Tree in frosted field below Kelston Round Hill

Beautiful frost in Bath this morning. Must have been the coldest night of the year here so far I would guess. It took me ages to de-ice the car before driving out of Bath to take this picture.

I've liked the look of this dead tree in a field below Kelston Round Hill for a long while. I don't remember when it died but I guess it's quite a number of years ago. I've been meaning to get round to photographing it so took the opportunity this morning. I was up early anyway. The field is on the left as you drive from Bath to Kelston - you can't miss it. I parked in a small gateway to the field just off the road and walked about 100m to get the shot. It was the kind of morning where the grass crunches under your feet.

There was one other person around - a dog walker - but she left pretty quickly when I turned up... probably wondering what the hell I was doing.

This isn't quite the photo I wanted. The light isn't quite right or something? But I do like the shadow creeping across the frosty ground towards me so it's not all bad. Am tempted to blame my equipment (a Panasonic DMC-FX8 - which is great for general kinds of shots but struggles a little with extreme light conditions) for the fact that the light isn't better but I've never bothered learning the advanced settings so I probably don't take best advantage of it to be honest. Will probably try this shot again at other times of the year.