Despite the inconveniences that snow brings I don’t have snow fatigue yet. Though it was close today, but that had more to do with the office being freezing at work. I shouldn’t blame that on the snow. Even if the weather wasn’t sub-zero outside we’d still need hot water bottles, fleeces and slipper socks to keep warm at work the first day back after Christmas.

In fact yesterday I thought the snow was rather wonderful. As usual I went to the Co-op to stock up on essentials and as I walked along I realised how lovely it was to have fewer cars on the road and more people on foot. People were out en masse walking to do their food shopping. The usual noise of traffic was replaced with chatting and laughter. People smiling and saying hello to each other. We are so used to having everything instantly these days and snow slows that down. It’s not as easy to escape our own communities so we talk to our neighbours. As I walked back people were stood out on their streets chatting. It was lovely.

And today my brother-in-law and I decided to walk to work. The buses are unreliable at the best of times so we thought walking might be just as quick, plus give us a chance to do some morning photography. Some of the results are below and you can see more in my flickr photostream.

Narrowing it down to my five favourite images has been tough. It’s nice to have so many images that I’m proud of. Those that didn’t make it can be found on my Flickr Photostream

1. Palace Green
The weekend of the Durham regatta my sister and I ventured into Durham with my nieces. After buying ice creams we ventured to Palace Green to sit down and give the girls a chance to play, while I played with my camera. This was one of the results and my favourite photograph of the year.

2.Bride & Bridesmaid
Lucy is my oldest friend, we met for the first time within my first few days of being born, so her wedding was always going to be a very special day. Especially as she met her husband through me. I’ve got some great pictures from the day but I just love this one of Lucy and her head bridesmaid, Anna, in conversation. You can see my other photos from the day in my Flickr Wedding Set.

3. Funny Face
On the day of my nieces First Holy Communion I took a LOT of photos. Comments were made about the camera being surgically attached to my face. But I got some fantastic ‘in the moment’ shots that I wouldn’t have got otherwise.

4. 24 Hour CCTV
For Catherine’s 8th Birthday we went to Beamish Wild and it was another day of fantastic photo taking opportunities and quite a few happy accidents.

5. Snow in Durham
Since the summer I’ve not been out and about much with my camera but the snow last week gave me a chance to dust of the Nikon and get back out there. I don’t know what it is about this one, but I really enjoy looking at it.

Sadly, as with Durham Cathedral (but without the excuse of a bad back), I didn’t feel I got nearly as much as I should have done from this glorious cathedral. It didn’t help that I forgot to bring my tripod, meaning I missed out on quite a few shots in darker parts of the minster. Once I get back I will be uploading more images of York Minster, and the rest of the city, to my Flickr Photostream. But for now here’s a sample…

Flickr is another thing in the realm of “social networking” that it took me a while to get to grips with (see my post RSS… WTF!) but now I love it for showing off the best of my photography. I find that with my Nikon D40 I’m now taking hundreds of photos but getting some fantastic results, sometimes completely by accident! For example at Lucy & Dave’s Wedding I took approximately 400 photos, 96 made it to Facebook, but only the best 10 made it to Flickr.

I work on the principle that Flickr is for showing off the best of the best. People only like looking at lots of photos if they are in them, they are from an event they were at, or they show friends making idiots of themselves. In all other cases people don’t want to sort through piles of boring photos. Digital photography means we can take many more photos at a much lower cost, however it doesn’t change the fact that looking at someone elses holiday shots is as boring as it ever was.

A friend who also subscribes to this principle on his website is Graeme Watson (who I also have to thank for being my teacher in DSLR photography, getting me to a level of understanding to be able to take the pictures you see below.)

Anyway, sit back, enjoy and if you’d like to see more please do mosey on over to my Flickr Photostream.

Before I gave up I did manage to get a few shots (more of which you can see on my page on Flickr)

I also got to step on the hallowed turf at the centre of the cloisters. Is it wrong to be in the holiest of places getting excited at standing where Harry Potter (well Daniel Radcliffe) et al have stood in the past?

At least my injury has given me the time to finally set up a Flickr account (surely a must for all photographers?). Also in my usual positive, optimistic manner it has made me count my blessings that for a majority of time I am fit, healthy and able to do what I want. I can’t wait until I can change a DVD again without it feeling like a comedy sketch!

It’s just been one of those weeks where everything comes to a head. There’s been a couple of annoying situations at work (that’s the edited description of it). That bad feeling grew into snowball of crap, which along the way decided to unearth horrible feelings associated with my last job. By Wednesday feeling rubbish was really gaining momentum and I was exhausted. I finished my day by buying summer clothes as my current ones refuse to fit. So added to all of this I got back into a grump about the medication I’ve been on for the past eight months, which has caused me to put on about 20lbs. And now I’m coming off that medication, the side effect of horrendous tiredness was compounding all this low feeling and shoving me towards the edge.

By the time I got home from work yesterday evening all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. I’d had enough of the week.

So I phoned my sister who offered me wise words… “However tired you are you can do what you need to do. If you don’t need to do it, then don’t do it. But if it HAS to be done then you can do it. And once you’ve done it you will feel better for it.”

And despite the part of my brain that wanted to give up, curl up in a ball, wallow in the rubbish feeling and cry my eyes out I picked myself up and got on with it.

She was right. I could do it. I did some of the cleaning I needed to do. I made cakes I’d promised to make. And by the time my friend turned up to teach me how to use my new lens for my SLR, I was feeling in an altogether better mood.

So I am happier (and have been twittering about smiling to help keep the happy energy in focus) and heading back towards being my usual positive self!

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. ~William James