Happy 2026 – Celebrating the Old with the New

A beautiful and happy New Year.

Is it? Well – from my perspective today, the first day of 2026 – it looks promising. The sun is shining. It’s a balmy 26 degrees Celsius. The house is quiet. The (new) neighbourhood is peaceful. And I am sitting at my desk spending time doing one of my most favorite of things I really enjoy doing in my spare time – writing.

So let me get to why I am here today:

I want to give you all, my dear readers, a big shout out. You are amazing. You have supported my blog in 2025 more so than in any of the previous years, despite the fact that it has been its least active year. And that is an understatement. It’s been crickets really. Yet, you showed up. You engaged and subscribed. I find that mind blowing and at the same time hugely encouraging. So today is for you. THANK YOU!

2025 was a very odd year for me, filled with a lot of change, some good, some bad and some just completely and utterly unnecessary nonesense. Life and work kept me away from this place that I so cherish. But 2025 is done and dusted and it is with new energy that I look towards 2026.

I have moved into a new office and while it still needs a lot of work before it is presentable, I am excited about one of my pride possessions that now occupies a prime spot here: my dad’s old radio.

all of the above images are jpegs straight out of camera created with my X100VI and my own recipe

From a 2026 perspective, it seems rather ridiculous that such a big, elaborate piece of equipment was necessary just to tune into a radio station – but I guess during my dad’s life this was quite normal. I don’t remember when he acquired this radio nor when it was made. What I do remember, fondly, is, how his favourite French radio station kept blaring from it, loud, from our basement, while he was busy fixing this or making that…

While this radio makes me think of my dad, it also makes me think of analog (and analog-looking) photographs. My dad was a photography enthusiast who gifted me my first camera when I was eight. He introduced me to the craft and with that, lay the foundation to my career in photography. Also thanks to him and his passion for capturing special moments on film, my family – aka my sister and I – have a beautiful collection of photographs that bear witness to our lives. They are wonderful memories of moments we shared as a family and are reminders of where we have been, what we have done and who we are. That is a very special gift and I will be forever grateful for it. So much for “celebrating the OLD”.

And now for the NEW.

2026. January, 1st. The day I celebrate my blog and you, my readers. And all of what’s to come.

Not all was bad last year, and I am excitedly biting my tongue while waiting for the go-ahead to publish details about a project I was part of. For now, all I can say is, that the images of my dad’s radio are all jpegs, straight out of camera, created with my own recipe. Everything else will follow. Later.

And to the folks that are waiting for the next episodes of my “Colour Your Story” series: don’t despair! They are in the making and will be published soon. Very soon!

Make sure you don’t miss any of the exciting stuff that’s ahead. I recommend you consider subscribing so you can receive a notification email the next time I publish an article:

Thanks again for being here. I am excited for what’s to come. I hope you are too!

Enjoy what’s hopefully left of your holiday and remember to take awesome-looking jpegs.