I have written quite a lot for the review as I’ve gone into a fair bit of detail, but if you don’t fancy reading a small essay then I’ve also included loads of photos to illustrate my points which should largely speak for themselves.

The review is under the ‘Mixed’ category of my camera bags reviews page as it does more than just carry camera gear, but I also have it listed as a featured review as it really is that good that I feel it warrants highlighting

Of course Nikon and Canon both had huge areas to show off all their major cameras and lenses, then the likes of Manfrotto and Gitzo had tripods in abundance and Lowepro, Kata, Tamrac etc. had their various ranges of bags on show, all very useful to anyone actively in the market for a new bit of kit, or just to conduct research as to what size camera bag might suit your needs in the future, equally though it’s not the kind of show to go to if you’re not that interested in the ‘gear’ side of photography and don’t want to check out whatever is next on your wish list

For me there were a number of things that were interesting to check out for future reference, as well as sheer curiosity on a few items on the ‘in my dreams!’ list (the Nikon 200-400mm lens for example that will be out of my price range for the forseeable future!), but one of the things I was most interested in was the range of bags by an American company called f-stop that are now being stocked in limited number in the UK by Paramo. I first saw f-stop bags last year via a refrence to their site, and have long been of the opinion that they looked like the best designed backpacks for outdoor photographers I’d ever seen, however the rather steep cost of them, coupled with supply and demand issues, meant there was no way I’d ever convince myself to buy one unless I could see it first and verify whether they really lived up to expectations. Well, sure enough at the Paramo stand, there they were, the full range on offer, in short supply, (not least due to strong recommendation by the aforementioned Mr Rouse, who’s opinion is generally highly respected), and after close inspection and deliberation I bit the bullet and picked up one of their Satori EXP bags. I shall be spending some time now experimenting with the camera  compartment and will write up a full review soon, suffice to say though, geeky as it is, I’m really rather excited about this purchase and expect it to be the last camera bag I ever buy!

Therefore over the last week or so I’ve been slowly putting together a portfolio page with a few of my best/favourite shots with a little bit of background and technical information about each shot. Currently I only have a few British Wildlife photos in the portfolio but will be adding more content from my other galleries in the coming weeks, however the current top image is also one of my favourite shots at present, taken a couple of weeks ago at an RSPB reserve

After quite a lot of testing with 2 particular products I finally chose which one I was going to subscribe to and began the long process of generating new slideshows for all my galleries, previously I just had to input a bit of code with a link to the corresponding Flickr galleries but these new fancy slideshows are all seperately created. Additionally, having gone to the expense and time of creating all these new slideshows, I decided I didn’t want them to just sit on an optional sub-page of the galleries, but wanted them to be the first thing visitors see as I think they are much more eyecatching than the main thumbnail layout, so I have done away with seperate gallery and slideshow pages and rolled the 2 together

So far I’m pleased with the results but as always welcome feedback, all galleries should be up and running in the new format apart from the Africa galleries, as I am still procrastinating about tidying up my workflow of them so I can actually get organised!

Here’s an example of the new slideshows, most of them use licensed music I chose from a library included with the software that generates them, but this one I was quite pleased with as it’s a recording of a track from the ‘Shamu Rocks’ show at Seaworld that has never been released commercially, so as far as I’m aware means I can use it without breaching any copyrights, and I just really wanted to use it as it’s so appropriate and is just plain brilliant