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.

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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.

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 🙂

Prince Andrew The Duke of York visits UTC Swindon

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew The Duke of York made a flying visit in the rain to The UTC University Technical College in Swindon. The site which is still under construction was rather wet and muddy and we all had to wear boots, hard hats, hi viz jackets except the Prince himself!!

The Prince seemed genuinely interested in what was going on and seemed to enjoy himself. He met a selected few of the students, parents, staff and construction workers.

A tough day at the office Swindon Wedding Fayre at the Marriott

Wedding Fayre at the Marriott

Wedding Fayre at the Marriott

Wedding Fayre at the Marriott

Wedding Fayre at the Marriott

It was a tough day in the office yesterday. Taking photographs at the Marriott Hotel at the Wedding Fayre that was being held there.

Surrounded by pretty ladies, yep it was a tough day.

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.

Swindon Regents Circus Progress

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Swindon Regents Circus

Every time I pass Regents Circus, which is quite a lot these days, it seems that the construction site and the building itself has doubled in size, it is really impressive how quickly the site is progressing. So as today has been such a gloriously sunny and warm day I thought I would take the camera and take a couple of shots. Now these are from outside the site as I do not have permission (yet) to go on site, but I am working on that one.
However it is balanced out by the really old part of the Old College which is a lovely old building and will be preserved but as yet nothing has been done and it just looks very sad. However it is far more photogenic (in my opinion) than the new one at this point in time. And so I ended up taking more shots of the old building than the new. What I would give to go and have a wander around inside the building as it is before the developer gets in there and it all changes.

Swindon Big Screen and my photos

big screen images

big screen images

big screen images

big screen images

big screen images

big screen images

Hi Guys,

This post is a bit of indulgence rather than photojournalism. Lots and lots of my images are now being screened on The Big Screen at Wharf Green here in Swindon. These images don’t do it justice. I am/was well impressed when seeing my images displayed on such a huge screen. Interestingly they are not even hi res copies, just the normal low res stuff used on the web and yet it looks really good. More and more of my work will be shown up on the screen so please look out for them. In fact more and more of my work is going to be displayed around Swindon in the next few months. So please feel free to give me feedback. Good or bad.

Many thanks for looking.

Pete

Mousetrap at The Rat Trap, Swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

mousetrap swindon

Todays photo shoot was with the cast of the long running Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap which is due to play at The Wyvern Theatre Swindon next February. Where else could it take place but at The Rat Trap Pub in Stratton. And of course a nice bunch of people they were as well.

It was very very sunny outside and so made shooting outside not as easy as it could have been (and it was cold). Inside of course was no problem. I also used my Nikon d800 for the first time. Can anybody see the difference between the two cameras, which shots are on which camera??

Another enjoyable few hours I reckon.

Swindon Farmers Market Returns

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Swindon Farmers Market

Well for a number of reasons I have not blogged for a while. I have been in Spain for a couple of weeks and since being back I have carried out some photo shoots that I am not contractually allowed to use yet. But I am back now and will be blogging again on a more regular basis.

This shoot was for and about the first day of the return of the Farmers Market in Swindon. The market has not been held for about a year and was greatly missed. The market has now been reinstated and will be held every Thursday from now on.
It was interesting from my point of view as the stall holders were very friendly and happy to pose but it was so good to see how positive they were about the economy and the future. The bread sold out in the first few hours and the vegetables were not far behind either. I had heard that generally people are starting to spend a little more on quality rather than quantity and from what I could see they could be right.

So get yourself down there on Thursdays and get not just fresh but really tasty (yes I did try everything whilst I was there)!!! fruit, veg, bread etc.