Week 2 PaW – Virginia Water

Week 2 of my PaW

So Im slightly late posting this one. I went on the walk last Saturday- 9th – but I was debating about which pic was my PaW.

So I decided to go localish as all the snow was still on the ground and the roads were frankly stupid to drive on. I decided to head over to Virginia Water to aim to get a sunset. Uh huh, great plan! So I left my house at 2.30 & the sun was visible so at this point I was hopeful. The 30 mins it took me to drive over to Virginia Water saw the sun disappear into that annoying hazy grey cloud.

Well I parked my car on the ice rink that passed for the car park & put gloves, hat & scarf on. Picked up my bag & tripod and headed out like an intrepid explorer. It wasnt actually all that bad but that makes it sound more heroic. Anyway, as I am walking towards the lake a lady is walking the other way carrying her tripod so we both eye up each others hints at photographers & say Hello. We stopped and had a chat about the weather and photos & I mentioned I was there to get a sunset & that I was hopeful the clouds cover would break. She told me that she was also wanting one but as she had been out most of the day was cold & had decided to head home. After a few minutes talking I said I was going to head to the waterfall & she asked if she could tag along.

We chatted about Flickr & general photo taking, it was really nice to meet another photographer and just have a chat. She told me she still uses film, which I think is fab. We took a few shots of the waterfall, although it was easier for me with my digital & I felt a bit like a cheat using it while she was setting up, checking her settings & taking her shot.

All this took us about 20 mins & we started heading back up the hill to where I was planning on awaiting the sunset in all its glory. There was still about 20 mins to sunset & the clouds had not moved an inch. Karen (Im bad with names so I am really hoping that is indeed her name!) said she was going to admit defeat & head home. We swapped Flickr names & I headed into the snow to set up. I waited until 4.20 which was after the official sunset time & the clouds never broke. I took some shots of water plants, ice & some birds to pass the time. But the sunset was my goal & it just didnt happen.

I hope you like my waterfall shot, the other shots are on my “other shots” page & are on Flickr. Talking of Flickr, I have added Karen, or Landlocked-123 as she is called on there, and I have to say I am glad to have met her as some of her photographs are just stunning! And what a lovely friendly lady. Thankyou for your company on a cold snowy day.

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog!

Week 1 of my Photo A Week

The story behind the shot
Myself and my husband went for a walk on January 2nd. We decided to go to The Lookout in Bracknell as its not that far away and being so close to new year we were still feeling lazy!
The Lookout is a nice place for a short walk, although I seem to get lost a lot there when I am alone. No sense of direction you see! Anyway we started out and watched a magpie for a while, I took a couple of shots of him flying around with a lump of something he obviously found tasty. Our walk continued through the trees where there really wasnt a whole lot to shoot apart from trees! It was actually fairly busy, we could always see at least 4 other people wherever we were.
As we were walking up a hill to turn onto the homewardstretch of the walk we heard some very odd noises in the trees. Turns out squirrels are chatty little buggers and it was a group of them up a very tall evergreen tree. I tried to take some shots of them but they were too far up & were obscured by foliage. They were calling to a second group the other side of the path so I headed that way. Frozen foliage & general forest litter is very noisey when frosty so my approach wasnt exactly stealthy! hehe. There was lots of evidence of food tables – stumps that had a lot of chewed chestnut shells all over them. We started to watch both groups as they started to play, I guess deciding that the 2 people in thier dining area were probably harmless. For about 20 mins we stood and watched them running up & down trees chasing each other & thier own tails, boinging about chattering the whole time. What is suprising is the number of people out walking who just carried on past completely oblivious to playtime just a few feet away.

Anyway this shot was taken as 3 decided to head back across to the other side of the path the fun way! With a bit of help from the husband who pointed out 3 were heading that way I managed to get my camera round to the jumping point. So as squirrel number 3 is heading along a branch I zoom in & focus on the very tip, where he would be taking off from, held my breath & as I saw his back legs leave the branch I clicked off my 1 shot.

Once the walk was over we headed home & the first thing I checked was did the shot come out ok & did I time it as well as it looked like on the LCD.

Yes I did & I am very proud of myself for getting this, more so because I stuck to a single shot & didnt resort to “cheating” and putting the camera on to take multiple shots