Too Many Mince Pies by Dave Mundy & Ed Doughty

Naturally I had been making full use of the Christmas Holiday time to eat a lot of lovely rich food, and as usual my trousers were becoming increasingly tighter. Action needed to be taken, exercise was needed, so a quick call to Ed resulted in him picking me up at 7-00am on Saturday 30th December, and whisking me over to Henley for a walk along the river. Quite why Ed needed the exercise I don't know as he is still able to hide behind a lampost, whilst I am still visible when I try and hide behind a Transit van! Perhaps it is something to do with our diets, Ed was telling me how good his banana had been that he had eaten for his breakfast, whilst I was arguing that the two pieces of Christmas cake I had eaten for mine tasted an awful lot better.

We had both looked at the weather forecast for the night before, and discovered that we were in for terrible weather. True to form the weather forecastors were completely wrong and we were blessed with dry bright conditions. Fortune favours the brave I suppose. So off we set to see what we could find but only after having to pay £3 to park the car in the riverside car park. Expensive parking and they couldn't even provide a light over the pay machine, after much fumbling and moaning in the dark, we eventually got the ticket.

The rowing fraternity were up bright and early as well, being far more energetic than we were. Hasn't anyone told them that you can buy a boat engine these days to save all that hard work! Ed thought that rowing would be good exercise for me, but I guess the only boat I could fit in would be a cross channel ferry! The coaches are a familiar sight riding along the footpath shouting out their instructions to the exhausted rowers. Couldn't quite hear what the rowers replies were, but I don't think it was anything to do with wishing the coaches the compliments of the season.

Other people were out excercising as well, a few were on bikes, whilst others were out for an early morning jog. Talking of which, have you ever seen a happy jogger?

Early in the morning, really is a marvellous time to be out and about by the river. There is always so much to see, especially as the wildlife starts to wake up for the day. The geese started flying about in groups, which is always a remarkable sight. The grebes started diving in the water, unfortunatley much too fast for me to get a decent picture, and the swans swim serenely by. There were plenty of gulls about too, darting from place to place. The cormorants were sat on some trees in the middle of the river, waiting for the next item on the menu to swim past. Just imagine that, resting on a log and a conveyor belt of food passing in front of you to choose from.

One thing that did puzzle me a bit was that with all the lovely sights around us to photograph, Ed spent some time photographing his boot in a puddle. No doubt he will get a stunning shot out of it as he normally does, but what any bystander would have made of it I don't know.

At around 10-00am we decided to call it a day, and walked into the middle of Henley to meet up with Claire (My long suffering wife, her words not mine) and the kids and a friend of mine, who finds these early morning photography trips far too early to entertain. We headed into Cafe Rouge straight away for breakfast. Ed ordered his scrambled eggs on toast, whilst I steadily worked my way through the menu. All that excercise didn't half give me an appetite! All in all it was a very enjoyable morning out, and thanks must go to Ed for putting up with me!

I thought I had better put up some of my images from the walk. We start off with this one of the man himself hard at work. You can clearly see the whole Christmas experience had taken its toll on Dave. It was all he could do to rest on a post and take a shot, far too much energy would be expended to get that tripod out. At least he had brought some supplies and a flask of hot tea to keep him going.

As Dave has said there was much wildlife and sporting life to photograph and he was busy shooting the lot as you can in his images above. He didn't leave me much to get a shot of until he filled up his memory card and I managed to grab this shot of seven geese playing follow my leader.

Whilst we were walking along the towpath I had the great idea of doing one Dave's now famous water reflection shots. It wasn't long before a suitable Swan glided by and I set about my task. I don't think it came out too badly but I think I will have to clone in the Windsor Wheel later to give it that real impact.

As the morning wore on more and more people were out and about, rowing, running, cycling and walking their dogs and the riverside had become a hive of activity. By this time I was definitely in need of some refreshment and wishing I had eaten something more substantial than a banana before setting off. If only Dave had saved me one of his two pieces of Christmas cake! I then remembered we were meeting Dave's very long suffering wife and their kids in Cafe Rouge for breakfast. The thought spurred me on and the breakfast rounded off a good morning of photography. - Ed