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.

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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.

Matt And Monique Fiddes Foxx get mobbed at Swindon School

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx and Lydiard Academy

Monique Fiddes Foxx mobbed

Monique Fiddes Foxx

Monique Fiddes Foxx

Monique Fiddes Foxx

Monique Fiddes Foxx

Matt Fiddes

Matt Fiddes

Matt Fiddes mobbed

Monique autograph

This lunch time I spent a lovely hour photographing Monique Fiddes Foxx and Matt Fiddes at the Lydiard Academy Sports day. Matt gave a motivational speech and answered lots and lots of questions from pupils including one young girl who asked Matt if he would be her bodyguard if she became famous. Monique sang some of her favourite numbers and did an excellent job of it, it was sooooo hot out there on the track especially when lots and lots of pupils joined in the dancing.

It was so funny though as all athletics stopped and a lot of dancing took place followed by both Matt and Monique being mobbed by pupils all trying to say hello and/or get autographs. Including one young man who had no paper on him so got Monique to sign his forehead!!!!

Matt is a former pupil of Lydiard Academy which used to be known as Greendown School.

BEST OF SWINDON CONCERT

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Theo Alteiri

Theo Alteiri

Josh Kumra

Queen of Hearts

Queen of Hearts

Colour The Atlas

Last night I was at The Best of Swindon concert at the Oasis. It was a concert put on to showcase and celebrate the wealth of musical talent in or from Swindon. And what a wealth of talent. Each and every act was excellent.
Now I dont want to use the phrase ‘the star of the show’ because they were all stars but the concert bill was headed by Jahmene Douglas. Have to say he was really good, especially when he sang with his church gospel choir.
It was also very nice as it felt very much a small, local concert as the acts ended up waving and chatting with members of the audience who they knew or perhaps went to school with etc.

The other artists were Theo Alteiri, Josh Kumra, Queen of Hearts and Colour the Atlas, all very very good.

Altogether a very good night. Well done guys.

Swindon Britain From Above Event at Wharf Green

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Britain from Above Swindon

Yesterday I spent a fun couple of hours at the Britain From Above event in Wharf Green Swindon. The event was put on by English Heritage to introduce the public to the archive of 1.5M images of Britain taken from the air and yesterday was specifically images of Swindon from the air. The event which was organised by http://kirstyhebersmith.com/ for InSwindon and despite the cold weather was a great success. For me it was nice to see that once some of the older ‘kids’ had decided it was not embarrasing to get involved and make paper aeroplanes that they actually enjoyed it, so well done to all the children and adults that launched in and enjoyed themselves. (Launched in, did you get it)!!!!! 🙂
Jokes were never my thing.
Anyway another thumbs up for Swindon.

Swindon when one door shuts another door opens…….

Peacocks Clothing Swindon

Peacocks Clothing Swindon

Peacocks Clothing Swindon

Swindon HMV Store

Swindon HMV Store

Swindon HMV Store

Well, this post just reflects what I believe to be true in life in general.

Today a new store opened in Swindon Town Centre. Peacocks the clothing retailer opened up a new store. Nice and clean and warm, with plenty of stock and nice staff. Whilst only a few doors down HMV is closing down, selling off all of it’s stock at hugely discounted prices. What a shame for not just the staff that work there but for Swindon Town.

I believe in progress and new technology and the internet etc but I also do not want to see the High Street become a ghost town and I will support it as much as I can. However what I do believe in is:-

When one door shuts another one opens …..

Sunday Project – No More

Well no photo of Sunday anymore. Why? I have been carrying out quite a bit of research and despite it being only the 4th Sunday of the year I have decided to bin it because it is not providing any benefit to me or anybody else. Stats are showing very few hits on those posts and to be honest I can understand why. There is no theme and is therefore completely random and unless I am on another assignment then I am just taking an image just for the sake of it with very little thought behind it. With very little information around the photo, why it was taken etc then why would anybody actually be interested in reading it.

What I should be doing more of is explaining things and why I do them, how I do them etc.

So as a start, I did a small photo shoot this morning. It was only mug shots for the person to send off as part of his profile as part of a competition. It was carried out in a gym, (in the squash court to be precise) where lighting is just awful. And short of getting the flash and umbrellas out it was a case of the ISO at 3200 and hope for the best. I just did not feel happy with the results which prob will suffice for what it was for but I just did not feel satisfied. Which at the end of the day is what it is all about for me. I have to feel emotionally involved in what I am doing and I didnt. Is that true of all professional photographers? I dont want to just earn money and not feel as though I have not done a good job.

So this blog is going to go back to the Swindon News/Photojournalism and I am not going to try to combine other things with it.

Likewise I am going to re-design my website to provide a better experience, better show case for my better images from both the UK and Spain and try to make it more interesting.

TotalSwindon Train in Spain Mainly on the Plain

pete running 1

pete running 2

pete running 3

pete running 4

pete running 5

pete running 6

pete running 7

pete running 8

pete running 9

pete running 10

pete running 11

pete running 12

Well, I am back in Swindon now and back to covering Swindon issues but just wanted to put up a post of me on one of my training runs in the hills above the village of Freila in Spain where I have been staying for the last three weeks. I have to say the running around there is absolutely spectacular on some days.
On a few of the days I went out the door in thick mist (Freila is at 800 mts) only to run through the cloud base out into the sunshine and views that I have to say were just stunning, where the hill tops and mountains were poking out above the clouds. Just absolutely stunning.
I will put some photos up in another post of the views, I never carried a camera whilst running but did walk up there and take shots.
Many thanks to my girlfriend Jacquie (who lives in Freila) for taking these shots.

Jahmene Douglas and Nicole Scherzinger switch on Swindon Xmas Lights

Jahmene Douglas

Nicole Scherzinger

Jahmene, mother and Nicole

Jahmene Douglas

Jahmene Douglas

Nicole Scherzinger

Nicole Scherzinger

Nicole Scherzinger

Nicole Scherzinger

Jahmene Douglas

Jamene Douglas

Jamene Douglas

baby enjoying music

Ovation Swindon Dance

Tonight upto an estimated 28,000 people squeezed into or as close as they could get to Wharf Green in the Swindon Town Centre for the switching on of the Christmas Lights. Why so many. Well They were switched on by Swindons very own Jahmene Douglas the X Factor finalist. Along with Jahmene his friend and mentor Nicole Scherzinger spent time on stage. Jahmene switched on the lights with the help of several others including many of the local Olympic Torch bearers, footballers from Swindon Town Football Club and the manager of Swindon Wildcats and many others.
Jahmene went on to sing three songs and I have to say he was very good, he sounded as good singing live as he does on the TV which is quite rare these days.
I also have to say that I think I have never ever seen so many people turn out for an event in Swindon, therefore I have to applaud Kirsty Heber-Smith who was the event organizer and compare. And InSwindon for putting it on. Well done guys.

A good night for Swindon I think.

Swindon Woman wins a major prize from TotalSwindon

TotalSwindon competition presentation

TotalSwindon competition presentation

TotalSwindon competition presentation

TotalSwindon competition presentation

This morning at the Brunel Shopping Centre Liz Ledger from TotalSwindon presented Nicky the very lucky winner of the TotalSwindon shopping spree competition with her prize of £2000. Nicky was over the moon with her win as was Liz when presenting Nicky with the prize money. Andy Wynn Managing Director of the Brunel Shopping Centre looked on as the prize was handed over. Even Santa got in on the act as he was so happy for Nicky.