A heron on a lake in a Swindon park

I spent much of the day with Keith in Swindon acting as his photographic assistant at a wedding of a friend of his. He wanted someone who could hold a pole with his flash unit attached, as well as encouraging me to take pictures myself whenever the opportunity arose. All went well although their were a few moments of consternation when the events didn't go as planned, and when no flash occurred at vital moments.

I didn't know any of the wedding guests or even the bride and groom, so I could concentrate on the job at hand. I haven't looked at the images I took and will hand them over to Keith next week. But I did mange a few chats with the bride's Mum, who let me pick some of her delicious and perfectly ripe figs from their tree, and her Dad, whop is a local councillor and a former Mayor of Swindon. We had a good and frank discussion about local government and politics.

When I left the party, after the cake had been cut and eaten, and tea consumed, I strolled back through a local park to where I had left my car earlier in the day. I saw and heard a loud charity music event that was attracting a small crowd to dance and play around its pretty and leafy centre. I walked on to pass a lake, where earlier I had noticed a lot of ducks and geese, which had surprised me for such a centrally positioned park in a large town.

As I passed by, I noticed a heron standing in the water at the edge of the small lake where it backed onto woodland, then saw it's head dive down and surface with a reasonably large fish in it's long beak. I still had my camera round my neck, so quickly altered the settings when the heron jumped up onto a fallen tree lying in the water to eat the fish. Suddenly it stood up, very tall and looked across at me before taking off and flying away through a gap in the overhanging trees. My picture isn't very sharp, but I like the unusual shape of tits body and wings has been exposed to my lens.