Just a short walk from our house is the Chichester Crematorium which I often run past on my training runs but haven't yet stopped and tried to photograph. That's a pity because it's a really atmospheric place and really big considering it's right in Chichester.

I like the flare that the Sony Alpha 700 and Sigma 24-70 seem to produce (although, saying that I've noticed a very similar star-shaped flare when shooting with the minolta 50mm 1.8). It's not unattractive and the Sigma very rarely flares as long as the sun is out of the frame. I did fall into the trap when I got it of attaching a cheap uv filter to the front and it took me a while to work out that it was the filter producing flare and ghosting.

It was a really good sunset and I noticed it while driving back from work, a frantic run around the house to get the camera and a quick trot to the crematorium just about got me there in time. Although I did take some pictures of the buildings, they didn't come out so well and I didn't want to post them this time. I think I'll head back there soon and maybe have another look at the pictures I took on this trip to see if a little tweaking and cropping might do something.

The sunset was turning out to be a bit normal until this little spot of blue turned up, I cropped to a wide angle and notched up the blue a fraction but think it looks pretty good.

The last picture is one I'm really happy with, a man in a 4x4 came and booted me out shortly after this otherwise I would have taken some as the sun went down further but this one came out well.

So, on one of the first few days of 2011, we went to sunny Emsworth to have a short walk followed by a coffee, the coffee shops were closed but we managed the walking bit just fine.

It was a great day for taking some pictures, really cold (!) but very clear and bright. There's a short loop around the salt-water pond which takes you around and back to the town and it's quite a nice way to see the old bits of Emsworth. It's not a walk in the rambler sense of the word, so don't get the guide book out, but more of a Sunday afternoon stroll.

The weather really was great for photos and I'm a bit of a fan of cold, crisp winter days so despite some seriously numb fingers I got snapping. The photo above was one of the first I took and shows of the Sigma 24-70 EX DG lens and Alpha 700 camera very well, taken straight into the sun it should have lost a lot of detail in the darker areas or been fuzzy with glare. There's a little bit of greenish glare at the bottom but nothing apart from that.

The wildlife round the pond's very used to being fed by everyone who walks near the pond so as soon as you stop for a couple of seconds they wander up expecting a slice of bread. It meant I could get really close to some of the swans and I really like the picture above, it's very sharp and I quite like the fact that you can't see the swan's beak. The dark water and white bird looks a bit abstract and seen big, the swan has a surprising number of colours in it's feathers.

This isn't the best picture here because I didn't have the right lens, I think the swan was washing itself but it was a bit too far away. It looked like fun though and went on for a little while.

Similar to the first swan picture (it may have been the same bird) I'm really happy with the contrast between the dark water and the feathers and this is a much more classic picture of a swan. It would have been good to get a little lower and a bit more to the side but that would have probably lost the darkness of the water as well as getting me wet.

The last picture is my favourite, I think I could get some interest in the foreground next time but it's good to have a nice seascape picture in the set.

It's been an exciting year for Edward Bryan Photography in 2010; as well as acquiring some new and exciting equipment, I've made it pay for itself, and that was the challenge for last year. It was also important to see which area of photography I wanted to focus on, it was great to get the wedding, portrait and product photography last year and all were great fun and brilliant learning experiences.

There's even been interest in some landscape photos I've taken so I think I need to keep experimenting and exploring as many areas of photography as I can in 2011.

With all that in mind, I increase my focus on product photography this year, it was a great experience photographing for EJ Bespoke Furniture and I think it would be great fun to increase my experience in this field.

Part of that would be photographing smaller items and even very small earrings, as much as I like my Sigma 24-70 EX DG, it doesn't quite have the macro capabilities really tiny things call for. The ceramic bust above was a great size for the Sigma but the earrings were just a bit too small.

The three earring photos here required a different lens to the Sigma, I used a Tamron 70-300 DI because it has a higher magnification ratio of 1:2. It's actually quite a cheap lens that I bought with the Alpha 200 just so there was a zoom lens in my kit bag but I'm really glad I haven't got rid of it. As a zoom, it's not all that great and I tend to use the Minolta 70-210 beercan I have, but it focuses close for a zoom/macro and stopped out it's not bad at all. I've treated myself to Lightroom 3 over Christmas and that has no problems getting rid of chromatic abberations which this lens is a little prone to.

This set of earrings was from Pretty Scruffy in Chichester;

http://www.prettyscruffy.com/

They are very nice but as you can see, also tiny. That was a bit of a deliberate decision to make the picture hard to take. The one above just shows the earrings themselves but the one below is my favourite. I used a gold painted leaf from our Christmas decorations and it gives the picture a little bit of interest as well as helping with the scale.

These last two items are from an art trail we went to in Cornwall on our honeymoon, unfortunately I can't remember who made them but they are very pretty and as a mid-sized piece they were perfect for these example shots.

www.edwardbryan.co.uk