I’ve updated my gallery again after off-loading some of my recent snaps.

A couple of weeks ago I headed out to the Windsor beer and jazz festival and was blessed with superb weather and a great collection of live jazz sets to compliment the pints of ale I consumed. The good weather brought the public out in force and I managed to take a few nice shots of people enjoying the day.

Last weekend I went for one of my many walks so far this year, this time with Julia and Chris, and we got as far as Avebury before relaxing over a pub lunch and a couple of pints before returning to Swindon. While I didn’t take many photos I managed to capture a superb landscape with a rather desolate looking farm building in frame that really seems to strike a chord.

Before the weekend I went out for an evening walk around Coate Water and was able to capture a superb sunset. I took the shot below at just the right moment – the cloud formation and the passage of a single swan across the frame made for the perfect photograph.

I had far too many photos sitting on my camera desperate to be shared with the world so after my recent upload of my North Sea Jazz pictures I created a number of new galleries to bring my photo album up to date with all my recent photographic exploits. Click the thumbnails below to be taken to the newly uploaded albums.

    

Two weeks ago I enjoyed a week long break from work and headed out to Austria for a skiing break with a couple of old friends from my school days, Matt Kirk and Ed McIllwraith. Despite not having been skiing abroad for a number of years I got in practice before hand by visiting the xscape snow dome in Milton Keynes and was fully ready for the trip by the time I boarded the plane.

The trip was better than I could imagine and while my intense skiing activity left considerably less time for photos I still managed to make the most of the resort and the activities on offer.

I succeeded in completing all the black runs in the resort and got a fair chunk of off-piste skiing done, including what Ed described as a spectacular stack after hitting a tree stump submerged by snow that saw me go head over heels 3 times. I was OK though and in a strange kind of way it made the trip even better. The holiday reminded me how much I enjoy skiing and the winter scenary and I definitely think I’ll be trying to get a trip organised again next year. If you’ve never tried skiing you should definitely get some lessons and give a trip a go – you won’t regret it.

I recently posted a number of photos I’ve taken over the past few weeks but realised I had forgotten to make this fact known in a blog post.

• Stone Henge – In a resent visit to stone henge I took a a number of photos which came out really rather well
• Snow in Swindon – I managed to take a few nice photos of the heavy snowfall we experienced a few weeks ago
• Walk Around Coat Water – I went for a walk one afternoon and took a few photos while I was at it

My new years eve 2008 was spent at Chris’ house party in Leeds. Seeing as Chris had a decent digital camera and was getting snap happy I decided to forgo taking my own shots and used a collection of the photos he took to form a new years 2008 album over in my gallery.

Best wishes for 2009 everybody 🙂

In an attempt to make up for the over-indulgence of Christmas day I went for a boxing day walk in Verulamium park with my parents before we sat down to lunch. Seeing as I can never resist the opportunity to take a few pictures I was accompanied by my camera. Sadly the battery ran out rather quickly after all the flash use on Christmas day but not before I’d taken a few nice shots which I’ve uploaded to my gallery.

After a thoroughly enjoyable family Christmas with a huge meal and all the trimmings, not to mention a relaxed evening and a fair few drinks along the way, the photos from the day are now online. You can view them over in my gallery.

This year I got the tripod out so that I could be included in the family photos around the dinner table and took a few more pictures of people opening their presents, some of which captured expressions reasonably well, although I’m not sure how much I’ll be thanked for putting some of the shots online!

After a thoroughly successful Halifax College 5th Anniversary ball the photos from the disposable cameras distributed at the event have now been developed and have found their way onto the web. Interested parties can view and pass comment on them over on my photo gallery

Sadly my knowledge of old students is not what it once was so I invite all those who recognise people in the photos to contact me and let me know who and where in a given photo so that I can update the captions accordingly.

Over the August bank holiday weekend I went to Solfest with Sarann and stayed at her house with some of her family. It was a great festival with some enjoyable musical acts and a great atmosphere. I was thoroughly impressed with the organisation and the wide range of bands and activities on offer. As an added bonus we experienced fine weather for the most part as well which is always nice. I feel sure I will return to the festival next year.

As ever with my trips away I took a number of photos, just click the thumbnail to view them in my gallery.