Day 243

Penultimate day in Chamonix, and a shining example of how your worst day on the snow is still better than your best day at work. Equipment failure and clouds conspired against us, but it's still better than work!

Day 242

Early start this morning, and Chamonix is spooky and shrouded in mist.

Day 241

A cloudy day today in Chamonix, so the resort of choice was down at the bottom of the valley amongst the trees. The forest always looks magical coated in snow like it was today.

Day 240

Day two in Chamonix and a lot of snow fell overnight, thus necessitating an early start to take advantage of the untracked powder. This is the shadow of an otherwise empty chairlift.

Day 239

First day in Chamonix, and an excellent day on perfect powder. The wind blew in though in the afternoon, and it seems it blew away all hopes of connecting to the apartment's free wifi.

Day 238

Off to Chamonix for a week in the snow. Laters!

Day 237

What a deluge we had this afternoon! There's still snow on the hills, but it was far too wet to leave the house, and anyway I have a lot of packing to do for my trip to France. This photo was made by my new polarising filter, which brought up the reflections nicely.

Day 236

In search of the snow again today: it's amazing how the landscape is utterly transformed within five minutes of leaving home. With snow there are photographs everywhere, but the problem is that there is no longer anywhere to pull in, as all the ditches and verges are snow drifts. So, when I saw what I thought was today's image I had to park and walk back half a mile. Lucky I did too, as although the original image I'd seen didn't pan out, I did see this wool snagged on barbed wire, and otherwise I'd have missed it.

Day 235

Another foray to find the snow, and a successful one this time. Once you get a bit higher it's a winter wonderland. I had quite a nice photo of a couple of lads taking photos of the scene, but they didn't seem too keen on me using it. Luckily at that point a robin redbreast appeared, and struck quite the perfect pose for a snowy day.

Day 234

I went in search of the lovely photogenic snow, but I couldn't find any. But, in the course of my wandering I ended up in Knocksink Wood, and found this wooden walkway to nowhere.

Day 233

It's cold and snowy outside, so why would you do anything other than snuggle up in a warm blanket?!

Day 232

Freezing cold morning in Dublin. I was down in Sandymount with my new ND and Polariser filters, and they resulted in texture in the sky that wasn't really there.

Day 231

Today has all been a preamble to tonight's match. Make or break time for the Boys in Blue!

Day 230

What an awful day in Dublin: cold and wet, with sleet as I walked to work this morning. This image captures for me just how grim it was today.

Day 229

Another day back at work, and another day closer to full health. It was a lovely morning this morning for minutes at a time, and Fitzwilliam Square looked like a wonderful oasis in the middle of the city.

Day 228

I love my new macro lens: getting a macro lense was a major motivating factor behind my purchase of my Canon 7D, and I haven't had a moment's regret. Unfortunately today was a manky day, so I couldn't leave the house, and instead I took the opportunity to add a bit of whimsy to the dinner.

Day 227

I'm still not back to full operating capabilities, but today was an improvement on yesterday, largely because I remembered to bring my camera. This is a burnt out house on my way to the Luas: it looks grim when front lit but it makes a nice silhouette.

Day 226

First day back at work after a week of illness, and I'm barely back to 80% efficiency yet, never mind 100%. I've seen this image on a number of occasions, and I'm not really happy with this first effort at capturing it: I had only my iPhone with me, and it would have benefited from being taken further away on a longer lens.

Day 225

A cold wet day in Dublin today, but we were out and about, and seeing as this blog is all about getting out of the car, or getting off the couch, then I'm very happy with this photo

Day 224

It's been a lacklustre week: it's never a good sign when your day's highlight is feeling slightly less awful than yesterday. However, today is hopefully going to be a much better day. Feeling reasonably good, and it's my wonderful wife's birthday.

Day 223

Still confined to quarters, still sick, still not enamored of the experience. And to add to the general feel good nature of the day it's raining and it's cold. The only colour on the horizon is this JCB, bravely eating the hillock.

Day 222

I'm so sick of being sick! This was supposed to be a week off filled with industry and innovation, but instead it's been spent on the couch under a blanket.

Day 221

Back to work today, but it felt like a day too early. It was a very fragile walk to the luas, and it was very very cold.

Day 220

I've been really really ill for the last few days: some horrible viral infection has laid me low, and I've been fit for nothing except sleeping and praying for death. Today I'm starting to feel better, thanks in no small part to all the drugs I've been taking.

Day 219

I am genuinely too sick to take down the Christmas tree, so instead I've plugged in the lights and ignored the date

Day 218

I am so sick it's unbelievable. Confined to the couch and gingerly sipping tea.

Day 217

We drove down to Powerscourt today: seemed a better way to spend the day that sitting on the couch watching tv.

Day 216

I had an unexpected half day today, so I took a trip out to Greystones to take a beachscape. The sun was almost gone, but I like the gathering clouds and the colour of the sea.

Day 215

Well, what to say about this photo, except that it's a still life with stormtroopers.

Day 214

Today has not been a good day. But that's not important, because by tomorrow it'll be the past!

Day 213

The Christmas period is drawing to a close, so it'll soon be time to stop living too well and start eating more mindfully, which means reacquainting myself with that now strange concept, fruit,