January so far.

Although we are only 20 days into the 2012, it feels like a slow start already. That actually isn't quite accurate though.
On Jan 2nd, I went to Ludd Church in Staffordshire. It's been fairly low down on the hitlist for awhile but I thought I'd make the effort and go and see it. It is the apparent setting for Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight.
For those that are thinking religion and church buildings, this is a church only in interpretation as in it has been used for religious  ceremonies both Christian and Pagan for many centuries and is infact a huge chasm in the ground with rock walls towering to around 50ft.

It was actually a beautiful day. There was frost on the ground in places and the floor of the "church" was deep mud but the sun was out. It was one of those cold but sunny days, a wonderful Winters day.

I am not familiar with Staffordshire as a County and we were bordering Derbyshire so the landscape reminded me more of the Dales but that is actually ignorance talking as I am not a great traveller of Staffs but I think given this wonder, I may have to see more.
The scene above, is looking out across the rolling hills from the ridge that is maybe a quarter of a mile beyond Ludd Church. It's around 3pm and the sun isn't high enough or warm enough to defrost the distant hillsides.

The following weekend I didn't quite make it into London in time for the wassailing but did get there in time for the mummers play. There was quite a crowd so my youngest daughter stood on a bench and took the pictures. The mummers play was a George and the Dragon themed affair with many contemporary comments, much as they would have been a few hundred years ago. It was entertaining, funny and young enough for the kids with enough gags and one liners for the adults to read between the lines and be genuinely entertained.

With a rather rare often sunny and amazingly warm January, I actually managed my first infra red shot of the year a few months ahead of schedule. Normally infra red shots are used for Black and White work but by taking a shot first and using that as a custom white balance, it is amazing what you can manage in the camera. This shot has had the contrast and brightness played with but that is all. Each IR shot takes around a 5 minute exposure with careful positioning to avoid the slightest glare of the sun. The beauty with it, for me, is that each shot is a surprise, you never know what you are going to get, even mundane things become something different with IR but it does require plenty of sunlight and even the slightest tremor will ruin the shot. The essential kit is a sturdy tripod, remote shutter release and a lot of patience.

Last weekend I ventured into London on Sunday as my eldest daughter lost many photographs for her art exam to a computer hard drive failure. Too late I have purchased a massive 2TB network drive but at least we can all rest easy in the knowledge that should it happen to any of us again, we have a backup.
Anyway, the London trip was for her, not me but I did manage a series of shots focusing on the Lloyds building and the square around it. I didn't capture anywhere near the spatial awareness that this place brings. I don't know if you've had that feeling where all of a sudden you become acutely aware of the space around you, the buildings and building work within the space. This square is undergoing some massive building work and there are 5 or 6 huge cranes and you are hemmed in between tall buildings but the space feels large, the opposite of what you would expect. The shot below is around 9 hand held shots stitched together to create this panorama as there was no way to capture all of this in a single shot.

That is all I have for now and looking back, maybe it's not been such a slow time. Roll on the rest of the year, I am still excited about it.