And I had my new camera; it was a beast in many senses. My Canon EOS 10D had survived 2 ½ years before I ‘needed’ to upgrade. In the interim, I had started to build a decent collection of lenses, so my kit bag was expanding. I should say kit bags, but that is another story.

The camera I purchased was a favourite of the sports photographer, thanks to its impressive frame rate (8.5fps), its increased megapixel count of 8.2mp and its bullet-proof construction (I’m paraphrasing the review sites of the time; I’m not entirely sure they are actually bullet-proof, nor am I willing to test that fact.) The camera, teamed with my 100-400mm Canon ‘L’ series lens, captured some stunning shots. Granted, I had learnt some of the required techniques, (They should be, or will be, in my ‘How-to’ section.) Armed with my new toy, I headed to my local motor-racing circuit, Brands Hatch.

As I refer to in this post, and the others in this series, I talk about my ‘library of images’. I don’t have an exact figure, but there are in the region of 65,000 Images sitting by my toes! That’s where I store my NAS, Network Attached Storage, boxes – told you I am a geek. There is also another post in my ‘How-to’ section on storage & backup, because I would be distraught if I lost everything – it’s 16 years’ worth of images as of 2016! To manage all those images, I utilise Adobe Lightroom, guess what; yep, there’s a post in my ‘How-to’ section on the workflow too. Anyway, I digress; back to 2006

2006 was a dark year for me; it was the year I lost my father to cancer. He fought bravely for two years, but the initial diagnosis was that it was terminal, so the outcome was inevitable. So a sunny day in June turned very dark. Still, life goes on, and so it did.

My photography had dipped in the previous months; travel had been limited, and days out were restricted. After my father's death, the camera started getting more mileage. Janis had a month-long assignment to Copenhagen, and I took the chance to visit. We also booked another holiday of a lifetime, the west coast of the USA, taking in Pacific Highway One in what turned out to be a mammoth escapade.

The trip to the west coast taught me an essential lesson in camera management, the horror word for those of us with interchangeable lenses; DUST. Yes, the photos from that break have a very nasty sprinkling of dust contamination on the sensor, and it was my own fault.

Still, 2007 was going to be better.