No one would deny that 2021 has been a terrible year, even worse than 2020 which we all thought was bad enough. For most of us, it is the disruption in normal life that has been hardest to bear, with constantly changing restrictions and foreign travel out of bounds to all but the most intrepid. We all know people who have contracted Covid and, sadly, some of us have lost friends and relations. Let’s hope that the worst is now over.
Throughout the year, tending Macfilos has helped keep me sane and has boosted my resolve to continue with the blog. There were many occasions when I was devoid of inspiration and I found it difficult to write a word. I would almost certainly have lost confidence if it hadn’t been for the faithful support of our growing band of enthusiastic contributors. Just when I’m scratching my head and wondering where the next story is coming from, something interesting and entertaining pops into my mailbox.
Later today one of those contributors, John Shingleton, will take us through his year and select the twelve photographs that have meant most to him during the very difficult months. John, who lives on the coast of New South Wales, is one of the earliest “Macfilosphers” and it is fitting that his article should see us out from 2021 and into 2022.
We have lots to look forward to on the Leica front, not least to the forthcoming launch of the M11 which will come before the middle of January.
I wish all our readers and contributors a healthy and successful 2022. I hope we can all get out our cameras and begin our travels around the world once more. Thank you for your unfailing support and for keeping the Macfilos discussion alive through your good-natured and knowledgeable comments.
A cup of coffee works wonders in supporting Macfilos
Did you know that Macfilos is run by a dedicated team of volunteers? We rely on donations to help pay our running costs. And even the cost of a cup of coffee will do wonders for our energy levels.
Mike, I accept your suggestion and challenge. I will try and produce an article which would meet Macfilos’ high standard. The title would be: East Anglia – Pigs, Planes and Pylons. I better get started then.
Chris
A Happy New Year to the Macfilos Community and especially to you Mike for all your hard work. I bought a new Sony RX100 Mk6 last August, but so far the only satisfying photographs have been of massive container ships in the nearby Felixstowe docks. “Ever Given” which blocked the Suez canal was berthed there last week. I live at Martlesham Heath. I haven’t been out of East Anglia for all of 2021. As one American airman once said of East Anglia, “it’s just pigs, planes and pylons”. Ah well those can be my next themes to photograph in 2022.
Chris
Thanks, Chris. And I’m sure Macfilos readers will welcome another of your articles. Pigs, planes and pylons sounds like a good enough theme…
Let me add my thanks Mike for the terrific job you do in making Macfilos an outstanding forum for sharing articles, news, and perspectives on photography and photography gear – with that special emphasis on Leica equipment. Checking in on the web-site regularly throughout a difficult year has been a daily fillip. All the best to you and all the readers, commentators, and contributors for 2022! Cheers, Keith
.
Wishing a Happy and HEALTHY New Year to one and all!
Macfilos is simply my favourite photography site, Mike. So quite selfishly, I hope you can keep it going through 2022. In Denmark where I live, people don’t say “Happy New Year” but much more soberly “Good New Year” which leaves more room for downs as well as ups.
Many thanks, John. I’m doing my best to keep things going and I’m hoping 2022 brings more photo opportunities and more travel than in the past two years. All the very best to you.
Mike
Thanks Mike for continuing the excellent Macfilos. I have benefitted from its existence and being able to contribute and your editing has always improved my articles.
Here’s to a better 2022!
Thank you, Kevin. As a relative local, you are one of the very few contributors and readers I have met in person, most recently when we went tramping the fields of Langley Vale to see the memorial. Thanks for your continued support and enthusiasm, Kevin.
Happy New Year to all, particularly to Mike who year in and year out keeps Macfilos on the road as a true labour of love.
As I write this, the Covid numbers are going through the roof, but, hopefully, we are seeing the beginning of the final phase of the disease. In 2021 we had the long awaited opening of the Ernst Leitz Museum in September and in 2022 we will have the launch of the Leica M11. From a personal point of view I was elected as Vice President/Treasurer of the LHSA-International Leica Society and we will have our AGM in Dublin in October 2022, Covid permitting. Hopefully, some people here will attend. I know that Mike has said he will come to Dublin if the event takes place. I may also attend the next Leitz Auction in Wetzlar next June if Barnack’s 0 Series Leica comes up for auction. Again, Covid permitting, I intend to attend the UK Leica Society AGM in Buxton in April and, maybe, even the Photographica Camera Fair in London next May.
Finally, if that were not enough, I take over as Chairperson of the Gallery of Photography, Ireland on 4th January and that will also involve me in quite a bit of work. I also have a personal project relating to over 80 waxed calotypes from 170 years ago which I located last September and which I want to steer into a safe location during 2022.
Despite all of the above, and more, you will see articles from me from time to time during 2022.
A Happy and Safe New Year to All
William
Dear Mike, Thanks to you and all your contributors for this extraordinary cornucopia of images, reflections, reviews and thoughts on photography. I can’t imagine a day without a Macfilos posting that lifts me from my writing preoccupations, spurs me to use my cameras and joins me to a wonderful group of on-line companions.
Happy New Year from the US to all!!
Mike, I cannot say anything more than the others have already. My sincere thanks to you and the rest of our little community for making this site interesting. I know sometimes the debates get emotional (specifically what the next M should have or not) but that adds more to the fun as we all keep it respectful.
Looking at the number of camera and lens releases, I’m glad that there is drive to put investment in the business by camera companies. It can only get better.
Here’s to all of us bravely marching into 2022.
Thank you Mike for all you’ve done for Macfilos and the community, to the friends made and the support received in a bleak and at times scary year, for the humour, the stories and above all, the pictures.
Many thanks to Mike and to all contributors for providing a truly eclectic and excellent mix of articles and subjects. Very much appreciated! And let’s all hope that 2022 will indeed be better. I personally cannot wait to pick up traveling again. I concur with the 2 stops brighter 2022! Should be feasible without blowing highlights, after all 2021 was underexposed by at least a few stops. Take care everybody!
Thank you for your support and for joining in with the discussions. In many ways, the comments are just as interesting as the articles themselves and I am always amazed by the quality of responses.
Mike
Thank you so much Mike for running this amazing site. It is a real pleasure to send you new articles. The editing is always top-notch and reading articles by contributors is a daily pleasure. I truly enjoy the comment section as well. Looking forward to sending you new articles. A happy new year to you and everyone in the Macfilos Community.
Thanks, Jean. Your excellent articles are always a pleasure to work with and I know that readers enjoy your travels with the Ricohs and the X2. Looking forward to the next contribution!
Mike
Dear all,
my best wishes to this wonderful community and my heartfelt thanks to Mike. He is the best editor you can think of (and I have met many), and if Macfilos helped him over this bad year, I would like to add that he and Macfilos helped many of us. The same is true for the fellow contributors. Any blog is useless without its readers for sure, but it is empty without its writers and fully lost without a spiritus rector. Thank you, Mike, for doing what you do.
Cheers to all from the new year pioneers in New South Wales to the connoisseurs in California. I hope you all have year full of health, optimism, compassion, and creativity.
Jörg-Peter
Your kind comments are much appreciated, Joerg-Peter. While I do enjoy the editing process, I have to say that your articles are presented in such a professional way that the task is made much easier. And thank you for taking us on some rather esoteric journeys into the history of the M mount. All in all, I believe the M Files series — with No.12 coming up early in the New Year — will become a very useful work of reference for all rangefinder enthusiasts.
I look forward to working with you in 2022 and the years to come.
Mike
Thank you to all the contributors and your stories over the last 12 months. MacFilos feels very much like a comfortable second home that I’m always eager to return to. Here’s to a 2 stops brighter 2022!
I like the 2 stops brighter bit. Well said. And thank you for helping to keep our comments section going so well over the years. Have a good 2022.
Mike
It has been an incredible journey Mike, I will raise a glass tomorrow night on my 30th wedding anniversary, and to see in a more hopeful New Year.
All the best to the amazing contributors who diligently turn up and introduce us all to a wide geography of photography, many different types of camera and span the ages from plate to film to digital.
Happy New Year folks.
Congratulations on your 30th! And thank you for all your support over the years. Have a good celebration tomorrow.
Mike
I wish to add my grateful thanks to you Mike, and to our many contributors who keep this interesting site refreshed and interesting. Perhaps the greatest benefit to come from the past two years of deprivation and stress, has been the rediscovery of our own home patches. I have found time to observe more visiting wildlife in my garden, and even identifying some of the migrant birds. I have also rotated old and new photographic equipment, and rediscovered some old and still working examples, lurking out-of-sight in dark places. But I do look forward to new travel freedoms, when the time is right. We can only hope. Something to anticipate.
David, thank you for your support over the years and for the articles you have contributed. We wish you and all our readers the very best for 2022.
Mike
Dear Mike. Nice to make your acquaintance in 2020. Certainly there were some silver linings. John’s articles to some extent moved me to write and contribute. I’m certainly looking forward to reading it. There occurs at some point where the enormity of life overwhelms us and takes precedence over everything even photography and 2020 was the worst example of it. Unlike many, I do not look forward to the M11. It’s possibly and very likely to be the same of the old. Another iteration. It would not dissuade those of us who are looking forward to owning a Q2 monochrom. By the by, a Happy New Year to Mike, David B, JP, John and the rest of the Macfilos community. May your cups runneth over this New Year’s Eve ! Take care and glad tidings for next year.
Many thanks, Gireesh. One of the great pleasures of editing a blog such as this is that new contributors get in touch frequently and every year we add to our rather large band of regulars. It was a great pleasure to make your acquaintance in 2021 and I am sure readers appreciate your take on photography and your country of Malaysia.
Mike
Mike, whilst not a contributor, only one to leave the occasional comment, I really appreciate and thank you for what you deliver to us by way of “Macfilos”. The “new dawn” photo of John’s, that you depict as looking forward to a better year in 2022, is most appropriate. As a fellow New South Welshman living in Sydney, and being one of the first countries to welcome in the New Year, I wish you and all Macfilos contributors and followers everything of the best in 2022 and beyond.
Cheers,
Alan
Thank you Alan and thank you for your continued support for Macfilos.
Mike