Christmas was a little different this year. In an attempt to avoid the cold and take in some winter sun we flew off on holiday to Madeira. The weather was fantastic, better then I had expected and the island is beautiful. There were tonnes of opportunities for photography and flying the new DJI drone. Obviously this was not an all out photography trip, so that wasn't my main focus but I did get in a few outings, including one into the mountains on Christmas day to see the valley of the nuns, which was fantastic.

I'm gaining in confidence with the little DJI Spark and did fly it over the sea a few times. Will definitely be flying it more in the near future! We did see a Mavic flying what must have been miles away from the pilot, at a height the spark could only dream of, capturing an amazing sunset. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those ends up in my hands before the year is out.

I doubt this will be my last time on the Madeira and already have loads of ideas for shots and drone footage I want to capture next time, maybe next Christmas!

Looking forward to the new year, I already have plans to swap my Nikon gear over to Sony with a new A7R3 which will be followed shortly after by a trip to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. There are also whisperings of trips to the Jurasic coast and to the Lake District so plenty of good things happening in the new year.