Looking out of the window today, summer seems like so long ago. Yet only on Saturday the pool was open, the sun was out and summer was very much on the scene.

What could possibly go wrong……
Those Halcyon days of our long lost summers were brought back to me whilst ‘supervising’ the kids while we enjoyed a break at St Lawrence Bay, darkest Essex. I’m fairly sure that the River Blackwater got it’s name from the tar like mud despite what wikipedia says about it.

The River Blackwater is a river in England. It rises in the northwest of Essex as the River Pant and flows to Bocking, near Braintree, from where its name changes to the Blackwater. Its course takes it near Stisted, and then via Bradwell Juxta Coggeshall and Coggeshall and near Witham where it is joined by the River Brain. Passing Maldon it reaches the North Sea at West Mersea. The River Chelmer (which is a canal at that point) meets the River Blackwater near Langford. Some of the water flows over Beeleigh weir and some flows down the canal. At Heybridge flood water from the canal flows over a weir at the site of the old Heybridge mill and down the original course of the Blackwater (now known as Heybridge Creek) before passing through a sluice gate into the tidal Blackwater Estuary at Maldon.[1]

Can’t be bothered to do much processing so you get it here in all it’s dead, and decaying glory….. Quite like the ‘expression on it’s poor dead face.

Not sure why, but seem to have become slightly obsessive about reflections recently. Haven’t touched the camera for over a week and cabin fever has not irreversibly set in. Been meaning to hve a crack at these things since the storm in a teacup shot (see my Flickr stream) to try and capture some clouds etc. reflected in the water. for the last two weeks the skies have been a monotonous grey, so as the sun attempted to shine this afternoon I felt obliged to have a go at this.
Regrettably, my cd tray only had this knackered old thing in (it’s got more scratches than a cat’s scratching post) and I didn’t get the tripod out, but went OK from a test perspective.

For those that care, this was taken hand-held, with the Canon 50mm f1.8 plus 36mm kenko extension tube.

So, with the Group Owners permission, I’ve started a monthly challenge with the first theme being Romance. If you have a Flickr Account, and you take photos, then please go ahead and Join the Cool Britannia Group and enter the comp. there’s no Prizes, it’s just for fun but it may help improve your skills by setting you a challenge that’s outside your usual comfort zone. As far as I can tell, despite being a group called Cool Britannia, there are no rule on membership for those of you that aren’t sure where Britain is. The themes transcend the general ethos of the group in that it doesn’t have to be a British Romance (in which case two chairs with reserved signs on would work quite well). The only things I would ask

The group can be found HERE – Cool Britannia on Flickr

Inspiration, or something to avoid? You decide.

Things are getting desperate here on Canvey – The things you do to get out of wrapping presents ! – Found this novelty beaker from our cruise and couldn’t resist a few frames. (To see larger versions, click the Image)

It’s been a while since I was interested in moving images, but this week I’ve seen five or six really really impressive time lapse movies (check my tweets this week for the best one). Inspirted (or intrigued) I wondered whether this was something I could do myself so I had a go. I know it’s not pretty, but as a proof of concept it was fairly successful. Watch this space for a proper one in the not too distant future.

on the sofa, manually focussed on a point at the other end of the room. The aperture was around f22 or f32 with a corresponding shutterspeed of around 10 to 15 seconds. With the camera on Timer, I released the shutter and then swiftly made my way to the other end of the room. I did have mixed results, with this one being on of my favourites.