Ingatestone loop

Thanks to the Christmas festivities I didn’t get out for another walk until the new year and for the third route, I thought I’d try north of the river, in Essex.

Essex has a bit of an unfair reputation. Despite what many Londoners think, there are some parts of the county with nice countryside. Constable thought highly of certain parts of Essex and around Ingatestone there were indeed some pleasant vistas. But you find all to soon in these parts, you’ll cross a couple of fields to encounter another built-up area, or major arterial road. It’s not the blissful idyll I’d started to expect after the first couple of walks. However the purpose of these walks is not a retreat into the backwoods, but to exercise the body, the eye and shutter finger.

High-level cloud and a steely bright sky created some tricky exposure problems, with the histogram showing two massive peaks at opposite ends of the scale in most shots. An interesting test of the M9’s sensor, my judgement and Lightroom’s develop module. Muddy fields didn’t help the walking much either.

This walk’s route was from the jolly fine Essex Pub Walks web site. The route we walked can be found here. Click here for the Ingatestone loop gallery, recording a circular, 16Km walk.

posted on 4 January 2012
category: daily photo, landscape