Shepherdpics ~ The Blog

Hans Strand is photographer of the month for July

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Swedish photographer Hans Strand is our photographer of the month for July. Hans produces some absolutely stunning Landscape work, but for me the real joy is his intimate landscapes. they show a real photographers eye at work.

Birch Bark, Abisko National Park, Sweden, September 2007
by Hans Strand

Why not visit his site now

Previous Photographers of the Month

Christening Photo Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Over the weekend I did some shots of the christening of my friends beautiful baby girl. Now regular readers will know that I don't do a lot of people photography and I rarely use flash so it was a real challenge.

Alexa and Gran
(Click to view large)

I shot the whole thing on my 5D using the 580ex flash unit on camera. After a bit of experimentation before the event I opted to use bounce flash with the little white thingy popped up to add catchlights. Personally I am quite happy with the results but I am sure all the wedding & portrait togs who read my ramblings will be happy to tell me where I have gone wrong.

In Mums Arms
(Click to view large)

All the pictures are on my photobox pro gallery, why not take a look.

Michael Bosanko is photographer of the month for June

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Michael Bosanko is our photographer of the month for June. Michael is the creator of the most stunning light sculptures - his work is absolutely amazing.

Green Dragon
by Michael Bosank

His site really is amazing it is definitely a "must see".

Previous Photographers of the Month

Painters with Light Exhibition at the Octagon

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:26:00 +0000

I have just got back from hanging the latest exhibition by The Painting with Light Society - it is at the Octagon in Colchester.

In to the Octagon

I thought I would share a few pictures of the exhibition as I think it looks great. It took four of us three hours to hang the exhibition and there was hardly any swearing involved at all!

Dave Peck admiring the finished Exhibition

The East Wall

Dave Peck & Ian Flindt share a joke

The complete exhibition

The exhibition runs till August with a launch night on the 22nd of May. The Octagon is an office building shared by many companies. The staff and visitors pass through the exhibition on their way to the building from the carpark.

If you wish to visit the exhibition its fine to go between 8.30 and 6 workdays. Just go in the main doors and ask to be pointed in the right direction for the exhibition. If you want to go at the weekend we need to contact The Octagon to arrange.

If this is not convenient then, don't worry as the exhibition will be moving to a public library later in the year.

Backup to the Cloud - Final Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I have had quite a lot of feedback about my articles on backing up to the cloud:
Backup to the cloud - Part One
Backup to the cloud - Part Two

I am glad I introduced the concept to so many people.

Gold Green and Blue

The feed back that I got was that it sounded interesting but it seemed ever so complicated. Sorry that will be me get too technical too quickly. For most people with one PC or mac i really is very simple:

Download and install the BackBlaze client
Create an account
If you still like it after 15 days..pay for it.

It really is very easy and completely trouble free. Why not try it free for 15 days.

I don't see any point in backing up a load of rubbish that I will never ever use or look at so I have taken the opportunity to have a real cull of images. When I look back it's amazing the amount of old tosh I have had cluttering up my disks. I estimate this should reduce the size of my archive by at least a third.

If you still don't think backing up to the cloud is for you this chart is worth taking a look at, as it gives you an idea of how cloud backup compares against other forms of backup. Though I must stress that they are not exclusive options, the more backups you have...the better.

The Bells, The (blue) Bells

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Sorry to those of you who got half this post by email - I pressed the wrong button!

It's May and that means only one thing...Bluebells!

Bluebells
(click to view large)

These delicate little flowers can be found in many forests and shaded areas at this time of year. And can often be found accompanied by a photographer grovelling on the ground and scratching their head as they attempt to find a composition that hasn't been done to death before.

Bluebell Stripes
(click to view large)

Personally my very favourite place for bluebells is Ashridge Forest, it is run by the National Trust and every year they manage it to produce a fantastic carpet of bluebells. It can get busy near the carparks but walk away from the popular areas and into the depths and you can have an entire carpet of bluebells to yourself.

Ashridge
(click to view large)

Anyway - I thought I would share some of my shots from Ashridge - hope you like them.

Two in the Blue
(click to view large)

Let your gass out

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:01:00 +0000

At home I have a whole series of photo frames and from time to time I like to swap the contents of them. One of the things I have noticed is that often when I open the frame a ghost image has appeared on the inside of the glass.

As the image doesn't touch the glass - how does it happen? Well apparently it is caused by solvents in the inks "out gassing". I came across this article that explains why this fogging occurs and how to stop it.

Thurne (Coming to a wall near me soon)
Click to view larger

In a nutshell Epson recommend:

1. After printing, let the print rest for 15 minutes.
2. After 15 minutes, place a sheet of plain paper (not photo paper) on top of the print and let
dry for 24 hours. The paper acts like a sponge to absorb the gasses and accelerate the
outgassing. (You may stack the prints if you are printing more than one. Be sure to
interleave each print with a sheet of plain paper.)
3. After 24 hours, remove the plain paper. You may notice the plain paper is wavy. If it is,
repeat the procedure again with a new sheet of paper for another 24 hours, after which the
print should be ready for framing. If it is not wavy, this indicates that the solvents in the
print should now be completely dry and the print should be ready for framing
immediately.

I'll have to try this and see how it goes.

Related Posts

Mounting and Finishing Photograpraphs

Paolo de Faveri is photogrpaher of the month for May

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:28:00 +0000

I have been really enjoying the Italian Landscape and Architectural photography of Paulo De Faveri

Twilight at the River Bank by Paolo De Faveri

Why not visit his website and give your eyea a treat.

Previous Photographers of the Month

Killer Cows

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:25:00 +0000

After yesterdays post I was asked why I had spoilt such a nice sunset by sticking that big ugly blob in front of it. Well there is a reason for that..

Temple field has been a bit of a muse of mine for the last few months. I am convinced that there should be a really good picture there but so far the best I have managed is this:

Tree and Temple
(Click to view large)

So on Sunday I decided to head back there and get some shots, but I was faced with the killer cows of Temple Field. I know what your thinking: "You great big jessie, their only cows". Well my last encounter with them four years ago left me a little bit wary of these beasties, here is the story:

As I entered the field I noticed a sign saying Bull in Field. Luckily, I had left my assistant, Boysie the tripod carrying cocker spaniel, at home so I thought I should be alright if I kept my distance from the cows or bull.

There was no sign of the cows in the field anyway, so I headed down the hill and up the other side to the small round temple at the top. As I got to the top and placed my tripod in front of the temple, suddenly cows appeared over the hill round both sides of the temple.

I figured I wouldn't want to take pictures in amongst the cows so I started to move away down the hill. Almost immediately I heard a movement behind me. I turned round quickly and 2 of the cows were now a lot closer than they were before. I spoke to them loudly and clearly, telling them not to be so silly (like most landscape photographers I speak fluent Friesian with a slight Guernsey accent - OK I just babbled incoherently but you get my drift). I then turned and started to walk away.

Temple Dawn
(Click to view large)

I had taken no more than a few steps when I heard a rumble behind me and there was this cow charging towards me head down. Faced with the prospect of being flattened by 2 ton of sirloin, I opted for the only thing I could think of, which was my best stern school teacher voice. I stood still, raised a hand and shouted, "Just stop that now" to my surprise it worked! The only problem was that I was now staring this cow/bull in the eyes and it was little more than 5 foot away from me. I think it was probably a cow rather than a bull but I wasn't going to break eye contact to check.

So there I was now in a staring competition with this cow/bull thing. I didn't dare look away or show any signs of fear as I figured that as soon as I looked away I would have been steam rolled by Aberdeen Angus. Eventually after a few hours of staring (well it seemed like hours, I doubt if it was more than a couple of minutes in real time), a cow behind mooed and the bull/cow dropped its head and backed away. I figure that the moo was the cow equivalent of "leave him Terry he's not worth it".

I carefully made my off the hill and out of the field - keeping a constant watch over my shoulder for the wayward cow and his head-but of death.

So now do you blame me for not wanting to join the cows in Temple Field?

Just Me

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:20:00 +0000

After the attack of the killer swan on Sunday, I popped up to Temple field in Upshire and took the opportunity to try a few self portraits. I thought I would share it with you so you might have an idea who it is producing these ramblings.

Chris and Sunset, Temple Field - Epping Forest, Upshire

When Swans Attack!!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:02:00 +0000

So there I was at Roydon Mill on Sunday evening taking a few shots checking out the potential of the place as location. I had setup my tripod and pretty much had the place to myself, apart from the local swan who came over to see what I was doing. Having decide I wasn't of much interest the swan moved to the other side of the river & left me to my own devices.

A short while later three lads came down the river in an open canoe, enjoying a journey in the evening sunshine. I immediately noticed that the swan had adopted a pose that looked to the untrained eye as if it was saying "Right I'm aving you". It's wings came up and it headed at full pelt towards the canoe.

The Attack Begins

The chaps in the canoe first tried paddling faster to get away, but there was no way this swan was going to let them escape. They tried to scare it by splashing the paddles but it just kept coming. The river goes under a bridge at this point and out of my view, so I grabbed my camera & tripod and legged it up to where I could see down the river. Just as I reached that point the swan managed to turn over the Canoe! Three chaps,bags, bottles, cans and paddles were dumped into the canal.

I went down to the side and helped them haul themselves and their boat out of the water. A chap from a narrow boat came out to offer a hand and said "That bloody swan had a couple in a rowing boat over last week".

So now the lads decide that they needed to collect up all the rubbish that had come out of their boat (very public spirited) and retrieve one of their paddles. But the swan was smart and circled the floating paddle waiting for the next encounter.

The Swan Circles The Paddle

A narrow boater threw some food for the swan and it headed down the river, so an intrepid two set sail to retrieve their gear.

The Intrepid Two

But the swan wasn't to be so easily beaten, it came hurtling back towards them with its wings up in a very aggressive posture, determined to deal with these interlopers. the canoeists soon adopted a technique of "paddle a bit throw something at the swan, grab something out of the water..repeat".

Don't laugh now there is a swan coming

In the middle of all this someone stopped on the bridge in a car, wound down their windows and shouted "Oi don't throw stuff at that swan". People tried to explain what was going on but they would have none of it. They drove off with a shout of "I'm going in to the office and calling the police". Just as the narrow boater standing next to me said "Fecking Idiots".

Incoming Swan

Having collected their stuff the canoeists headed off with the swan chasing, finally a well aimed bottle on the beak caused the swan to give up the chase!

Battle Over

I think I might visit Roydon Mill again.

Backup to the Cloud - Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Having decided to use a remote backup solution and what I wanted to backup, the next things to look at were to decide on were how I was going to do the backup and which provider I was going to use.

After some looking around I settled on BackBlaze as my remote backup provider. Unlimited disk space for $50 a year didn't seem unreasonable at all.

To be fair the unlimited storage does have some limitations though. It applies to one machine and any disk drives attached to it - except network drives. This is a slight problem if you have your data spread across four machines and some network drives as I do.

Dark Cloud backup?

I decided the best thing to do was to build a PC specifically to handle backups. As long as this PC held a copy of all the data that I wanted backed up then things should be OK. So I took an old PC I had kicking about (it's a Pentium II - remember them), reformatted all the drives and installed Windows XP. XP seems to run rather well on an old machine like that, its the applications that slow it down.

Next steps were to remove any unnecessary items that had been installed (msn messenger & such like) and disable any services not required to store files & connect to the internet. This was followed by installing a virus scanner and the rather long wait as it downloads all the updates and patches for XP to make sure we were protected from all those nasty threats on the web.

It really dosn't matter if the machine is a little slow anyway as the crucial bottle neck is broadband upload speed. In case you hadn't realised ADSL stands for Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line - The Asymetric bit is critical. Downloads are a hell of a lot faster than any uploads and there doesn't seem to be any real way to improve them.

I ran the BackBlaze Speed test to get an idea of what sort of speed I could expect and then ran the TCP otimizer to squeeze out every last bit of bandwidth I could. I seem to be achieving around 2GB a day so it's not great but it's acceptable. The next step was to install the BackBlaze software and configure it to ignore any stuff I didn't want backed up on the machine (like the windows XP install directory).

The final install was to load and configure All Way Sync to copy over all the critical information I need backed up from all the various machines.

For my initial backup I chose to backup everything except my image archive. The initial backup takes a long time as it has to copy up every file (6 Days in my case), but after that things should be much quicker as it just copies up changes.

I have now started adding my image archive to the backup. At 300GB I guess it will take 150 days to upload 7 years worth of images. I figure that isn't too bad, if it took me 7 years to create that much data, half a year to upload it is pretty good. Good job I am looking on this as a long term project.

Once this initial upload is complete things should work fine as long as I generate an average of less than 2GB of data a day, that's 700GB a year. At the moment I am at nowhere near that sort of volume, so it seems I have a workable solution.

Backing up to the Cloud - Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I might have mentioned it before but I make no apologies for mentioning it again, make sure you have your data backed up. There are loads of interesting and unusual ways that you can lose the information that you need and a good backup strategy is the only way to protect yourself.

Having taken the time to asses my existing backups and possible threats to my data I came to the conclusion that I had no real protection against a total loss event. What's a total loss event? Well in my case I can see some possible events that would fall into that category: flood, fire & theft. A house fire would melt all my hard drives, a flood wouldn't do them much good either and it is possible that some thieving toe rag could break into the house and clear out all originals and backups.

In the Clouds

So how can I protect my data from total loss? Well traditionally the answer is off-site backups. An off-site backup is where you copy your data to disk or tape and then move those devices far enough away from you to ensure they survive a disaster. This is common practice in the business world. Alternatively, we can take advantage of the internet and backup to The Cloud. Having considered a system of swapping portable hard drives in and out of the house, I thought it would be worth trying out the cloud first as its the modern way.

The first decision was to decide what I wanted this backup for. For me this would be a "last resort" backup as I have a layered strategy:

Currently active work on any PC is copied overnight to another PC using Allway Sync. This allows me to recover yesterdays work quite easily should I accidental delete or corrupt a particular file.
Once a month each machine is imaged to a USB drive, using Acronis True Image. This is to protect against HDD failure and to allow me to recover files that are not on the daily backups i.e. ones I deleted a few weeks ago and suddenly realise I need now.
Image archive. Once a month I move the previous months photos to my herd of buffalo.
Cloud backups would add the final layer that allows me to protect myself from total loss and to go back to much older files if I need to.

First I looked at each PC and decided what I really needed to store off-line:

Email is a major priority, all sorts of things can be kept in the various folders of an email system: logins to infrequently used systems, licence keys for downloaded software, travel bookings, reservations.
Documents created in Wod, Excel,etc
IView Media Pro catalogues, so I can find all my images.
My Image Archive
The latest release of Lemon
A copy of my website including the templates used to generate it.

Some things I decided not to back up:

Music: I don't think I need to keep a copy of my music as I have it all on CD & 2 hard disks. In event of a total loss I would just have to buy all those CDs again.
Bookmarks: For some people their web bookmarks are essential but I hardly use bookmarking so there is no need to worry about them.
Programs: As long as I have the licence keys I should be able to download the latest versions.

So now we have established the why and the what. In part two we will look at the how.

Police delete tourists photos

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:36:00 +0000

Yes you have guessed it, it was "to prevent terrorism".

Dear, oh dear, oh dear.....

Photograpny ban on Downing Street ?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:55:00 +0000

I was listening to an interview tonight with former Home Secretary David Blunkett, about the news that Britains most senior anti-terrorism officer was sacked for accidentally allowing photographers to get a shot of a confidential document he was carrying.

Amazingly David Blunkett thought that it raised questions about whether the photographers should be there (in a designated press area no less) and whether they should be authorised to be there. Even worse people were phoning up to agree that it was the photographers who were a security risk.

Whatever next? should we ban photography from any part of London because someone important might be carrying a document about? Should we ban people who aren't civil servants from using the trains because they might pick up a memory stick that some member of the government has left on the train (again)?

Sheesh!

G20 Protests round two

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:15:00 +0000

After the excitement of yesterday things were expected to be much calmer today. I decided to head down to bank and check out the damage. Things weren't too badly damaged, but a lot of graffiti had appeared.

My Banker

As far as I can work out the protesters were against the war, against the bank bail-outs and in favour of West Ham United!

Graffiti on The Bank

The Duke of Boots in front of The Royal Exchange bore the brunt of some unusual graphic abuse too.

Mine

Message for the fallen

Yesterday a protester died of a heart attack and at lunchtime a small group walked into the Bank square to lay flowers and leave messages for the unknown protester.

I think you may have...

As more people arrived scuffles broke out, arrest were made and the square closed down to prevent more protesters joining the fray.

Questions

Foot and Flowers

G20 Protests in London

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:03:00 +0000

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO VIEW LARGE

Today seems to be National Get It Off Your Chest Day, thousands of protesters descended on the city of London to protest about Capitalism, bank bail outs, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, climate change, pensions and squirrel abuse.

Policing the Freedom Bus

Looking at the Law

Yes, today was the day of the much feared and hyped G20 protests. As we walked from Liverpool Street station it was clear that the city was undecided on what it's response should be to the threat.
Some banks had taken down any identifying symbols, closed the front doors and were pretending no one was home. Other buildings were completely boarded up.

On the steps of The Royal Exchange

Five marches converged on Bank junction from all directions. As they marched through the city they were watched from the sidelines by thousands of city workers dressed down in jeans & casuals.

Bank Junction

As soon as the last of the marches had arrived at the Royal Exchange it became clear that the police were implementing a strategy of containment.

No Entry

Press Pile

Slowly chains of policemen were formed preventing the protesters getting out. The lines were doubled up and vehicles were inserted blocking the roads completely.

Holding the Line

I moved round the area attempting to get closer to the action but being trapped inside the Police cordon didn't seem like a good idea. As it certainly seemed that although the vast majority of people were not up for trouble, a few seemed like they might be.

agent provocateur

Masked Man

Wandering round the area I came across Russel Brand and attempted to do a bit of papping. Walking backwards taking a shot of a celebrity and not bumping into the other photographers is harder than it looks - well that's my excuse for the shot not being sharp!

Russel Brand

Billy No Mates

Round by Mansion House I came across an American journalist doing a piece to camera. I listened as he told his viewers that the police were clearing the square. Actually they were doing the complete opposite!

Talking Tosh

An hour later and things got a bit tense as a group of demonstators broke through the police line and trashed a branch of RBS. The riot police went in and it was all soon over. The police lines were restored.

After the Riot

Police Lines

From there I found a tiny group of proestors blockading Tescos..no idea why though.

Your More

Over in Bishopsgate the entire road had been turned into a climate camp, things were extremly good natured and rather fun.

Nature...

Policimg the Climate Camp

The day went well with almost everyone getting to demonstrate peacefully and things went off much better than predicted.

But the main impression I came away with was how amazingly polite and professional every policeman I met was. They dealt with a difficult situation with tact and humour - makes you proud to be British.

The Bobby is back

Ian Lipscombe is photogrpaher of the month for April

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Whilst researching location opportunities here in Sunny Essex, I came across the website of Ian Libscombe. It's always good to see how another photographer interprets locations that are familiar to you but what really impressed me was the quality of the black and white images he produces.

Timber Gate by Ian Lipscombe

Why not visit his website and enjoy the beauty of Essexat its best.

Previous Photographers of the Month

The war on photography starts getting surreal

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:46:00 +0000

A Manchester man was arrested and held for two days for taking pictures of a drain cover - even though the police could find no pictures of the drain cover on his phone!

Matt Whorlow is Photographer of the Month for March

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Every time I open a UK photography magazine these days it seems there is either an image or an article by Matt Whorlow. Matt is lucky enough to live in Cornwall and has miles of beautiful coastline and countryside on his doorstep, which he takes maximum advantage of.

The Hurlers by Matt Whorlow

Why not visit his website and enjoy the beauty of Britain at its best.

Previous Photographers of the Month

Printed Portfolios

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:15:00 +0000

I was talking to a fellow photographer a few months back about printing. In order to illustrate a point I grabbed one of my printed portfolios from off the shelf.

Six years worth of portfolios sitting on my shelf

The point was instantly forgotten as he looked through the portfolios and exclaimed "what a simple and obvious idea". He immediately resolved to start printing out his images and saving them in portfolios. It's such an obvious idea that I thought I would share it with you, dear reader.

Landscape images fit just as well as portrait, though it helps if you turn the book round

I print each image on premium gloss paper at A4. In Qimage I have set up a job that sizes them, adds a small Key-line round the edge of each image and uses the IPTC metadata to print a caption at the bottom right of each page.
The process is really quite simple: Every six months (yes there is a reminder on RTM), I pick a set of images from my archive in iView Media Pro and create a catalog set. I then send the entire lot to the QImage queue and hit the print button.

A print is so much more satisfying to look at then a screen

I store my images in A4 Panodia Prinitbooks, which seem to be getting quite hard to come by. You can buy the book on its own as well as a refil pack, I find one refil pack split between two books is ideal.

It's an interesting lesson to look back at old portfolios, to see now you have developed and progressed in both technique and style.

Happisburgh Location Report

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

As regular readers will know I am the Photo Locations Editor for Ephotozine. The idea of the Locations Section is for people to share their favourite photographic location with other photographers, whether it is ideal for Landscapes, Architecture, Wildlife or anything else.

I have just uploaded a report for Happisburgh - a fast disappearing gem on the coast of Norfolk.

Remains of the Day - Abandoned sea defences Happisburgh

(Click to view large)

Exhibition Extended

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:11:00 +0000

I have just been informed that the Exhibition at RSPB Dungeness with Darren Chaplin, Martin Eldridge Kevin Goodchild and myself which was due to finish on february 14th has been extended, due to popular demand, for another two weeks.

Snow and Gate

So if you are down that way then you have until the end of February to visit.

A Snow Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I have said it before and I will probably will say it again: I really do like snow. Last Monday the south of England ground to a complete halt when snow hit in a big way.

We don't get snow very often and snow that settles is an even rarer beast, so road and rail chaos ensued. The schools were closed as the teachers couldn't get in. Millions of people couldn't get to work, so instead they had to stay home and build snowmen or go tobogganing with their kids. Where is the bad in that - snow really is brilliant stuff.

Fun with Mum
(Click to view large)

Being the intrepid and hard-working photographer I am, I had already made a note of the weather forecast and had my bags packed just in case the weather men were right. Being unable to drive anywhere the only option was to take my gear & get out there and walk.

First I headed to Roding Valley Meadows, as per usual I found it difficult to avoid a shot of my very favourite tree when it is covered in snow.

Snow at the Gate
(Click to view large)

After that it was back home for a snack and then a long walk through Epping Forest. I started at Baldwins Hill by The Foresters pub where a big hill leads down in to the forest. Hundreds of people had turned up to go sledging and were throwing themselves down the hill on sledges, plastic bags, barbecue lids and even the top part of a wheelbarrow.

Weeeee!!!
(Click to view large)

I stayed there for ages, enjoying capturing the action and the sheer sense of fun with everyone smiling and having a great time.

Hanging on
(Click to view large)

From there I headed across the forest to the Iron Age hill fort of Loughton Camp high in the forest. It snowed all the time I was walking and it was a constant battle to keep the camera lens and my glasses free of snow. Then a strange thing happened...I got lost!

Normally I have no trouble finding my way around the forest. I know where the tracks go and if I follow a new track I have a pretty good idea where it will go to. This is all well and good if you can see the tracks, but the heavy snowfall had covered them all and I was walking where the only footprints were mine and those of some passing deer.

Aat times like this I can usually orientate myself by the noise of the traffic on forest roads, but the snow had bought traffic to a halt. So I worked myway into a valley where I found a stream and followed it downhill to where it met a second stream but I still didn't recognise the area at all. I spent ages racking my brains but couldn't work out where I was as I was expecting to see the juction of 3 paths with 2 bridges over the streams. I finally realised that the streams & bridges were almost invisible under the amount of snow on them, so with much relief I infereed the path I wanted from some flat areas in the snow and headed for home.

I made it home after 5 hours of wandering in the snow with my camera. All in all a great day...I love snow.

100 Things

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Shepherd) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I was just browsing the blog of a talented wedding photographer James Burns, he had come accross it on the blog of Zoe Richards , and I came across this list . Zoe had found it on another website: , Shawna at Pattycake Photo . Simply copy the list, paste it to wherever, and bold up the things that you've actually done. Leave me a comment & a link here when you've done it, so I can see your answers!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Italy
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland Paris
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Gone on a hot air balloon ride
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a cheque
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Princess Diana Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Scottish Highlands
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own