Some of my family live on the Eastern side of the USA, and I try and visit every year if I can. It's a little over 6 hours flying time from London Heathrow to Boston, which makes it a very easy trip to make. This year I went for 6 days to see my family and whilst I was out there, I replaced the basic 18-55mm lens that came with my 350D, with a 17-85mm lens. This was my first time out using it, and my cousin's Jeremy and Tim came for a photography walk along Sunapee's main street, whilst my godson Cameron, waited to play a game of basketball in his school gym.

Those of you who are photographers will very quickly spot that my images are very grainy, and I accidentally used ISO 400 for all the above images, when ISO 100 is what I should have used. I took all images in RAW format, and I think that whilst playing with the shutter speed, and manual focus, I must have forgotten to think about ISO. Still, I will remember next time! Also I should have used a circular polariser, but I did not purchase a 67mm polariser with the new lens, and I only had a 58mm filter from the old lens to hand. I am generally dissapointed with my pictures, and my only consolation is that I have taken far better since.