Happy Christmas to you all

• A very Happy Christmas to all of you - I hope you have a fantastic break, and here's to 2009. I am going to take some time off now to be with my family, so I'll post back here in a week or so. I can not wait to spend some proper time with them all and see my two girls opening their presents on Christmas morning. This is what it's all about. I have just spent the weekend looking after my daughters while my wife was in London, and we had such a blast. You will be glad to know that I have so far managed to resist jumping up down on their Iggle Piggle or Upsy Daisy teddies......

• I have managed to put another online photo gallery up from my latest trip over to Ireland, right at the end of November - click here to have a look at some of the photos from yet another awesome bass trip. I hope you enjoy them, and there will be plenty more to come next year I am sure.

• Check out the brand new issue of Sea Angler magazine - look on pages 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50 for another article in my modern bass fishing series. I am really pleased with the photos that their designer chose to use. Make sure to watch out for the next issue as well, for they are going for a big relaunch of the magazine, and I can't wait to see how it looks. The magazine goes from strength to strength I reckon.

• Above is another shot from my playing around with black and white conversions - I took this on my first ever trip to what I term the "ultra remote Seychelles", and it took me a couple of looks through my files to pick this one out. Personally I am blown away by this simple photograph in black and white, but I would be interested to know what you think.

• The photo below is also from that same trip, of my friend James holding onto a barracuda he had just nailed on a fly on the flats. An awesome angler and a very easy guy to photograph, and again, a shot that I really like in black and white - not something I would have picked put immediately, but the sunlight glowing on the tail I reckon gives a really strong "in" with one's eye.

• Have a good one - thanks for reading this blog of mine, it means a hell of a lot to know that so many people keep checking back here to see what is going on, and the numbers keep on growing. Remember that you can also subscribe to my blog via Feedblitz on the right hand side of this page. Have a wonderful Christmas.