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.