The Demolition Crew in Swindon

Some of you may be aware that for the last several weeks I have been photographing the demolition of the Carfax Car Park here in Swindon. It is a long term project to photograph Swindon as it is changing and it is changing quite quickly at the moment.

Now it took me a while to get permission and I have done all the relevant HSE courses etc got my own safety gear and only go where I am allowed. I have t say I am so grateful to Lawsons and SCS for allowing me to do this. The intention is to either publish or have an exhibition but that is some way off at the moment. I am also getting to know the crew really well and they are a really nice bunch of guys. These are just a few of them. I just thought I would put a few of them up on here. There will be more to come as I get more and more access to them actually working etc. I have some several hundred of images of the demolition and I want to make a considered selection before putting any up on line.

Hope you like so far.

David Cameron launches Conservative Party Manifesto in Swindon

Wow, what a morning. I was photographing at The Conservative Party Manifesto launch here in Swindon this morning.
It was presented by Prime Minister David Cameron but George Osborne and Theresa May both made speeches as well.
I have never seen so many famous faces in one place. The security must have been a nightmare. I think the whole of the Cabinet was there as was Samantha Cameron. Not only that, there were all of the famous journalists that I have only ever seen on TV. And I was in the media room with them.

Star struck, me nooooooo.

Swindon Old Town People watch the Eclipse

Pretty much perfect condition to watch the spring eclipse this morning. The Lawns in Old Town seemed to be a very popular place to watch it. It went really cold and quite dark when it was at its peak. I concentrated on taking photos of the people rather than the eclipse itself. There will be thousands of photos out there of it far better than I could take.

Dreamboats and Miniskirts

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of being part of the photo shoot of Dreamboats and Miniskirts which took place at Carry on Vintage in the Brunel shopping centre. What lovely people they were as well. So helpful and did everything they were asked to do. It was fun. Then last night (Friday) I went to see the show at The Wyvern. Wow, it is was really really good. Two and a half hours of 60’s music was great. But more than that all of the cast looked as though they were really enjoying themselves. Which to be honest I would if I were them. It was more like a party and clearly they put heart and soul into it.

I for one (well actually all the audience did) really enjoyed it and congratulate the cast and production crew as well, the sound and lighting was just great.

Newquay Times Swindon Band on the main stage at Wychwood Music Festival

Swindon band Newquay Times was not only the second band to take to the main stage at the Wychwood Music Festival but they were the second Swindon band.

Swindon leads the way with music yet again.

A Way With Words Swindon Band opens Main Stage at Wychwood Music Festival

Swindon band A Way With Words opened up the main stage at the Wychwood Music Festival a 3 day festival in Cheltenham celebrating Music, food, drink and everything else.

Pride of Swindon plaque unveiled in the Library

Today was the unveiling of the Pride of Swindon plaque in The Swindon Central Library. The small event was hosted by Shirley Ludford of Swindon 105.5 radio.

St George’s Day in Swindon

St George

Medieval Knight

Ethemia

St George

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

FolkDanceRemixd

Rebecca inSwindon

Today I had the pleasure of photographing the Swindon St George’s Day celebrations in the town centre put on by inSwindon BID company. Centre piece of course was the 20 ft St George that after being blessed traveled from the Cenotaph down to Wharf Green accompanied by 100 school children and Ethemia who had written a song especially for this occasion. Once in Wharf Green the children were split up into different groups where they were taught fold dancing around the May pole, made dragons out of clay and took part in sports competitions. It culminated with a performance of Folk Dancing or should I say alternative Folk Dancing by the group FolkDanceRemixd.

It was great fun, the weather held and everybody seemed to have a very enjoyable time.

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell Anton and Katya in Swindon

Tinkerbell

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and Swindon Wildcats

Tinkerbell and Penguin

Tinkerbell and Wildcat

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and Swindon Wildcats

Tinkerbell Peter Pan and Wildcats

Peter Pan and Wildcats

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Yesterday I took part in the photo shoot for The Wyvern Theatre at The Link Centre where Russian Ice Stars Anton Smirnov and Katya Bokiy who are Peter Pan and Tinkerbell met the Swindon Wildcats Ice Hockey Team. It was as usual a fun photo shoot albeit a bit cold and I couldnt believe how quickly they moved when skating. I dont think you get the impression that they are going quite so quickly when you see it on TV. As an athlete myself I was really impressed with the physicality of it all. It definitely looked tough to me.

Peter Pan on Ice will be being performed at The Wyvern Theatre from 7th to 11th May

Peter Duncan and the cast of Birdsong at the Wyvern and the Cenotaph

Peter Duncan Birdsong

Peter Duncan Birdsong

Peter Duncan Birdsong

Birdsong the cast

Birdsong the cast

Birdsong the cast

Tom Stimpson MBE

Peter Duncan

I was lucky enough to photograph and meet the cast of Birdsong (as show based on the book by Sebastian Faulks) which included Peter Duncan, Jonny Clarke and George Banks. They were in costume, uniforms from the First World War which was quite strange when we were taking photos at the Cenotaph in the Swindon Town Centre. The cast also met Tom Stimpson MBE the representative and ambassador for Help for Heroes charity. Firstly I had a really good chat with Peter Duncan. The last time I spoke to him was at around mile 20 of the first London Marathon which we both ran. I also had a really good chat with Tom Stimpson MBE. Tom is ex RAF as am I but Tom was unfortunately injured in Afghanistan and has suffered from PTSD and now campaigns on behalf of Help for Heroes and other mental disability charities.

All in all a very interesting couple of hours.