2019: A Year in Review

To say 2019 has been a busy year would be an understatement.  Both Emma and I turned 30, we’ve bought our first home, we’ve visited Edinburgh, Cork, Crete, Florida and Guernsey and, most importantly, ended the year with our wedding.

We only started planning the wedding in July so, as you can imagine, it’s been pretty stressful but I can’t imagine a better way to end the decade. Coupled in alongside all of that, remember the job I had just started in November last year? Well I’m now working as a solicitor again in a completely different area of law which, at the moment at least, is very rewarding and I’m loving being a lawyer again.

Life after travelling can be hard, there’s no doubt about that, but things are just about starting to fall back into place and I am feeling very settled right now.

My Highlights of 2019

There have been so many highlights this year most of which have not found their way into blog posts but, from what I have managed to write this year, these are my highlights:

Visiting Edinburgh for Emma’s 30th

Scouting out Wedding Venues in Crete

My First Ever Press Trip to the Lumiere Festival in Durham

The Year as a Travel Blogger

My blog is now a little over 2 years old and continues to grow despite the fact that it really has taken a back seat this year.  Embarrassingly, I’ve only posted 18 times this year, including this little annual review!

My aim for this year was to reach 30,000 views which would have been a 100% increase on the year before.  Well, I’m very happy to say that I’ve somehow managed to reach over 85,000! How crazy is that! I’ve recently added ads back onto the site, which may not look aesthetically pleasing, but is starting to bring in a little cash to help me keep running this website.  On the side, I’ve also started selling travel stock photography,selling prints and even shooting weddings.  Maybe one day photography will be my main source of income…

My Five Most Popular Posts of 2019

Looking at the stats, these are my most popular posts this year.  The ones that attract the most views are definitely those relating to my cameras and photography in general:

My Fujifilm JPEG Settings

Fujifilm’s Classic Chrome for Travel Photography

Fujifilm’s Astia: The Versatile Film Simulation

What Is In My Camera Bag?

The Ten Best Things To Do In Perth

What Next?

Next year is certainly set to be much more chilled than this year which I am very much looking forward to. The plan so far is to go on our honeymoon with hopefully a few city breaks to Europe thrown in.  We’re hoping to finish decorating our new home and that’s about it.  Maybe I’ll even get time to post more on here; I’m aiming for 52 posts so wish me luck!

Thank you again to everyone who reads my ramblings or enjoys my photography, it really means a lot to me and makes this all worthwhile. I hope you all had a great year and all the best for 2020!

Jamie