Roding Valley Path part 2

This picture shows a signpost for the Roding Valley Path in Newham. The sign shows a river, grass and trees, all very pretty. Except there isn't much evidence of any of that near the actual sign. From here its a case of walking past some flats, turn right past some garages and then out into a concrete road with gates to the cemetery, you can also see a car scrap heap. Not the nicest of starts. Its difficult to see the actual river either. The path is split in two. One is a narrow overgrown muddy track with the cometary on your right, the other is a broad asphalt road that doesn't exactly say 'nice riverside walk'. After about ten minutes you get to the nice parts.

Roding Valley Way

The idea of a path along the River Roding has been around for a while now. Parts have been completed others haven't. In some places there have been objections from residents about the proposed path (claims that cyclists going along would make their houses more liable to be burgled rather oddly), delaying the whole thing. I took this photo in Redbridge. Ilford Golf Course is on the opposite side of the river from where I'm standing and its difficult to believe how close you are to a highly built up area. Sadly not far from here the path goes into Newham where it takes you into a housing estate and then vanishes. Its a pity things like this get bogged down. Where the path exists it is great and its extension through Newham and Barking would be welcome.

Ducks in a Row

Walking around a lake in Epping Forest I saw these ducks sitting on the bank. I didn't want to disturb them so took this picture from where I wasn't disturbing them. Bits of grass in the way, but there you go, its only a quick grab shot.

Damselflies

I went for a walk in Epping forest today. Took my camera with the macro lens attached. Lots of Damselflies around. I took this one of a pair. There is part of a plant in the way so its not ideal, but if I had moved I would have missed the shot. Also decided to try a new layout on the blog. Just a simple one from the list.

Make up Artist Shoots

I've done a few shoots with make-up artists for their publicity recently. They are local to me and take out pages in a London magazine called Vanity. I had never worked with this make-up artist before. She wanted to try a number of looks. For this one I decided to slightly over-expose the image to create the look of bright sun-shine to go with the sun glasses, looking at the correct exposures I tried justified the decision. I was very pleased with the shoot, as was the make-up artist and the model. This picture was one of those used in the magazine