Photography Challenge 2

Yesterday I mentioned that I'd taken part in two photography challenges this year amongst a group of friends.  The first, that I blogged about yesterday, was to take a photograph to represent each word on a list of 50.  The second challenge was to choose a view and take a photo each month so we could see how it changed throughout the year.  Some people chose a view from a window in their home, one chap who lives just outside Reykjavik chose a stunning rural view of a mountain a shortish walk from his house.

I chose a view of our local church, taken across the fields from the common area on our housing development where I walk Jess.  I'm sure I've mentioned during snowy weather posts that we live halfway up a hill.  The hill is really the southern side of the valley of the River Stour (which forms a border between Essex and Suffolk counties), so the countryside is sloping (and I always forget how high up we are until I'm walking up the path from the train station which is on a level with the river).  I'm not sure if I've mentioned before but the little town we live in is an hour by train from London and few miles from the village of Dedham where the artist John Constable lived and went to school and the area where he painted several of his famous landscapes.  My photographed view will never in a million years be comparable to the works of Constable, but I'm quite pleased with the results.

January is top left, December is bottom right.

Here's a link to the photo set on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45245939@N07/sets/72157632404266276/

I think we're going to do this challenge again this year.  I might do two views.  The field behind our house has had planning permission passed for new houses to be built so it will be interesting to see what happens on there over the coming 12 months and, if the building's delayed, then it's a field that usually has a crop of wheat or beans grown on it, so it would be representative of a farming year.  I might drive to a spot a couple of miles away and take photos of a view across Dedham vale to Dedham church.  Otherwise, I can go up onto the bank by the local supermarket and take a view down-river towards Harwich and Felixstowe ports and take a shot of that.  Choices, choices!

I did also do a reading challenge, but that's been a bit of a failure as I've found it very difficult to get into a book in recent months, but I think I've managed to read 18 or so books this year (there were several others that got started, but then were abandoned).

Today is going to be a day of sewing in ends and then washing and ironing some gift items.  I'll take photographs and show you tomorrow (or possibly a couple of days after that - DD2 is unwell at the moment, so won't be going to school for the last couple of days of the term).