I’m currently a year 11 student at The George Ward School, Melksham. I moved to Melksham from Bath in 2000 and here I have found that there can be no end to my picture taking. I use a second hand Digital 3.1 mega-pixel Kodak DC4800. It was given to me by my Aunt and I have recently filled five photo albums with completely random images.

Picture 1 - Crack Willow

This is a marked site within the nature reserve. It is called Crack Willow due to the bizarrely formed tree. The tree was much too large for me to contain it within my LCD screen so I decided to walk around the tree to take this ‘interesting’ image. I managed to line up the camera so that the lighting (provided by the sun) sunk into the centre of the picture.


Picture 2 - River Avon 1
I quite like this picture. Here, I walked off of the usual route and wandered down to the riverbank. I liked the array of lily pads so I lined up to take a picture but then I had to wait a while before the sun decided to stop reflecting its light directly into my lens. I was given a break just as a small cloud hovered over so this was a real test of my reflexes.


Picture 3 - River Avon 2
This picture I love. Granted that it doesn’t match up to most of my other pictures but I think that it is ‘sweet’. I decided to try and use the trees to frame the image but I wasn’t over far enough. However, this could not be easily corrected because I was close to falling in the river as it was. So I climbed one of the overhanging trees to take the picture but I had to get out of there before I disturbed the fishermen even more.

Picture 4 - Riverside Walk 1
I’m not sure what I saw in this picture. I think it was a snap decision (excuse the pun). I wanted an image of the riverside walk near the entrance so I simply walked backwards up the path watching the LCD screen. I decided that this was one of my better images so I kept it.

Picture 5 - Flowers in the Millennium Garden
There is a small millennium garden just as the riverside walk hits the town. It is a great place to rest after a long walk or shopping spree. So here I sat. I took this picture after staring at the flowers for a while. They appear here every year so I thought it appropriate to photograph them rather than the ever-changing roses.

Picture 6 - Millennium Bridge
This bridge is featured just outside the Canoe Club and Park. I took this with my friend. At first I used her to stand on the bridge whilst I snapped away but I found that she was too distracting so I took one without her there and found it to be much better.

Picture 7 - Millennium Bridge Fish
The Millennium Bridge is covered in images such as this as decoration. Here the sun posed as a bit of a problem because (no matter how long I waited) it would not go away. So, I decided to crouch down and ‘walk’ along the bridge until I came to an area where the sun was least apparent. In the process I looked a bit of an idiot but one has to suffer for their art.



Picture 8 - Swans
Awww. I can’t get enough of our resident swans. Every year they nest on the river and every ear I find them. Here I was with one of my friends. It seems that the swans were a little camera-shy this year so we had to follow them for nearly an hour before they settled with the cygnets and I was able to get this shot (curse my rubbish zoom). It was even stating to get a little dark.





Picture 9 - War Memorial 1
This is easily spotted just outside the TIC and Post Office. I seem to have chosen a very bright day to take this picture. I had lessened the exposure setting but the sunlight continued to cause problems. Eventually I gave up with the lighting and backed up in order to get a wide-angle image of the wonderful planting surrounding the memorial as well as the memorial itself.




Picture 10 - War Memorial 2
This is easily spotted just outside the TIC and Post Office. I seem to have chosen a very bright day to take this picture. After taking a wide-angle shot of the memorial, I chose to spare my legs and simply zoom in. However, I was forced to spend a long time messing with the exposure setting again.






Picture 11 - ‘The Hazelwood Mounds’
To be honest, I have no idea what this area is called. It runs all the way down the spine of Hazelwood Road and can be entered at any of the ‘left side turn offs’. It is known among residents as ‘the mounds’ so I’m going to stick with that idea. It is a great place to walk dogs and ride bikes and is so called because of the ‘mounds’ that fill the area. I kept the image simple and framed it with the trees deciding a picture of a few hills wasn’t all that interesting.




Picture 12 - Nature Reserve Bench
One of the relaxing spots within the nature reserve. I love this little area and I thought this was a good chance to photograph it. I was going to use a friend to model but that would have been distracting from the wildlife around the area.





Picture 13 - Nature Reserve Bridge
This little bridge crosses the link between two ponds within the nature reserve. I thought that this was a more interesting angle to shoot from and not have to stand waist deep in water (although a nearby, and rather stupid, squirrel seemed to disagree).





Picture 14 - Riverside Walk 2
Another of my ‘interesting’ pictures. I lined up this image to make the path look long and imposing as it lead to dark walkway though the cluster of bushes and trees. Of course it’s not really that dark and I had to kneel on the ground to get this picture but I’m just weird like that.






Picture 15 - Lychgate
I’m very proud of this picture. I will never understand why people find cemeteries scary. Anyway - I was just going to take a frontal picture of this gate but I looked at the display I was not at all happy with it. So I walked around the gate, shooting it from every possible angle, finally, I came up with this.




Picture 16 - War Memorial 3
This memorial is easily spotted just outside the TIC and Post Office. Not to be deterred by previous attempts at photographing this memorial, I went back on a slightly duller day. I still had to mess with the exposure a little but eventually I managed to avoid the sun by leaning ever so slightly ‘off angle’.








Picture 17 - Hazelwood Play Area
This is an adorable little park at the very end of Hazelwood Road. It was recently ‘re-done’ with all new equipment and is now much safer. I was resting on one of the swings when I took this picture. I’m surprised it came out at all because I fell off the swing when I lent too far over in order to take the picture. Thank goodness no one saw me.





Picture 18 - Semington Church
A short bike ride from Melksham is Semington. This picture I just had to take because the sky was so lovely. The church itself was small and I tried to draw interest to it by keeping it just ‘within the shot’. Also, the attention is grabbed firstly by the sky. However, I was not happy with that wire which fell into my shot.

Picture 19 - Semington Canal Walk
The best thing to do in Semington is to take the canal walk. This is the view from the walk, which will be just as easy to take a hike across. I had to be a little careful when taking this picture. The path at the side of the canal isn’t very large and I came very close to a passing duck which seemed a little too interested in my trainer laces.




Picture 20 - St. Michael’s Church
This is the best known of the churches in Melksham. I have become very disappointed with my zoom at the moment and maybe the weather felt the same because I had to make a run for shelter just as the rain came pouring down on me. But I got a fairly good picture anyhow.