I'm cheap and never bothered with the whole premium membership malarkey, but today I thought I might as well make use of some of the features SUCH AS THIS ALGEBRAIC JOURNAL SKIN.  The little blue man pictured is none other than the Ice King from Adventure time.  It's not some silly anime series, don't worry I haven't gone to the dark side.

So it's January 2012, I'm back in Scotland at university, but classes don't start until Februrary 14th, isn't it wonderful?  Ireland was okay, I tried out surfing for the first time but I almost got hypothermia; perhaps December 30th isn't the best time to go into the sea only in a summer wetsuit.

I'm due to go winter mountaineering up north in a few weeks, but there is very little snow, as far as I can tell, which is a bit problematic as we have paid for winter instructors, ice-axes, crampons, helmets, winter boots and the rest.  I'll be bringing my camera for sure.  

I looked through all those deviation stats available on premium, and it really did highlight the extent of my inactivity as far as uploading deviations is concerned.  My most active period was 2009.  But I have plenty of pictures to upload, just need to edit them.  As time goes on, it takes me longer to edit a picture.   I kind of miss the days when I used Microsoft Word to edit the contrast, brightness and crop my pictures   I just don't think I have progressed enough with my photography recently.  I missed the days when I was back home and I would go out to explore the little nooks and crannies, bogs, woods and fields near my house.  I could come home with pictures I was pleased with.  But being in Scotland is different.  For every picture I take near Stirling, I know there is a more impressive scene 100 miles north.  In rural Northern Ireland, I was documenting a landscape that is overlooked in photography circles, and is mostly unseen by foreigners.  But the Scottish mountains have been painted and photographed so much and so well by so many different people over so many years, that my contribution is superfluous and pales in comparison.  And I don't feel the same attraction to the rural lowlands of Scotland as I do to my homeland.  But soldier on I must.  I've been on this website for over 5 years, and you can trace the entire development of my photographic vision from the first pictures of my gallery.

Happy new year!