FIRSTLY, a very Happy New Year to all our camera club members!

Looking back on our first year, there's no doubt there have been some bumps, there have been some hiccups and there have been some very dodgy photos, but looking forward to 2018 we are confident this is going to be our best year ever...

With that in mind, we start the year with a pretty mixed bag of 'Happy New Year' pics.

Half of you took the opportunity to capture the end of the outgoing year so, from one of our newest members – Al Cane – we have the almost-full moon as it rose behind a picturesque tree.

Actually lots of you sent in pics of the moon that night, including Mandy Dickinson, but we particularly liked these two examples.

Anthony Greenfield sent us a picture of his last home visitor of 2017 – this handsome hedgehog – while Stephen Pimm went for a classic subject – fireworks.

We particularly liked Ian White's photo of his big night out – the deserted village square in Eynsham, ready for revellers to arrive.

The other half of you started snapping the next day.

There were a few shots of bracing New Year's Day walks we enjoyed, but many of you sent in pictures of what we assume was the same rainbow taking from different points around Oxfordshire on Monday afternoon.

Ian Marriott managed to whip out his camera at what looks like an athletics training session at Horspath, while Sara Buck spotted it arcing over the Kassam Stadium during united's home game on Monday and hoped it would bring them a bit of luck.

Finally, Gordon Craig captured a very moody shot of the sun going down behind the church at Shipton Under Wychwood on New Year's Day.

For next week's theme we've decided to get you all focused again, but the first challenge of 2018 is not going to be easy as we've chosen a particularly un-photogenic subject – mud!

Hopefully some of you will be going out for walks over the weekend, splashing about in puddles and possibly having to wash muddy dogs, so there should be plenty of photo opportunities: who can make mud look the most glorious?

Good luck!

WIN £25

Join our Camera Club which now has more than 450 members – by visiting facebook.com and searching for Oxford Mail Camera Club.

See tomorrow’s Oxford Mail for this week’s winner of £25, sponsored by Jessops.