Chester

One of the Joys of Motherhood is not taking your daughter school trouser shopping in Chester on a Saturday. Luckily she has reached that age in her teenage years when the worst possible scenario would be to see someone she knew while out with her Mum. So after handing over the cash for the trousers, I was excused for a couple of hours.

So I headed down to the river. 

Its a real indication of how much this whole photography bug has gripped me that I would rather be away from the City Centre taking photos than having a couple of hours solo shopping in one of the best shopping centres around. Still struggling to believe I am the same person!

The Riverside wasn't too busy and it was lovely just to wander along, mostly taking photos of birds.

Because I knew Chester would be busy I hadn't wanted to take my tripod as it does tend to get in the way. So to use my telephoto for the above shot, I had to put the ISO up quite high and open up the aperture. But this worked great as I got a nice blurred background. And the bird kept reasonably still which always helps.

There are beautiful quiet places everywhere and sometimes you just have to get off the beaten track a bit to find them.

Lessons Learned: There is something very satisfying about being a potential embarrassment to your teenage children. And I wasn't even wearing my bobble hat with the ear flaps!