Saturday stroll in the snow

I can't believe how hard done by Witham has been the last few days with snow.  It's like the snow done a total detour around our town & forgot all about us.  For 2 days we've been on snow watch out our window waiting for this 'snow blizzard' the weather channels promised us.  It seems like everyone i know from Bristol through to Oxford, from Hastings up to Orpington, from Yorkshire right down to Norfolk got exciting 'build a snowman' amounts of snow on Friday.........but us........We just got a feeble covering of flakes that barely covered the cars, we went to bed last night so disappointed but through the night we were lucky enough that the flakes arrived & so this morning the ground and cars were all covered & a snow walk was organised.  After wrapping up like eskimo's the wellies came back out & we all took ourselves & the dog for a nice long walk along the river for 2 hours, finished off with a hot bowl of soup & a lovely cup of coffee.  It was a great walk with all Steve's family, just a shame we didn't get thick snow.........But now we are at home with a free weekend ahead, our fingers are crossed it gets heavier tonight & tomorrow can become a sledge day!!

Here are some of the best photos from today -

Let it snow, let it snow, let it melt.

Blankets of snow drifting in from America? Yeah right, all that arrived was the usual snow drizzle that takes 20 minutes to start settling, stays for half hour then melts!  So as soon as it started to settle Steve & I put on our wellies, grabbed the camera & went for a little walk.......I say little because we totally underestimated how bloody cold it was outside & after walking down to the lake & teasing the ducks with our lack of bread, feeling rather guilty & frozen we retreated back into the flat for a warm cup of tea.

Here are some of the better shots from today's outing, which brings my first assignment to a total of 100 photos.  Time to move on to Unit Two!



Surprise, surprise.....It's all melted now ha-ha.

8th January, the day I started my course. Also coincidentally the same day I finished Unit One.......I'm on a roll haha.  I was hooked from the minute i started.  I sat at our table like an eager little student with my laptop open armed with a new notebook and pen, ready to watch a 69 page presentation introducing me to the basics of photography.  Basics......were they kidding?  ND Filters, ISO speeds, shutter speeds, Apertures, Skylights, UV Filters, Linear & Circular Lenses.......It fast became apparent that i actually haven't a clue on the terminology I'm just good, or very jammy at capturing the occasional good shot, I do however have a huge passion for photography so i will bloody conquer this course.

After reading the presentation the opportunity was available to take the Unit One test.  It said you can take this test as many times as you like, anything over 70% would pass you & unlock Unit 2, so with my mind fresh from 69 pages of overwhelming photography jargon thought I would give it a bash...........5 minutes later I passed.........with 100% WooHoo.

So now I have my Unit One assignment to complete.  I have to take 100 photos within my local area with my camera set to automatic.  The purpose is to teach me that 'Auto mode' is the enemy & will not provide me with the best possible photos.  With the aim to learn in the next units what setting is best for every eventuality i will encounter.

So with my parents in town & a roast dinner that needed to be burnt off, we decided to go for a walk round our local lake which at the moment is flooded so a great opportunity to bring along the camera & work towards my 100 photos assignment goal.

So here are the best of the photos I took which I don't think are too bad considering this was the first proper outdoor opportunity I've had to use my camera before, its all very new to me & exciting!



Here are the photos that didn't come out so well on manual, but that was all part of the challenge (even though its frustrating as they would have been good photos)