Frozen London

A winter walk one week before Christmas. Very cold but a great opportunity for some snow shots.

This is Victoria Park in East London on a Sunday afternoon.

It's snow joke

Well the weather may be awful but it's a great chance to get out there with my camera. Only trouble is, it was so cold at the weekend that I've now lost all motivation to get back out and take more shots! The wind is piercing. The photo here is Hastings beach with the shell of the fire-damaged pier in the background. The wind-chill was pretty harsh and my poor fingers suffered. It was worth it to get the shots though!

No more photos for now. Far too cold :)

In York at the weekend so it was an excellent opportunity to get the camera out. As you can see the river Ouse was up. I loved the look of the reflections and the trees showing through the archway.

Plummeting temperatures...

Probably the coldest Monday I've felt in a long time. A nice opportunity to stay in and blog. Still pretty new to this phenomenon but I think I'm enjoying it. I think it'll be a great chance to show off my photos. And once the weather warms up a little I'll be back out there snapping away.

Here are a couple of other 'arty' pics for now. The first is a shot I took on my old Kodak compac

t camera on Brighton sea front. I think I was playing around with depth of field (?); I'm not sure. Anyway, I liked the way the rail, with its green colour contrasted with the grey sky..

. Not really! I just put the camera down by the rail and it came out great. I love just playing around with my camera. I like to capture everything. This weekend was a surprise weekend away in Brighton last January. This photo is Cabot Square in Canary Wharf, London. I love these clocks, particularly at night.

Hammy the Hamster

This is Hammy, our three-month old hamster. He's a cheeky little devil. Most of the time he's pretty grumpy and insists on barricading himself into his den by blocking the tube up with sawdust and bedding. We still haven't worked out why he does this.

I took this photo today with my new camera. I'd just unblocked him and he scampered out looking for water and food! Silly hammy. He is adorable though, I think you'll agree.

A new blog...

Hello. Remember me? Yes, it is I. Having a little more time on my hands I have turned my artistic eyes to photography and got a little more serious. I thought I'd also revive my blog in order to showcase my attempts at some decent life photography. I'm not sure what that is... I like to take pictures of near enough everything and after some light reading of digital photography magazines I've decided not to take it too seriously. I already enjoy walks and nature and taking the odd snap so I'm just taking it to another level with a recent generous birthday present of a digital SLR camera.

This is a tree. I've no idea what kind of tree but I thought it looked pretty. It's in the grounds of Chartwell which was the country home of the late Winston S. Churchill. A day in Chartwell (mainly for the cream teas!) was had and it provided a great opportunity to road-test my new camera.

Here's the house... sadly I wasn't permitted to take photos inside.