I went for the first walk of the new year with my family a few days ago. We popped up to Therfield Heath near Royston. It was the first visit for our one-year-old Border Collie, Tess.

The skies were blue but the weather was very cold.

All shots taken with the 24-105 F4 L.

I was quite pleased with the last shot which is a self-portrait. Holding a 5D MkII with a battery grip & 24-105mm attached in one hand & getting such a perfect composition was probably more luck than judgement.

New Year’s Eve saw a ‘blue moon’. The name has nothing to do with the colour of the moon but is the origin of the phrase ‘one in a blue moon’ to mean a rare event because the blue moon only occurs once every 2 to 3 years & is the 13th full moon in a twelve month period.

Usually there are 12 full moons a year, but as the calendar year includes an extra 11 days over & above the usual 28-day cycle for full moons, these accumulate & mean an extra blue moon every few years.

The following shots were taken around 2.30am on the First of January 2010 & were done on the 5D MkII with the 600mm prime, additionally I stuck on the 2x & the 1.4x converters for a total focal length of 1680mm. The shots were processed slightly differently but are only slightly cropped from the originals.