The Face of Remembrance Day in Swindon 2015

Today was Remembrance Day in Swindon. I was there as usual and true to (my) form I have recorded some of the faces of Remembrance in Swindon. They are all locals and that includes Robert Buckland Conservative MP for Swindon South and Solicitor General for England and Wales. Along with Justin Tomlinson, Conservative MP for Swindon North and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People.

I had a number of interesting discussions some of which centred around the fact that quite a few of the RBL standard bearers are getting older and wont be able to carry them for much longer there are not many younger people joining and willing to carry the standard at all of these type of events. Despite there being a very large contingent of Army, Army Reservists, Cadets from all three branches of the services not many of them are joining the RBL.

After saying that I am sure this event will continue for many years to come.

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Holmes Music Store Vinyl Record Weekend

Well, here I am back again. It has been a very busy few weeks and hence no posts for quite a while. Not the least I ran the London Marathon last Sunday. I wasnt happy with my time as I got tripped up at mile 5 and face planted the road. However I was very very proud of Kirsty Heber-Smith who ran it in a time of 3.44, exactly as we had planned it and also raised £2.5K for the charity Goldenhar which is one close to our hearts. If you dont know what Goldenhar is please chaeck it out, it’s worth it.

Anyhow back to photography. I spent several hours over two days at Alan Holmes Music shop where they were celebrating Vinyl Record weekend with lots of live music by local bands and artists. I wont list them all out as there were too many to mention, but I was impressed with all of them. Have to say the lighting was a nightmare as they had a back drop of the window and day 1 was bright sunshine, day 2 was dark clouds and rain!!! good old British Easter eh!!!! However the good thing about situations like that is firstly it is good to work in difficult situations that are out of your control and secondly you can get up close and personal and nobody minds.

It was a good weekend. I have also a very busy week coming up this week, lots of photographic jobs on so should be posting a lot in the next week and less rambling on 🙂

Boy Band Rogue 5 meets Swindon

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Rogue 5 Boy Band

Today’s photo shoot was with the Boy Band Rogue 5 who will be appearing at The Wyvern Theatre on Thursday March 6th. Worth going to see them, they have sooo much energy, were really funny and even co-opted Dan Flay from TotalSwindon into the Boy Band as he was interviewing them.

Another fun day for me and meeting interesting people.

I love my job, well it isnt even a job really as I enjoy it so much.

Keith Chegwin meets 2 Jacks and 2 Dames in Swindon

Keith Chegwin

Two Jacks

Dame Trot

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk

Keith Chegwin and Jack from Stroud

Keith Chegwin and Dame Trot from Stroud

Two Jacks

Two Jacks

Jack

Jack

This lunchtime I did a photo shoot at the Swindon Wyvern Theatre with Keith Chegwin who is playing Silly Billy, Jack and Dame Trot from the Swindon cast and Jack and Dame Trot from the Stroud company who are also performing Jack and the Beanstalk. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed it. The cast from Swindon made me feel really at home and as though they had known me all their life, it was a real pleasure to work with them.

I love my job.

I Love Christmas in Swindon

merry xmas with Swindon Ovation

merry xmas with Swindon Ovation

Merry xmas with Swindon Ovation

merry xmas with Swindon Ovation

merry xmas with Swindon Ovation

Dont you just love Christmas, well I certainly did on Thursday night at the Swindon Lights Switch on. Back stage with the girls from Swindon Ovation dance group.

Reminds me of the song All I Want For Christmas ……

Jahmene Douglas What a Nice Person Swindon Xmas Lights

Jahmene and Swindon Ovation

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Last night I was the official photographer for inSwindon at the Christmas Lights switch on. I took some 600 images and I am still processing them and will put up another blog post shortly with my favourite images. But I wanted to put these up and just to say what a nice young man Jahmene is. This isnt the first time I have photographed him but it is the first time I have had a chat with him. At an exclusive pre switch on shoot in his dressing room he even offered to share his food and drink with me. And when back stage after the switch on he made sure that he was looking at me when I was shooting images of him.
To be honest I have never heard any negative comments about him anyway but I guess sometimes you hear that some times when people get famous they change and become diva’s. Well in my opinion that has not happened to Jahmene, he was a pleasure to work with.

Swindon Wyvern Theatre Family Fun day

gruffalo and friend

gruffalo arri and alexia

gruffalo arri and alexia

gruffalo arri and alexia

Darren Arri and Alexia

Gill and Daisy the cow

Tiger face paints

Rocking Robin

Swindon Dance gruffalo mr potato head

It was a fun morning on saturday 2nd November at The Swindon Wyvern Theatre Family Fun Day. It was absolutely packed right from the word go people were queueing up outside to get in, till right at the very end when it was almost a case of asking people to leave so that the place could be cleared up. It also took place at Swindon Central Library, Swindon Dance and live music was being played at the bandstand.

My personal favourite was Mr Gruffalo and my two new friends Arri and Alexia two really adorable parrots who belong to Darren Potter the film cameraman.

Definitely worth going to the next time they put an event like this on, and of course it is completely free.

Well done to Richard Loftus and the team at The Wyvern.

Halloween comes early to Swindon

Halloween came early to Swindon today. Staff and musicians at That’s Entertainment Music and Video Store in Swindon all dressed up in spooky costumes to entertain customers. I was really pleasantly surprised by how much effort into the clothes and makeup they had made, in my opinion they looked really really good. The music fest was arranged and sponsored by Alan Homes of Homes Music. Well done Alan and well done That’s Entertainment.

Reading Festival the Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

Reading Mosh Pit

A random selection of images from the Mosh Pit at Reading Festival. It was absolutely fascinating watching it and if I had have had an older camera with me I would have gone into it and shot from within the Mosh Pit.

It looked a lot of fun.

Reading Festival some of the crowds

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

Reading Festival

A small random selection of the images from shooting the Reading Festival this year 2013.