Frustration....

Grey grey days. They are the curse of this time of year. Christmas is over and the new year has yet to begin so you are left with the left overs and grey days. The weather forecast promises one thing but mother nature does something else - usually, you guested it, grey days!

I have tried to busy myself but to no avail. I just want to get out and do something but there is no point as the weather is well - grey. Still looking on the bright side - this is part of the beauty?? of living in England and where would we be without moaning about the weather?

Pip Pip - lets hope the new year brings better weather.

More tails from the river bank...

Not sure how long this has been in the river!

Went on my warbler hunt this morning - still no signs.  However, there are signs that winter is now a distant memory and that summer is on the way.  I saw my first Swallow this morning.   I always find that this is a real tonic for two reasons.    First, it is the continuing example of how powerful nature is.  Here is a small bird that has flown all the way from Africa in just a few short days.   Second, it means that the opportunity for great bird photography is increasing - it is now just over six weeks before my first bird expedition of the year to Pembrokeshire - can't wait to be reacquainted  with the puffins.

Whilst I enjoyed my walk along the river bank - the best bird I saw today was a kingfisher, as usual all you see is a iridescent flash of blue.  I spent most of the time rummaging around the scrub trying to make photographs of the ordinary.   The patterns of bark, the new growth on brambles and the like.   Whilst going through the hedge bottom I found more signs that the local sparrowhawk has been busy.  There were 3 separate sights where the hawk had plucked an unfortunate woodpigeon.  Anyway, I was trying out different techniques to capture the first signs of spring growth.  Not sure how well this has worked but you have to try.

As I write this it is a lovely sunny evening, the skies are clear and the sun is starting produce the wonderful evening light loved by landscape photographers the world over - myself included.   However, it does prove one thing.   That when I wish for some form of weather the exact opposite happens.  In truth I am not complaining.

What to do when it doesn't rain

Another beautiful day - not what I wanted so what to do?   Well its catch up time.   I have a weeks worth of photographs to process and work on so that is what I have been doing.   The subjects range from wonderings in a woodland to the recoding of roadworks at night.

One thing I have noticed is that I am making more large panorama photographs.   I know this is strange but seeing the two Crewdson's photographs at the recent Photocinima might have something to do with this.   Well thinking about it I am not sure whether this is true.  What is true is that I am thinking about buying rolls of paper for my printer so that i can print off large scale prints longer than A3+.   Mind you I think about a lot of things and rarely follow them up.  We'll have to see what happens.

Bad Weather Update...

Just a quick note - since I published my desire for bad weather guess what has happened - we have had none.   Not quite sure what that means but the weather is set fair for the next few days.  Oh humm.

Bad weather update

Well what a fool I was.  The weather was perfect yesterday afternoon, that is raining with a strong wind.   So I thought it would be ideal for the night shot I was thinking about.  Guess what, by the time the night came it had calmed down and there wasn't any wind at all.   The old saying is true - be careful for what you wish for!

Hoping for bad weather

I know this is going to guarantee a blazing hot summer but just at the moment I am hoping for bad weather.   The wetter and windier the better.  Fortunately living in England you can almost take it as read that we will get some rain - especially at this time of year, so my wishes will be fulfilled.  So why this bizarre wish?   Well I am interested in taking wet weather photographs at the moment - also 2nd curtain flash photographs of trees and plants swaying in the wind.   Oh as I write this the rain is coming down - somebody up there must have been listening.