Writer’s block

Today’s picture is the steps down to the canal. That canal crosses Bull Lane in Moxley, local people might want to know that! I changed the photo with the ‘vintage’ option on Fotosketcher. I’ve been editing a lot of photos this week and seeing what they look like as old photos, sketches or even watercolours. Fotosketcher has lots of options. I can also edit again in Windows Live gallery after using Fotosketcher. Microsoft Paint and Smoothdraw are also useful for editing.

You’re wondering why this post has the title writer’s block aren’t you? I don’t really get writer’s block, I always have something to write about, but today couldn’t decide on a subject. I decided to find a photograph for inspiration, I have thousands of them. I couldn’t decide on a photograph then. I still don’t know what to write about!

I live in the heart of England, somewhere between the cities of  Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The town I live in was absorbed into a Metropolitan area together with another five towns and is part of an urban sprawl that seems to be a blot on the middle of England. It’s not that bad though and I have a lot of fans of my photographs that are taken around here. We have canals leftover from the Industrial Revolution and even though it’s urban we have nature reserves and parks. We’ve had a lot of rain over the past month, I blame Bank Holidays. I haven’t taken many new photographs and I lost a lot of my winter photographs when my hard drive died and they weren’t backed up.  I did put the best ones on Facebook and on my blogs though and so it was no great loss. The ones of lakes and canals frozen over in winter were interesting.

It’s quite sunny today, but I still see black clouds and the breeze from the north is chilly. The best day for photography is Sunday because the roads are quiet and I am hoping to get out and take some interesting pictures tomorrow. You don’t need an expensive camera, just practice getting good shots and then edit to improve the finished picture. The pictures we took last week at a nature reserved famed for it’s bluebells weren’t very good; it was too dark after the rain, but at least we know that is another place we can revisit when the light is better.

Sandwell Valley has a park and a few golf courses, but the rest is mostly accessible for walking and photography. It also attracts bird watchers and tourists. There are interesting buildings too at Sandwell Valley Farm and Forge Mill Farm; both of which are open to the public.  Exploring the nature reserves and taking photographs is good exercise and relaxing as we commune a little with nature. I took a good photograph of a pond at Sheepwash nature reserve near Dudley, but the light was poor that day too; I must go back there one day.  There is the Black Country Living Museum at Dudley too and that would be a great place to wander around and take photos. I think I need a few hours to do that and really good light on a bright day. One of the best places at Walsall is Merrion’s Wood and that’s not too far from Sandwell Valley and so you can do both on the same day. There are unusual places too. Near Moxley is Moorcroft Wood and not far from there are  a lot of canals to explore.

I still don’t know what to write about…

I was writing some comedy last year and I would really like to get into that again. I have been writing little clone stories again when I write about writing fiction on a Zillion Ideas, they were popular when I first wrote them. My new website has one guest writer and shortly I should have two writers doing guest blogs which will make it far more interesting. I started my weekly blogs about ‘how to to become an expert winemaker,  over on a Zillion Ideas this week. I’m hoping those weekly posts will prove popular. I also do Neodigital Arts blogs on that site and finance blogs. I intend to write more about food and do recipes. That reminds me I have a chicken in the oven, I must remember to photograph that for my food blogs when it’s done!

I’ve written over 700 words, that’s not too bad considering I was fairly clueless as to what I would write about. There are more amazing blogs on the home page and on a Zillion Ideas.

Please comment if you have something to say, if you are interested in guest blogging, let me know; my email address is in the side bar >>>>>>>>>>

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