves holding the zoom ring of the lens stationary and then rotating the camera behind it during the exposure.  This has the effect of simultaneously rotating the sensor relative to the subject, and of changing the lens focal length.  The image has the lights doing a sort of spiral toward the centre.  It’s very hard to get consistency with this technique, but that adds to the fun.

I hope your 2026 photography is also a lot of fun.