… I’d be asking why Track and Trace systems don’t have GPS for the more obsessive parcel trackers among us.

It should have been a fairly straightforward delivery. I was due in for the whole of the day, excepting three trips out of ten minutes each (one to take Akra Jr to school, one to take Li’l Bhaji to nursery and the final one to pick them both up again). All day.

You just know that the parcel will arrive in one of those ten minute slots, don’t you?

So, I hurry off to school for the first trip. It’s raining so I’m hoping that Akra Jr will be allowed straight in so I can minimize the time out of the house. He goes in the doors and I turn around relieved, ready to frog march Li’l Bhaji back home quickly to wait in for The Parcel [tm].

That’s when a sobbing Akra Jr appears at my shoulder and refuses to go to school – a “friend” of his had called him a name, and Akra Jr being a fairly sensitive soul took it very much to heart. It took a fair while to calm him down and get him back through the doors with at least a slight hint of a smile on his face.

I get home, I’m convinced there’ll be a “sorry we missed you” card through the letter box, but obviously my luck is in as they haven’t been yet.

I’m rabidly twitching curtains looking for a delivery van. One arrives. It parks outside a neighbour’s house – are they in the wrong place? Should I run out?

Ooo… he’s reversing out, he got the wrong house… he’s parking in front of mine… YES…. YES!

I have never been so disappointed to receive a crate of wine in my life.

Back to waiting. I know I should do something to keep myself occupied. Li’l Bhaji is happily doing jigsaws “By Myself, Mummy”. So I do some cleaning – it needs doing anyway. Of course, the windows got extra special attention. Time ticked slowly onwards. Lunch came and went. It was time to take Li’l Bhaji to nursery.

More frog marching (poor lad) and then just as we get to the door I see the Initial City Link van pull up the road. I know odds are on that he’s aiming for my house next as their depot is a fair distance away.

The poor child was signed in to nursery super fast (don’t worry, he actually completely ignored me and went straight for the painting activity, I’m not that self-obsessed) and I RAN all the way home. I had the advantage that it’s actually slower to drive round than go via the footpaths, but still, I very nearly gave myself an asthma attack and had to take several puffs of ventolin on entering the front door.

I arrived TWO MINUTES before he did… [insert smug look here].

The things people will do for their cameras.

There were about four boxes inside each other – it was just like pass the parcel for grownups, with tantalising pictures of the camera inside to tease you as you removed yet another layer.

Eventually, however, I got to the prize. The Canon 400D with the 18-55 lens kit, a 2GB Sandisk Ultra II and a Hoya UV filter.

All I had to do then was wait 90 minutes for the battery to charge up.

Now I have a grown up camera, does that mean I have to start taking “proper” pictures?!

Well, the following article might explain why, a week later, I still didn’t have an estimated delivery date for my new camera this morning: worldwide shortage of stock from Nokia and Canon. Typical. They just knew I was going to order a DSLR, didn’t they?!

Still, due to stunning lack of communication by the company I originally ordered from, including (but not limited to) no indication that the item was out of stock until after I was expecting it to arrive, I have cancelled.

So I have had to accidentally hit the checkout button and accidentally fill in my address and credit card details again – with Jessops this time – who, ironically given the above article, are one of the few places that do have stock of the Canon 400D (albeit in silver rather than black).

Should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully.

Update: just got the dispatch notice – yay for Jessops!

We finally got to go on our traditional New Year’s Day outing – only 13 days late thanks to health and weather – to Bristol Zoo.

Last year, we went to Dudley Zoo but because I spent most of the time making sure the kids didn’t fling themselves into the tiger enclosure or hurl themselves down the steep steps or get themselves adopted by the chimpanzees (and let’s face it, it would have been months before anyone would have noticed them in THAT enclosure…), Akra got all the best photographs.

So this year, I had a cunning plan. HE got to be responsible for the children so I could focus more on having fun with my camera.

Guess what. He ended up with all the best photographs. Harrumph.

By the way, I think if Paintshop Pro’s Smart Photo Fix was really smart, it’d retake the photo from a better angle for you and stop the animal moving… I’m just saying…

My hand slipped.

Just when the mouse was hovering over “buy”.

I then accidentally typed in my name, address and credit card details (damn those pre-filled forms…)

Then the mouse just flung itself over to the “checkout” button.

I just don’t know how it happened, yer ‘onour.

In my defence I had saved up for a good 60% of the cost and only needed a little creative accounting in order to make the most of the January Sale price. So my guilty feelings are slightly mitigated. I’m just out of practise spending so much money on something purely selfish.

I’ll let you guess in the comments what it might be… the clue is in the category.

Well, mine is anyway!

The completed wheel, which was a composite of 144 photographs taken of the same 12 scenes throughout the year, can be seen on Flickr (click the thumbnail below for a closer look).

I shall be tidying up the Wheel of the Year project pages over the next few weeks, and hopefully (with permission) posting other people’s entries too.

Now what am I going to do with myself NEXT year?!

My Wheel of the Year photos for July are now up on Flickr.

We’re past the half way mark now, so those of us who are still persevering are on the downhill run and starting to see some great results. It’s fantastic to see all the changes (seemingly imperceptible at first) gradually gaining momentum throughout the year.

On the flip side, though, I’m finding it a struggle to keep going. The project takes up so much of my day on the first of every month. There’s several of my photos that haven’t really changed, or don’t interest any more and it’s a chore to trudge out with camera in tow and take the SAME photograph AGAIN this month. Seeing the changes in the Oak Tree or at the Pond are rewarding, but are they rewarding enough? I just hope the end results in December are worth all the aggravation.

Next time I come up with a great idea for a photo project – remind me to design it so it’s all over in a day, please?

I’ve previously posted about my disappointment over the erosion of quality and community over at Fotothing.

Well, there’s a ray of sunshine for my fellow Fotothing refugees as Dom Ramsey (original creator of Fotothing) has been hard at work to bring us a brand new photo sharing site: Fotonomy.

As you would expect from one of Dom’s sites, the design is clean, minimalist and inviting, with a straightforward interface and navigation. It’s easy to dive into the community, as Fotonomy is still small enough to still have a welcoming, individual-focussed atmosphere. Best of all, there’s still plenty of new features in the pipeline. It’s worth getting in at ground level as Dom is very approachable and feedback is always welcomed.

For the time being, Flickr will still be my home – I enjoy the features and have found myself some great friends there (notably the Monthly Scavenger Hunt crowd). However, I’m definitely coming over to Fotonomy from time to time to play.

Those who enjoy sharing photographs but find Flickr too big and intimidating would do well to give Fotonomy a trial – after all, it’s fun and it’s free, what more can you want?

Following on from my earlier post about a professional exclusively using a point and shoot camera, I’ve come across a great article called “Should You Buy a DSLR or a Point and Shoot Digital Camera?” which has a very comprehensive list of the pros and cons of both.

It’s confirmed for me that I really don’t want to be messing around with different lenses or to have a large bulky camera to lug around with me. However, I’d still love the versatility and image quality that comes with owning a DSLR. I’m sure I can’t be the only one in that category; it’ll certainly be interesting to see the development of the creative compact market over the next few years.

It doesn’t take long reading through the reviews of a magazine like Practical Photography or browsing the finer images on Flickr’s Explore to realise that photography is an expensive photography. To get the best photographs you always need a bigger, better camera… the best lenses… the most technically advanced DSLR on the market. Or do you?

I recently stumbled on this article about the award-winning photojournalist, Alex Majoli. As a professional photographer who has shot for such prestigious publications as Newsweek, Vanity Fair and National Geographic, you’d expect him to be carrying around a fair amount of high-quality kit. Instead, rather surprisingly, his photographic equipment of choice are digital point and shoots. He doesn’t even carry around an external flash unit.

It’s a great article, accompanied by some excellent examples of his work. He describes how he gets the most out of his cameras, capitalising on their benefits (namely near silent operation, small size and weight, directional LCD viewscreens and their depth of field) while developing techniques to minimize their weaknesses (for a photojournalist, the real stumbling block is shutter lag).

Do I still want a DSLR? Hell, yes. Preferably one with a really decent macro lens attached. But it’s a timely reminder that I still have so much to learn with my current creative compact and that as always, it’s not the equipment – it’s what you do with it that counts.

A question for camera buffs: I fancy experimenting with HDR images. Can anyone recommend a good HDR plugin compatible with Paintshop Pro X? Preferably free or reasonably cheap (as long as image quality/ease of use is sufficient).