CHAMPAGNE toasts, a rainbow and New Year greetings from Japan have got the Oxford Mail Camera Club off to a spectacular start to 2019.

We had a split in interpretations of this week's 'Happy New Year' theme, with some focusing on celebrations as the clock ticked down to midnight and others on what members got up to on the first day of 2019.

One of our favourite party images was Donna Cassettari selfie of she and a friend at The Bell in Ducklington smiling as they have a good time.

We also loved a pair of snaps by Diane Braggs of how she saw in the new year.

In the first champagne glasses toast and in the second a sparkling firework shoots a stream of colourful sparks.

Many members headed out and about on January 1, with Maxine Hall's image of Farmoor Reservoir a stand out.

Fellow Camera Club member Anthony Morris even makes an appearance as a silhouetted figure to the right of the snap.

Two shots from further afield we enjoyed were a photograph of the Mount Fuji in Japan by Masahiro Sfc Uematsu‎, which contained a Happy New Year message, as well as 14-year-old Billy Brunsdon's first image of the year of the Wanaka tree in New Zealand.

We also loved a couple of shots that showcased some photography inception.

Becca Collacott shared an image of a calendar for 2019 made up of images she took last year. The January snap depicts Abingdon blanketed in snow.

Mark Bentley, meanwhile, was already ticking off one photography goal from his bucket list this year with a shot of a kingfisher.

The image he shared however was not just of the colourful creature itself but how it looked on the preview screen of his camera.

In another first of 2019 Ian Marriott captured a rainbow at Horspath track on January 1.

The shot, which takes in the full arch of the rainbow has been created by combining three

images taken on an iPhone.

After the excess of Christmas, next week's theme is 'winter walks'. Wrap up warm and share your best photographs from Oxfordshire and beyond.

Join our Camera Club – which now has more than 900 members – by visiting facebook.com and searching for Oxford Mail Camera Club.

This week’s winner will be announced in tomorrow’s paper. Happy snapping!