That's because, as a regional newspaper photographer who goes to all the interesting things that happen in a community, there are also plenty of not-so-interesting things.

I've found in my old age it's the not-so-interesting things that life is made of.

I find a lot of satisfaction with my photos from ordinary events - ordinary people doing ordinary things, and sometimes, that ordinariness ends up extra-ordinary.

Not that I'll win a Walkley with any, though.

This photo from the North East Pacing Cup shows that I no longer judge my year's "best of" photos by the most spectacular image.

Does Matthew Richardson know what delight he brought to our little corner of the world?

I hope he enjoyed the evening as much as the north-eastern Tasmanians who revelled in the good old-fashioned family fun.

This annual community event is one not to be missed.

If this was typical of life in Scottsdale, I would move there in a heartbeat.

Also in January, Liberal Member for Bass Simon Wood was pictured making one of his more important speeches.

There used to be a joke from the chief of staff - although it wasn't really a joke - to put the politician at the edge of the photo so they could be cropped out, or "take one with and then one without and we'll use the one without".

Which happened recently with a lovely photo I took (well I thought it was lovely) of then Transport Minister Michael Ferguson leading students across a school crossing like the pied piper.

When the photo appeared, there was no minister, just the kids and crossing guard.

Someone had cut the side off the photo.

To me, this was akin to cropping John Lennon out of the Abbey Road crossing.

On the other hand, we don't want to fill the paper with page after page of pollies standing in a line awkwardly holding hands in a static handshake.

A nice pic will still make it into print, like this one did.

Cesar Penuela said he was "over the moon" when he, his wife Claudia Castillo, and daughters Janah and Maria, were granted permanent residency in April after months of uncertainty.

This was a happy occasion and the photo was taken at the end of an Autumn day, a moment before the sun vanished behind the hills of Trevallyn.

Especially happy was Nino the dog who ran around the yard excitedly, having to be practically strangled into submission for the photo.

Who'd also left a surprise in the grass for the unwary photographer.

Photographing cricket was once a challenge.

Hours of mindless boredom, and a split second of action.

"If you see it, you've missed it", a much younger Phil was told, because film cameras had a mirror that flipped up, making the viewfinder black for the instant of exposure.

My new camera is mirrorless.

The Nikon Z9 has completely taken away any of the challenge.

On the right setting, it will photograph something that happened one second before I press the button.

At 30 frames per second.

Or 60.

Or 120.

So one of those shots with the bails flying?

As long as the camera is pointed in the right direction, and in focus, I have a second to press the button.

So there's no excuse for missing anything now.

Which brings me to the F1 in Schools event, the perfect opportunity to capture the split second the little gas powered cars leave the start line without having to rely on my reflexes.

After the action photo, we took a quick walk around the room to get a few words and social photos of teams with their cars.

But why was my camera suddenly up to 1500 shots?

I'd accidentally left it on 60 frames per second with a one second pre-release, so each press of the button gave me 120 photos.

"D'oh!".

When we media arrived at the Cradle Mountain viewing platform ahead of guests and dignitaries, an event photographer was working with the aboriginal dance group who were to perform a smoking ceremony at the official opening.

She had them lined up on the on the pathway to the lake and was very concerned I didn't "steal" her shot.

But that's not how I work.

I will shoot something the TV guys have set up, and they will shoot video of what I have set up, but as a rule, not what another photographer has set up.

When she had finished, I asked the dancers to pose on a boulder.

I expected this lovely picture to make page one, but it got lost in the day's events.

While it could be annoying for such a great shot to not see the light of day, I've learned over the years that once my photo has been handed in, I have very little say in how it does, or in this case, doesn't get used.

But it does help to explain why the collective noun for a group of news photographers is a whinge.

If you were to sift through the celluloid and wax paper potpourri that is the Biggs film archive, you would find a negative of my old XE Ford Falcon rally-wagon taking a corner somewhat like this.

Goofy eighties teenage laughter still echoes through the forest to this day 40 years on.

Being an old petrol head, being sent to a rally is a good morning's work.

On this day, I had a 200-500mm zoom on my Nikon D500 so I could stay safely behind a tree while still getting a good close up.

I used my Godox off camera flash head and dish to light this picture, however, most of my photos this year have been shot with existing light, on camera flash, or a reflector.

And sometimes an LED light panel.

The Godox unit has ridden around in the back of the i30 for the year like ballast in the hull of a sailing ship.

This lovely picture of dentist Greer Williams demonstrating how to clean teeth made it onto page one in June.

She was going to Sydney to speak at an international conference.

The big teeth reminded me of a photo of a dentist from my early newspaper days.

I lay back in the chair while the reporter, whose name was Alison, held the big teeth around a wide angle lens out of camera view to make it look like the dentist was peering into the patient's mouth.

A few days later I was out with the same reporter on another health story, this time with a gynecologist.

"Better not do what we did with the dentist," Alison said.

It was a hotter than usual Saturday morning and the diary had me running around the district getting photos at the Westbury Show, various cricket matches and other events which would use up around three hours of driving time.

In other words, if I wanted to go home on time that evening, I needed to be efficient.

I have a formula for covering an event such as the show to get the required number of photos fairly quickly while still making good pictures, but the downside is I might walk past an interesting story in my haste.

So keeping this in mind, I paused for a moment on the old timber grandstand.

The Meander Valley Strummers strummed as the wind gently blew the Australian flag and a horse cleared a jump.

All it needed to be the perfect rural Australian show scene was a pig talking to the sheep while herding them into a pen.

It might not be a page one picture but for me it's another favorite for the year.

"That'll do, Biggs, that'll do".