2011 in review.

Happy New Year and it is going to be a good one, I have such plans for this year. 2011 was a quiet year, I didn't do too much and was less than motivated to better myself. I ran consistently but not well, I took far fewer trips and photographs than the previous year but it wasn't a bad year. I shall call it a settling year.

Anyway, here is my month by month review of last years photography.

January I spent getting to grips with my zoom lens. The
weather was icy and cold and as it was back to work month
after the Christmas break, it was an experimental month.

February promised much with the half term break but the weather was pretty bad. I visited Northumberland, Somerset and Kent.





March was a miserable month for photographs so I got a little creative.

April was more interesting. Spring was here and the weather was nice, for a few days anyway. To alleviate my boredom with myself , I
bought a red filter and on a
trip to London, took this interesting shot.

With the Royal Wedding happening, I managed this shot of a Cannon firing in celebration of a memorable day.
May and things were starting to come together. A wonderful trip to Bolsover Castle and my first experience of jousting and a trip to London and the first real use of my red filter.














June meant the Robert Dover Olympicks. A stunning day.



Wonderful in its simplicity and fun, we all sat on the hillside in the warm June evening sunshine and enjoyed the spectacle.

July was a quiet month but it did feature jousting at Kenilworth Castle. As this is the Castle from my childhood, it holds a lot of special memories and I was hoping for great things....it didn't disappoint.

August was wet and I didn't take much time off but I did manage a trip to Durdle Door.


September was another quiet month but I did manage a trip to Puzzlewood and Tintern Abbey with my youngest daughter and my Dad.















October was a busier month and I took a trip to Mid Wales and Cumbria. I also took an early morning trip to London and took some Pre-Sunrise shots of Canary Wharf from South of the River.


November was back to quiet. As it is my birthday month, I celebrated by going to London and trying the old Cockney favourite, pie, licquor and mash.

I also invested in some cheap macro filters.


December was my year for getting the Christmas presents, couple that with grey and miserable days and a lack of motivation on the days when the weather was finer meant that I took very few pictures. I did get some time to experiment with faking double exposures. Faking because it's not possible with digital images without software.


2011, not a bad year but not a great year for me. I am disappointed with myself more than the year although the weather has been poor, enough that it knocked the will to venture outside from me, I should have made the effort rather than becoming lethargic.

2012, however, is looking fantastic. My plan for the year is to investigate all the customs and traditions that make up England. I have a diary full of pagan, historical and bizarre customs that I intend to photograph and document.
Sunday is the yearly "Wassail" on the banks of the Thames in London including a Green man emerging from the Thames. Following that are many things throughout the year such as the "Chap Olympiad," the Ashbourne Shrovetide Football Match and the Hallaton and Medbourne Bottle Kicking Contest, new and old traditions and customs that make up this Nation of Eccentrics. Forget the Olympics, England is far more interesting than that and this year will be my first foray into discovering who we really are. It promises to be exciting, I just hope I'm up to the task.