So here we are entering 2016 trying desperately to work out what’s going to happen during the year. Like every year since I returned to freelancing I have a pretty blank diary facing me. As always that leaves me simultaneously excited and petrified.

My new year has started as the old one ended with some back pain and so I’ve spent more time with a Chiropractor than I have with my cameras recently. I’m slowly getting better and over the next few days I will be getting in touch with some of my current and lapsed clients to have a chat about what I can offer them. This is probably the part of being freelance that I enjoy the least – looking for work. 

I have already chatted with two or three clients about projects for this year and there’s a few things already pencilled-in on my calendar application. If this year is much different from the last couple of years I’ll be quite surprised and that’s fine by me because the mix of different types of work has settled down to ‘interesting’.

My skills with the crystal ball that I don’t own are pretty rudimentary but I expect some wonderful new equipment to break cover this year and for my rational self to get into a battle with my “I want it now” self. Back in the first half of 2012 I blogged about Canon’s announcement of the EOS5D MkIII and whether I could justify buying one. Almost four years on it is odds-on that a MkIV will surface and depending on which rumour site you watch it will have just enough new features to make it tempting. I don’t imagine that they’ll produce any ‘must-have’ lenses and so I’m really hoping that 2016 leaves me with money in the bank rather than having to spend money that will be hard-earned on equipment updates.

Of course our friends at Apple will come up with some better/faster/prettier technology but that comes into the category of needing to be justified if I am going to invest and my four and a half year old 11″ MacBook Air shows no signs of needing to be replaced just yet.

The whole subscription based system by which I get my Adobe products means that there’s no need to worry about new software from them which leaves me with one very specific wish from all of the manufacturers whose products I use. Camera Bits have been talking about a cataloguing application to accompany the wonderful and evergreen Photo Mechanic for a long time now and I’m hoping that this will finally be the year that sees it hitting the market place.

So that leaves accessories and camera bags to be obsessed about. 2016 is going to be the year where I get to grips with carrying kit in a backpack. The combination of having a bad back and a desire to use the train more means that the search for the ‘perfect’ camera bag goes on and even moves up a gear from now on. Think Tank are making a number of great bags and on their social media they are talking about a v2.0 of their highly rated Shapeshifter so that may well be a route to go down.

There’s always a wish list when you are a photographer and 2015 saw me shooting more personal pictures than ever before. Most of it was done with the charming Fujifilm X100S and top of my wish list for 2016 is the very handsome looking and fun to use Leica Q. I don’t have £3,000.00 to spare and so it will remain an object of desire rather than part of my kit for a while longer.

Here’s to an interesting and successful new year.