Bristol Docks

A forcast of 'Not as bad as last week' was enough for us to trek to Bristol for our group photographic Christmas expedition, although at 6.50am the only one keen to get in the car was Saffy.
I felt fantastic having had a coffee and Lemsip, chatting merrily to Steve who snored his interest in the conversation.
First stop was breakfast and caffeine top up, during which we all agreed getting up so early had been a terrible idea and we weren't going to go outside till lunch time. We had found a great place for a huge reasonably priced breakfast with very good coffee. Infact we'd have probably stayed there all day if their toilet had been working.

Only the brave 5 remainded of our full group of 8

The Three Wise Men, Eric, Jim and Steve.   

And a new granny, Suzy.

Down to business.

It was hard not to be influenced by Steve's usual despare of the 'pants' lighting. The harbour had been frozen over and was full of thick pieces of ice with a dull mist. The land seemed the same color as the drab sky. We risked life and limb in a dangerous boat crossing with a cheerful ferryman (not).

We wandered on and found the Banksy picture.

Then had another coffee and a sit down in the museum on a suprisingly comfortable wooden bench whilst Eric ran round it, the museum not the bench, to save us the bother.
Four photographers with all their kit sitting squashed together on a small bench seemed to set the museum security on edge and we moved on. We went up a hill then down a hill, then wandered a bit more taking some more rubbish photos. Oh the joy of digital.

We dropped in at the cathedral.

 But then we all lost the will to walk and went to a pub to argue over cameras, syrup in cola, tripods and the menu. But during the time we were there it went dark and Mr Bright's 'Pants Lighting' disappeared to be replaced by pitch black, which he loves.

He introduced us to the dark art of night time photography, brilliant.

A great time was had by all and I learnt loads. One thing I'd noticed that everyone elses pics looked better/sharper than mine on their camera screens and I couldn't get the start burst effect. At 3am the following morning it occured to me I'd got a plastic protector over the my screen, DOH!

I'm wondering if I've got a panel amongst the night ones I took. Thanks v much, Steve.