Wet, cold, dark and miserable - these are just a few words to describe the first month of 2020 and my lord has it lived up to these words. I have, in truth hardly had my camera out this month due to some pretty awful conditions across the month leaving weekends resigned to more cozy affairs. Having said this I have however managed to cobble together some images I have taken over this most miserable of months to showcase on here when the weather did perk up for a couple of days.

So where better to start then, than with some photos of January’s most abundant consequence of all this rain…. mud.

Taken on a grey rainy day, I decided to chance it with the drone, so put it up to see if there was anything worth capturing even on the bleakest of days. I noticed these patterns made by various vehicles in an industrial area of ground, so I focussed on bringing out the beauty from this very unlikely source. I loved the patterns that the vehicles had made in the mud, and the colours that the different minerals in the mud made. I was actually very happy with how a couple of the images turned out. Who says mud can’t be beautiful?

One trip I did make at the very start of the year was to Longleat for it’s annual ‘festival of light’. This year the theme was Myths and Legends. Drawing inspiration from epic stories from around the world; from the gods and magical beings of ancient Greece, to heroic tales of British folklore and saw huge light lanterns placed throughout its grounds. The 35mm F/1.4 lens came into its own here, capturing some of my favorite lanterns across the park with ease. This lens at night was able to capture the lanterns while totally blacking out the surrounding unlit areas creating some really nice images that showcase the lanterns to their fullest.

While at Longleat, I was also able to take some images of its Zoo. Sadly thanks to the January light, I was not able to get many useable images before it was too dark, but a couple did come out well enough to show here. I will hopefully be back in the summer to explore the actual safari park with my 400mm Lens and get a lot more images.

I was finally able to take the drone out again towards the end of the month for a very brief fly over Ashton Court, catching the trees before they begin to put their spring/summer coats on again.

Finally towards the end of the month there was some proper sun so I decided to take my drone with me to work in the centre of bristol for the first time this month. So on a very cold but finally bright, clear skied day, I was able to capture the centre of Bristol in all its glory.

I spent some time flying over the harbourside to queen square, looking for interesting shapes and patterns in the buildings below, before taking a series of 5 photos to create a panoramic of the whole city scape.

Hopefully this horrible weather leaves us soon and as the days get longer there will be more opportunities for weekend trips and in turn more photo opportunities.

FIN