This week I spent a sunburnt weekend working on a private job at a Rock ‘n’ Roll festival in Hemsby, Norfolk, where hair gel, Newcastle Brown and something called Psychobilly were consumed in very large quantities. This is one of my favourite pictures of the week – Arthur Ring proudly posing in his Californian-import original 1950s Cadillac.

Laura Pannack, one of my favourite photographers, keeps her blog topical by posting an Image of the Week most weeks. Each weekend from now on I plan to do the same.

This week’s image is from the local election count in Glasgow, where the Scottish National Party failed to take the city from Labour. The light was all over the place, and most of the other photographers looked at me like I was stupid in not using flash. I chose to risk it because (a) my camera can handle relatively high ISO and (b) straight flash is a really easy way to rob a picture of any sense of atmosphere.

A version of this image appeared on the front page of The Times the following day:

This is a set of 22 images from 2011 that stood out for me, presented below in chronological order. Some repetition I’m afraid, so forgive me if you’re a regular follower of the blog.

So, starting in March with an image of Royal Marine Jay Hare pausing to adjust his false limb whilst out on his horse in the forest near Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, as part of the charity Horseback UK’s rehabilitation programme for injured service personnel.

Thanks to Edinburgh’s fantastic parking arrangements, I arrived late for my portrait session with writer John Byrne. Despite this he was charming and obliging.

In March, after 94 years of service, 111 (Fighter) Squadron “The Tremblers” honourably disbanded as the Tornado F3 aircraft completed its RAF Service and Typhoons took over at RAF Leuchars in the Kingdom of Fife. This image comes sponsored by the Canon 1D Mark IV motor drive.

Unforgettable at Ladies Day.

Trying to forget, Heroin addicts in Lisbon’s Casal Ventoso district. Injecting in broad daylight. We had to make a hasty exit after the gentleman on the right changed his personality quite quickly. On the walk back towards the main road a man was smoking crack as passing schoolchildren walked home with their mums.

Semana Santa, Seville. Hoods aplenty.

A group of hillwalkers carried a coffin across moorland near the site on which Dunmaglass wind-farm will be built. The event, described as “Wake for the Wild” aimed to raise awareness of what the group believes is the erosion of Scotland’s wild places.

Author Kate Atkinson immersed herself in plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh. I arrived 45 minutes early for this one, persuaded a gardener to give me a beautiful rusty axe and was content that a portfolio image was in the bag until Kate politely refused to pose with it (“But you write about murders! An axe is even used in one of your books!”……..”No”). Perhaps I was rather too enthusiastic about the axe.

Violent winds blew bits of dead whale into my lens on South Uist. Nice island, horrible smell.

Ciaran O’Neill, AKA “Boylesque” performer Captain Anchor – Cabaret Singer and Theatrical Striptease. Speedos were an option, but I was under instructions to make it not too risque.

Artist Hiroshi Sugimito was in Edinburgh to promote his show “Lightning Fields” at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

Sarah Bebe Holmes of the “Paper Doll Militia”, a dance and theatre group, was quite flexible in a derelict industrial Victorian building in Leith. They are her real legs.

As were the Australian performers who formed “Judgestars”, a children’s show at the Fringe festival.

Cecilia Nilsson recreated a scene from “Request Programme”, a play about suicide, also at the Fringe.

Adam Riches won Comedian of the Year. Professional and patient – a great subject to photograph.

The Rev Troy Perry, a homosexual church minister, visited Scotland to promote the cause of gay marriage. Quite tactile.

Scottish hiphop musicians “Mog”, “Donnie C”, “B. Sadness” and “Beckz B” posed for a portrait in Maryhill, Glasgow, the day before the MOBOs came to town.

Former Dutch cocaine addict Danny Derooij poses for a portrait in the Hyperbaric Chamber at Castlecraig rehabilitation hospital, Peebleshire.

It was a huge privilege to meet Alison Watt at the Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh, where her exhibition “Hiding in Full View” opened in November. I have photographed artists – who shall remain nameless – of far lesser talent, who regard photographers with palpable disdain. Alison was the opposite of this; graceful, warm and willing to have faith that I had a rough idea what I was doing.

Mike Ferrigan, Kim Grant, Neally Lawson and Darren Withers at the Occupy Edinburgh demonstration in St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh. Thankfully it was a slow afternoon in November when I met these demonstrators and I was able to spend time getting to know them for some time before suggesting pictures. Hopefully that shows in their expressions.

Displaced Syrian refugee family, the Jasims. Wadi Khaled, northern Lebanon. I have blogged separately on Lebanon if you are interested.

This year’s Turner-prize-winning artist Martin Boyce returned to Glasgow College of Art, where his career began. I was hoping for an effect reminiscent of Escher by lighting the stairwell, but probably should have worked a little quicker on the setup as by the time this image was taken, it was almost dark and manual focus was the only option.

And so onto 2012.