24th August

I went out for a walk in the meadow again this afternoon, after rain had fallen for most of the day. A few weeks ago this signpost appeared in the lower field and I think it added to an already interesting view of the green, wet treeline.

23rd August

I was stuck at home today, not feeling great so I returned to my occasional series of monochrome photos of everyday views. Here's one of my favourite seats.

22nd August

I wandered out to the river again today and discovered that a large branch of a tree had fallen in recently. I like this photo of the waterfall just above the fallen branch, demonstrating the calm that comes before the fall and the chaos that happens below.

21st August

Today was the day of the annual Mini Golf World Tour. This year's leg was the South Coast leg and we started in Bognor Regis, also playing rounds of mini golf in Portsmouth, Boscombe and Sandbanks, as well as a rather poor-quality round of pitch and putt.

Following a long day of putting, driving and eating, the evening view across the harbour in the most expensive seaside location for property purchases in the world, Sandbanks, was rather rewarding.

Almost as rewarding as taking home the day's overall title...

20th August

On an evening out to see a friend I sat down in the car to see this night-time view in the wing mirror. It's not particularly exciting but it was a good challenge to see if I could capture it.

19th August

Today we went on a day out to the south coast. Our first destination was Drusilla's Park. Drusilla's is a zoo park that's been around for 70 years or so, situated between Eastbourne and Brighton. I hadn't been there since my youth and to be honest, it didn't look anything like I remembered it, although my memories are fairly limited.

It's not a large zoo but there were a good range of smaller and medium-sized animals to see. We enjoyed the penguins and the binturong - a creature also called the bear-cat despite being neither bear nor cat.

There was also a wide range of monkeys, gibbons and lemurs and I particularly like this shot of this little fellow.

18th August

My second in my new monochrome series is quite a busy shot of one of my most-used pieces of kit, except for my camera of course!

17th August

Not done much today, except unpack and tidy after the holidays. I've decided to toy with the black and white feature on the camera to see if it livens up some otherwise mundane photos, so here's my first in that series.

16th August

After a long drive home today, we recovered on the sofa. My wife's new crochet supplies arrived in the post whilst we were gone so she dived right in to a new hobby. Here's her progress so far - it'll be a blanket sooner or later.

15th August

It's still raining. However, at times the sun does come out in between the showers and we're enjoying our time nevertheless. To show the change in our view, here's another pine branch, though this time you can really see the rain drops clinging on.

14th August

Today, the rains came. We've discovered that we enjoy tennis in our time here, but also that we don't enjoy tennis in the rain. Or, for that matter, cycling back to our apartment in the rain.

Taken at a time when it would normally be light outside, here's a depressing but also rather atmospheric view from our balcony this evening.

13th August

As mentioned yesterday, we're surrounded by pine trees. Whilst enjoying the late afternoon sun, I took this close-up view of one of the branches, showing how many needles there are on each branch.

12th August

Our second trip away of the Summer will not be as scenic as the first, I fear. We are spending a few relaxing days at Center Parcs in Longleat, set in a pine forest on a hillside. The site is rather large but sadly not particularly photogenic, at least in the bits that we've seen so far. Still, I think the nearer trees frame the more distant tree in this view from our balcony.

11th August

Coming home from training at the pool this evening I noticed that the sun was setting in a moody sky behind some trees. It was too early for reds and oranges but it's still interesting to a point!

10th August

We went out today to celebrate my mother-in-law's 60th Birthday. Before what was perhaps the nicest meal that I have ever eaten in a restaurant, at the Oxo tower, we took the river boat from the London Eye down to North Greenwich and then rode the new Emirates Air Line across the Thames to the Excel Centre and back.

The cable car ride was surprisingly smooth and photos were certainly possible, though the view turned out not to be particularly interesting, at least in about 270 of the available degrees. However, there aren't many positions from which one can get a photo of the O2 and Canary Wharf at the same time.

9th August

I went over to Swindon today to see my little sister. She too is a photographer, and a rapidly developing one so we took a walk out at the Cotswold Water Park.

We walked along a disused canal and along the footpath came across some long-forgotten canal paraphernalia. This photo I was particularly pleased with as you can see the overgrown lock in the foreground along with the circular house in the background, now seemingly occupied by a family who've found an unusual home in an idyllic setting.

8th August

Glancing out of the window earlier I noticed that the clouds had been unnaturally lit up by the sunset. I jumped up and got this photo, which nearly does the sight justice.

7th August

With one of our pieces of art photographed, here is the other. This is a photo of a photo which is becoming rather odd... Many years ago we went to Paris and this photo, which my wife took, was a gift to me after the trip.

Regular readers may well notice that it's better than most, if not all, of my photographic efforts! I think it's a great photo and I hope its splendour is transmitted adequately in my view of it.

6th August

The day after a very nice long weekend consisted mostly of tidying, unpacking and so on... This evening I wondered if I could get an interesting photo of the grain of our fruit bowl. I think I could probably have done better.

5th August

It was our last morning in Bologna today and so, on our last sweaty walk in the sun, I took this shot of the palace that dominates the central square of the city. This palace, like most of the other local buildings, is hundreds of years old and it really does look it - I could easily imagine it being the backdrop to scenes of some historical, political intrigue, or the modern televisual adaptation of the same.

4th August

Sunday in Bologna and the place was dead. The whole city seemed to be at church, in bed or on holiday.

We started the day's adventures with a visit to a museum about the history of music where the staff outnumbered us, the only visitors, by a ratio of 2 to 1. It was a very interesting place with a lot of old instruments and manuscripts which we examined for differences from today's form of writing out music.

On the way back to our hotel we discovered a fantastic gelateria with a very wide array of impressive flavours. It just happened to be near the foot of the towers so I ended up taking some further shots, without the sun's rays in the photo this time.

The cables really aren't ideal but they seem to be everywhere in the centre of a city that was all built hundreds of years ago - they seem to be preferable to putting up lampposts as the street lights are hung from them. This city has no objection to all of the centre-of-town stores selling expensive, modern brands but chooses to preserve this aspect of history...

3rd August

We went out to explore Bologna today in the heat. It must have been at least 35 degrees so we didn't explore too quickly! The main tourist sight in Bologna is a pair of towers that were built hundreds of years ago by two competing families. Height of tower was a sign of influence and affluence.

Sadly, one of the two towers soon collapsed, but the view is, if anything, even more impressive. This afternoon, the beating sun made an interesting backdrop to the unusual sight.

2nd August

We arrived in Italy this afternoon for a long weekend of food and sightseeing in Bologna. Since I strongly object to photos of food, the next few days' photos will probably be mostly of sights!

Given that we arrived, settled in to our room, went out for a pizza and then came back to collapse, we've not seen many sights at this point, but the view from our window is very interesting and a sign of the ancient bulidings and porticoed pavements that we'll see a lot of in the next few days.

1st August

Not much happening today and definitely running out of things in the flat to photograph so I moved on to our triptych. We have this up over the sofa and, to be honest, kind of forget it's there but it's a great painting and photographed well I think.

31st July

I drove over to have dinner in Sevenoaks this evening and was early so I sat around taking a few shots.

I enjoyed this view of an unusual wind vane with the clock - it's just a shame we didn't have a bit more sun.

30th July

No real excuses today. I'm just running out of inspiration. I even went out for a walk today and came back having not taken any photos. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

29th July

After the long weekend's exertions I've been lazy today, hence this uninspiring photo of some more flowers in the flat...

28th July

This afternoon, Trailwalker was finally completed by the team, about 29 hours and 25 minutes after they started. This was an amazing achievement for a team that hadn't ever attempted a challenge like it and, as they crossed the finishing line on Sunday afternoon, you can really see that they were proud of their achievements.

I was stunned by the whole team's determination to complete the course and enjoyed supporting them, despite the lack of sleep!

27th July

In a fit of madness I agreed to be part of the support crew for my friends on Trailwalker - a real challenge in which teams of 4 attempt to walk 100km within a time limit of 30 hours.

Having taken over the support duties at about 8.30pm and fed and watered the team at about 9.15pm, we drove over the hills and through the dark of the night along very narrow roads to Checkpoint 6.

The team made it here some time after midnight so, as I waited with a friend I took a few shots. This was quite a challenge in the dark field in the middle of nowhere but this photo of some long grass illuminated by a distant floodlight and jostled by the wind is an unusual view.

26th July

I'm still enjoying walks across the meadow. It would seem today that the wind is in the direction that means that Heathrow flights are heading our way as there were a lot of vapour trails amongst the clouds. A very tranquil skyscape.

25th July

I'm working on my low-light photography amongst other things. It turns out that I can actually hold a camera still for quite a long time - as this shot demonstrates...

24th July

Still more plants and flowers in the flat! Here's an unusual bunch of daisies. At least I think they are daisies...

23rd July

On a walk this morning I came across a small waterfall. Having spent a long time just watching it and taking a variety of different photos, this one came out as my winner.

22nd July

With lots to do today I ended up taking this photo, which could quite easily be the backdrop of a computer from the nineties.

That doesn't make it one of best...

21st July

I've taken a few photos of the moon recently. Today I thought I'd try to see if I can actually take a good photo of the moon exclusively.

Not too bad...

20th July

There were a lot of plants in the flat today. I'm getting bored of the usual shots so I've started looking for unusual views.

19th July

At sunset today I drove up to Ranmore Common to sit in one of my favourite places, Denbies Hillside. There are always amazing views of Dorking, Westcott, Box Hill and the North Downs.

I managed to get an interesting view of the moon against a sunset haze.

18th July

I'm on holiday from work. So today I filled the day with 'important' chores and a long bike-run session. Then I went out to the pub. I'm sure I managed to do a lot of other crucial things too.

Nevertheless, here's a photo I took post-pub of the dining room. It's dull, but I was trying to see how well I could get the photo using just the light from the kitchen.

17th July

I took the camera into London again today. I decided to visit the Tate Britain and enjoyed seeing the wide range of pieces on display. Sadly, you aren't allowed to take photos in the galleries.

Fortunately, there is a very atmospherically-lit hallway on the upper level with arches. The people are walking from one gallery to another, enjoying an inspirational morning.

16th July

A long day today, so I've ended up taking a shot of my mint plant at dusk. It's survived so long that it's starting to bud.

15th July

Since the start of this project, I've been meaning to get to a local heath. It's an interesting spot as there are fir trees there surrounding a sand pit. I think the photo explains all really but it's a fascinating place - certainly doesn't feel like you're in the local area when wandering here.

14th July

I went for a walk along a section of the river that I haven't been along before. The views were pleasant but I saw a lot of flying insects around a bush and was more pleased with this than any of the landscapes. Probably a bit more interesting too...

13th July

It was very hot today, hardly an ideal day for a triathlon. Nonetheless, it actually went very well. I spent most of the day preparing for the event, racing, recovering and then driving home through sunny day traffic on the motorway.

To illustrate the heat today, I returned home to this sight.

You know it's been a hot day when the cactus looks like it's suffering...

12th July

Alongside this project, and at times to the detriment of this project, I've been training for triathlons. I've taken one shot of my bike at one point but, with my first event coming up tomorrow, this photo pretty much sums up my day today.

11th July

Wandering home this afternoon I noticed the way that the bricks were arranged beneath this railway bridge. At one point there were straight lines across the base of the bridge but at other points they were diagonal, making the illusion of a spiral.

I'm not sure how well you can see the impact, but it's certainly different to some of the views I've been shooting lately.

10th July

Not so much time today, so I popped out at sunset again. It was a bit later than yesterday, as you can tell from this view of some pine trees.

9th July

I was in the meadow at sunset today and tried to fiddle with the camera settings to get the full effects of the light. I think I had some success here.

8th July

Once again, I was taking photos for work today. A lot of photos.

Unfortunately I can't post my piece de resistance today as it's going to be used in a much more public forum than this - the school's magazine front cover.

7th July

The nearby meadow is turning out to be one of my favourite places. I find myself regularly coming across different animals and today I tried to do some dragonfly-spotting. The little things move so incredibly quickly that the only photos I even got close to taking were of this chap who fortunately sat still for me.

6th July

It was Speech Day at work today and I was on photo duty all day. I took about 400 and here is the first one of the day.

5th July

Another ridiculous day today. Another rubbish photo. At least it's unusual and different...