Over the christmas break, I dicovered that my old tripod had finally bitten the dust. It was about four years old, but having been left in the car boot during the recent cold snap, it looked like the plastic around the centre shaft had perished and then snapped. In short, knackered – and not worth repairing.

So I’ve now invested in a newer/better tripod – a Manfrotto MN055XD tripod with an 804RC2 head, from Warehouse Express in Norwich.

I’m looking forward to getting used to the damn thing now, and hope to be able to post up some tripod-based photos on the “Weekly Photo” section in the next few weeks.