Spent ten minutes arseing about with the camera, trying to get a photo or two to accompany some writing about whisky. This is one of the better results, even if it is something of a savage crop from the original.

And the first photo taken with my new camera that I put online is… some scaffolding. I have a number of different variants of this, but the short answer to why I like them is “the sky”. The fact that on a reasonably bright day, I can take a shot of something looking up, and retain quite a lot texture in the sky. Never mind the gain in megapixels, the automatic metering on the new camera is much, much better than on the old one, and I think I am going to enjoy this.

I may have slipped, and bought myself a birthday gift. Bless Jessops and their 12 months interest-free. Expect some test photos at some point in the near future.

This, I suspect, is one of the ones that I like, that will not be to most people’s taste. There’s an exhibition on at Somerset House that I popped in to see before meeting some friends the other day, which is where this photo was taken.

A shot of the face of one of the sphinxes by Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment. I’m cheating a bit with the title, since it’s an Egyptian Sphinx, but I couldn’t come up with anything that worked on more than one level that I liked better.

Taken in a tiny village church near Burford at the weekend. I’m annoyed with myself that most of the shots that I’ve got of the rather larger and more impressive church we also visited haven’t come out like I’d intended, but I guess it’s an excuse to go back and try again next year…

Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun. Food photography is a bastard hard thing to do, even when you’ve got studio lights and set dressing. I had neither of those things (although I did have a very nice cream tea, thanks) so I’m quite happy with how this came out. It’s slightly yellower than I’d like, but then, the place was quite warmly lit, so I’ll live with it.

This didn’t come out even close to what I wanted when I took it, but I like it even so. I was trying to get the frost on the grass to come out much more strongly, so that the grass almost looked white, but I can’t do it without destroying the colour in the sky. I don’t know, I may experiment with a black and white version at some point, but this will do to be going on with.

Or: The Photographer Betrays His Subject.

Another photo from my cousin’s wedding. Don’t panic, I don’t intend to subject you all to masses of family portraits, but I love the narrative this photo suggests, even if it is perhaps a little near the bone for a soldier’s wedding photo. Thank god I’m not a wedding photographer, eh?

A shot of my younger brother Oliver, taken at a family wedding this weekend. I feel it captures a certain part of the general spirit of drinking with him, although that may just be a certain bit brotherly affection talking. Anyway, I think it’s a nice moment.