Well as I have said before my most favourite Café in the World (and I have been to a lot), is Café Art in Old Town, Swindon. I just love the staff there and they have all become good friends over the years.
So I had an impromptu photo shoot with them yesterday. They were so much fun to photograph. I also wanted to photograph the Café before it changes.
Go visit Café Art, you wont be disappointed.
This morning I spent an hour or so wandering around a very misty Clifton Street Cemetery in Swindon. It was lovely and not spooky at all, as much as I wanted it to be!!!! and unfortunately didn’t see any strange happenings. This cemetery is fascinating as it has lots of old G.W.R. workers graves as well as Commonwealth War Graves. I have only been round a small part of it so far and intend to spend a lot more time there looking around and photographing the graves.
Well, I have decided to change the focus (excuse the pun)of my photography. I have found it just too difficult to achieve a ‘business’ in Journalism and PR work. There simply is just not enough to go round. Certainly around here in the Swindon area there isn’t. So I have decided that rather than take on jobs I don’t enjoy doing I will only do what I enjoy. That means I will still do some journalism work but only interesting stuff. I will keep on doing as much of the music photography as I can as I really enjoy that and do more documentary work. It is so nice just wandering around with the camera with no pressure to produce anything at all. I am not sure if I should start another blog or to just keep this one. At the moment I am thinking of just keeping this one as it is really still photojournalism.
These images are from one of the local cemeteries which I walked through on the way to town and just could not resist getting the camera out for a few shots. I will definitely be returning for a proper wander around.
I hope you find them interesting.
AJ and The Tribe played at The Reggae Garden Swindon Saturday 12th September.
Roots Ambassadors played at The Reggae Garden in Swindon on Saturday 12th September.
Dubwiser played at The Reggae Garden in Swindon Saturday 12 Sept.
Well, first thing to say is that I have failed to keep up with my at least one blog post per week this year. I have really just been either so busy or I have just lost my enthusiasm for it. Either way I am going to try to make up for it and post loads of images from what I have been doing.
Last sat was Swindon Gay Pride 2015. I had fun photographing the parade but to be honest my heart wasn’t in it when it came to the music and just hanging around. I think I left about 4.30 and probably missed quite a bit but I firmly believe that photography is an art form and your heart has to be in it as well as your head.
More catch up posts to come.
Part of the reason why I like being a photojournalist is the press scrum. It is fun and funny. Pushing and shoving some of the time. Other times we all let each other take prime spot and change around.
Yesterday I was photographing Ed Miliband who was visiting Los Gatos in Old Town Swindon as part of the Election trail and to show support for Anne Snelgrove the local Labour candidate for Swindon South. Los Gatos was just heaving with customers and Labour supporters before the media got in there. It was heavily controlled by the Police and Labour party officials and so we had to be in before he arrived. Not only that, all the media had to be behind the bar!!!!! So we were all pretty much going to get the same shots. I was too late in grabbing a chair to stand on and at first all I got was the backs of all the rest of the media. (See photo). After that I just moved around a bit trying to get something different. I don’t think I managed to achieve it. I did manage to get Ed Miliband being interviewed by the Swindon Advertiser journalist. Only because the Labour official in charge thought I was with them so I didn’t tell him otherwise 🙂
My point in all of this is that news photojournalism is all just a matter of luck, being at the right place at the right time. Pushing and shoving and standing your ground at times. Being really nice and accommodating at others.
Fun though, either way.
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.
Well what a lovely afternoon in Swindon it is. After the awful weather of late and even this morning it is just delightful if a little cold this afternoon. It is just like a spring day and as such areas of The Lawns in Old Town Swindon are covered in Snowdrops and they look lovely. This is in stark contrast to the old trees that succumbed to the recent storms and wet weather.
Just goes to show though the circle of nature. For me photographing the dead is as important as the living.
The Swindon Photojournalist 