I wish you all a Happy New Year a few hours in advance.

My birthday is on New Year's Day and for the second year in a row I have had to cancel my birthday celebration at the Hungry Mexican Restaurant on Aston Quay.

Today 31 December I posted my 200,000 photograph on Flickr however I have published about one million photographs, in total, and many have appeared in books, book covers, magazines and elsewhere. Recently. Google informed me that one of my photographs has been viewed 160,000,000 times which would have been impressive if I had been paid.

When I started the “Streets Of Ireland” project back in 2005 my aim was to publish 100,000 photographs by the end of 2015 but with no real expectation that I would ever achieve such a target. When I published photograph number 100,000 in November 2914 I was a bit surprised but more than a little bit pleased.

I published my first digital photograph via Flickr in January 2006 the camera used was a Canon IXUS i. At that stage I had been using the IXUS for about three years. I cannot remember why I used the Canon for my first Flickr photograph as my day-to-day camera at the time was a Sigma SD9. The SD9 ,on a good day, could produce some wonderful images but in general it was no at all suitable for street photography so in July 2006 I switched to a Canon 5D which was an amazing camera and was my favourite camera until I got a Sony NEX-7 towards the end of 2011.

Because of the floods in Thailand the NEX-7 was in short supply until 2012 but I was one of the lucky few who managed to get one in 2011. However, when I got it I was unable to source a suitable selection of lenses until 2012. Just before Christmas 2011 I discovered that the Sony VG10 Camcorder came complete with an 18–200 mm E-Mount lens that was compatible with the NEX-7. The 18-200mm lens was to retail, as a stand-alone lens, in Ireland at €1200 but would not be available for at least six months but as I was offered the complete camcorder kit at €1600 I decided to purchase the NEX-VG10E. Since then I have purchased a Sony A7RII, A7RIII and currently my main camera is the Sony A7RIV. I still use the VG10E. However, in later 2021, because of Covid-19 restrictions and because I wish to avoid attraction unwelcome attention I now use an Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max which produces acceptable images.