The theme for this collection is "action". Something is happening, and possibly that something is happening in a fraction of a second.

A collection dedicated to the season of Autumn. This was originally intended to feature photographs from 2008, but on re-examining those, I realised that they were duplications of the locations featured in this collection, and the 2009 ones were far superior. As a result the collection isn't as large as I would have liked, but I think it's worth it, purely for the first photograph alone.

Photos relating to birds. Despite the exotic nature of the majority of the birds in this collection, most of these photographs have been taken within one hour's drive of my home, as the North Cotswolds has two premier bird collections; Birdland and the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

This collection shows that it is possible to take pictures of birds in aviaries, through various degrees of mesh. In my experience, it tends to take the bird being some distance into the aviary (too close and the mesh is prominent, too far and flash may not reach), a long lens, and a low depth-of-field. In some cases it also takes a good flash and/or a high ISO rating.

The Birdland photographs are compiled mostly from my 2008 visit; however, a few 35mm photographs from 2007 remain as I think they are still superior to the their 2008 counterparts.

Photographs from my visits to Bovington Tank Museum, during my Dorset holidays of September 2008 and May 2009. The majority of the photographs are from the first visit.

Photographs of Corfe Castle, Dorset. I've made three visits to the castle, one in September 2006, one in September 2008, and the latest in May 2009. The majority of the photographs are from the second visit, when more of the ruins were open to the public than had been on my first visit.

Photographs of Diesel Locomotives. Classes featured are 08, 11, 20, 24, 26, 31, 33, 37, 40, 42, 43, 47, 60, 66, 67, 108, 143, 166, 175 & 180

Photographs from the Celestine Dog Agility Team and the Dog Show that formed part of the Evesham Vintage Steam Rally 2009. I ended up taking more photographs of dogs than vehicles!

The photographs from the Agility event were taken either at the first hurdle on the course (which meant very little warning of the approach), or the last hurdle. I'd not taken my 300mm lens with me as I didn't think I would need it for vehicles, which I didn't. The Dog Agility event was a different matter, and I've had to compensate for lack of focal length with Paint Shop Pro. I did make some effort to note the dogs' names, but it became next to impossible to make notes and take photographs due to the speed of the event, and I eventually gave up on note-taking.

The Dog Show photographs are a selection from the ones I took, and again the 300mm lens might have been useful, although perhaps a bit bulky for this job. I'm not overly knowledgable about dogs (I'm more into rodents), but I have made a stab at identifying some of the breeds of dog featured here.

If any of the owners wishes a copy of any photographs in this collection, please contact me via the "Leave a Message" link on the home page of this collection.

As a result of my work on the Evesham River Festival, I have now been approached by Evesham Arts Centre to photograph anyone appearing at the centre. This is an ongoing commission and I am not charging the centre for my work.

All performers appearing here have consented to being photographed; I have agreed with the centre management that no photographs will be taken without the performers' consent. It is possible that I may be able to photograph during some of the performances, but, again this will be subject to consent by the performers, and being able to do this without upsetting the audience either. Also, for various reasons, some of the events listed on the Arts Centre Website may not get photographed (but I hope to be able to do most of them).

I will admit that I am out of my "Comfort Zone" here; I don't do a lot of indoor work, and haven't done much formal portrait work either. However, I felt that this would be good experience for me, which is at least part of the reason for accepting this commission.

Any performer wishing for a copy of their photographs can contact me via the "Leave a Message" link on the right-hand of this site's homepage, and I will send them a copy of the file(s).

[Session 3 was "Whalebone" on the 23rd October, and have been given their own collection]

Photographs from the 2008 Evesham Carnival.

Those of you who have seen my personal site will know I stopped photographing the carnival after 2002, due to concerns as to whether my photography may be mis-interpreted. I have decided to lift the restriction this year as this would disadvantage me w.r.t publishing, but have been careful about how I've gone about taking these images. I did not take any close-ups of young children, and of the two close-ups I've used on this site; one was the carnival queen and the other person gave me permission to take their photograph.

The selection published here represents about a fifth of the photographs I took on the day. The normal restrictions on distribution apply.

Evesham Carnival is held every two years, hence no 2009 photographs. I've no immediate plans to remove this collection, and it is likely to remain on the site at least until the 2010 Carnival takes place.

Photographs taken during the snowfall of February 2009.

I've never really done any snow photography until now; Evesham hasn't really had a lot of snow in the last decade or so, and when it does fall, it doesn't last long. I also tend to be working when it has done in previous years, but this time round I had the opportunity to photograph the snowfall, and I took it. The only downside was that, by the time I got round to getting out with my camera, most of the snow had been disturbed, and was starting to thaw. That saying, I don't think I did too badly for a first attempt.

These are photographs taken at the Evesham Medieval Festival 2008.

On the Saturday, I took photographs of the medieval combat displays, run by Steve and Des Avery, the same people who did the 2007 display (See "Action"). There were two fights, the first with maces and the second with swords, and I had managed to position myself with the sun behind me for optimum lighting. Steve also did some fire-eating, but my position wasn't so good for those photographs; however, with the aid of Paint Shop Pro, I've managed to construct what I think is a fairly decent photograph of the fire-eating.

Usual policy on distribution applies; active participants can copies of these photographs emailed (or CD to a central contact); anyone wishing to publish these can negotiate withe me for their use. Either way, I can be contacted by the link on the index page.

There was no 2009 Medieval Festival as such; instead Evesham had a Morris Dancing Festival instead (I didn't photograph this, although some Morris Dancers feature in the 2009 River Festival Photographs). I haven't decided the future of this collection, but it is possible I may remove it to make way for other photographs at a future date.

These are some of the photographs I took at the 2008 Evesham River Festival and is divided up as such:

1) The Boat Handling Competition - all competitors featured as they placed a lifebelt onto a buoy in the river.

2) A flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Avro Lancaster (for the second year in a row)

3) The afternoon boat parade

4) The illuminated parade - this was a challenge as my previous night work involved the targets remaining stationary. What I chose to do was an "arty" solution; set the flash to rear-sync and get an effect of motion. Again I managed to take photos of all participants in this parade.

I also took a few photos of the fireworks and have included one in this collection. Grand total of photographs taken during the day was 173 (13% coverage in this collection), which set a record for most photographs taken during one day. That record lasted 24 hours!

I have now supplied Hazel Hanlon, the festival organiser, with copies of all of the 2008 photographs for use in publicity and supply to boat owners/crews. As a result of the official interest, I have re-worked some of the photographs taken during the day in Paint Shop Pro, and any in this collection that were re-worked in this session have been replaced with the modified versions.

This collection is likely to remain in place for some time after the 2009 River Festival. I haven't decided exacty when it will be removed, but I suspect that I will replace it with the 2010 Festival photographs.

[My thanks to the webmaster of the official site for the link to this collection, as well as information that has allowed me to correct various errors/omissions in boat names.]

This collection is a sample of my photographs of the 2009 Evesham River Festival; I took over 700 in total, not quite a daily record, but far in excess of last year, and this in spite of some awful weather, especially in the morning and the evening.

Having been granted official status by the event organisers, I went all out on this one, which wasn't made any easier by the weather. I started out early in the morning, photographing the boats at their moorings (I believe I managed most of those moored either directly alongside Waterside, or accessible from the Abbey Park side of the River).

The contents of this collection as a follows (in chronological order):

Moored Boats (taken before the opening ceremony)
Morris Dancers arriving for the opening ceremony
Boat Handling
Dinghy Race (new for 2009)
Afternoon Parade
Line Dancing
Night Parade (in spite of the rain!)

The two bands that appeared at the Festival, the Bucket Band and the Blind Lemon Band, have now both got their own collections.

I've now taken the collection to 48 photographs and do not have any immediate plans to upload any more (and I think most of the boats I photographed are shown here in one form or another). I don't intend to separate out any more of the secondary events either, although I may change my mind if there is sufficient demand.

The Battle of Britain Flypast had been called off some time back despite what may have been stated in some of the local publications (and this site - apologies, I hadn't realised it had been called off either). I didn't photograph the fireworks as by this point camera and photographer were both very wet, and I felt I was pushing my luck a bit too far. Full marks to Sony for a durable piece of kit; it performed brilliantly the next day, and maybe I should wash it more often! However, I would not recommend anyone attempting flash photography in adverse weather conditions unless they are certain their camera equipment is watertight! One short circuit could have damaged my camera and possibly blown me into the Rowing Club Building! My luck held this time; next time I may not be so lucky.

On the whole I am pleased with my work during the day, especially the night parade, where the somewhat insane risk of using camera and flash in rain paid off with "April Rose". The amount of variety I got during the day was vast; one minute I was photographing boats, and the next I'm photographing rock groups.

A copy of around 300 or so of the photographs has now been delived to Hazel Hanlon (I felt that the remaining photographs were either duplications, or "rain-damaged")

My thanks to Hazel, the event organisers, the crews and other participants who put so much effort into entertaining us, despite the weather. I'd also like to thank the organisers for publicising me in the brochure and granting me official status for the event, which gave me the confidence to get in a lot closer than I would normally have dared to (I would also like to thank the lady who offered me the use of her umbrella during the Blind Lemon Band's first set). I hope to be back next year (with, hopefully, better weather).

[I think I owe an apology to the photographer who produced the firework photograph on the Event Brochure. Despite what it says on the cover, that photograph isn't one of mine; it's far too good! The error was not of my making and I have asked the event organisers to investigate]

Saturday 2nd May now holds the record for most photographs taken in one day - 846. I'm not sure exactly how many races there were, but unless any sneaked passed me when I transferred from Abbey Park to Workman Gardens at 2pm, I think I managed to photograph all crews that made it past the boathouse. Another win for digital; there is just no way I could have done this level of coverage with 35mm, at least not without spending a few hundred pounds on film and processing, probably missing shots while reloading, and having to worry about film speeds due to the variable lighting conditions during the day

My biggest problem from last year was identifying crews. The plan for this year was to take a photograph of each crew inbound to my position to obtain the crew number, and then follow up with an outbound shot to capture the faces of the rowers (I apologise to coxes, as in a lot of cases I deliberate composed to focus on the rowers who were facing me, rather than the coxes, who weren't). I deliberately avoided taking "easy" pictures of crews as they returned to the boathouse after racing (with one exception); I feel anyone with a camera can do this, and racing shots are more exciting in my opinion. I felt that conditions called for speed rather than quality(lighting was variable during day - sometimes sunny and sometimes overcast, particularly in the evening), and thus the ISO settings were generally either 800 or 1600, with 3200 being used as a last resort at the end of the day when the light was failing. Shutter speeds generally ranged from 1/800sec to 1/1250 sec, falling off somewhat at the end of the day.

I've now gone through all the photographs and on the whole my strategy appears to have worked. I have managed to work out the crew numbers, either by reference to my inbound photographs or by referencing event and crew colours, on all but the last race of the day (both numbers obscured, and I wasn't sure what event it was). It appears I have usable photographs of most of the crews (there appear to be 23 crews I don't have photographs of, according to the race order, but that still gives me a 90% or so coverage for the day), and on the whole the photograph quality is generally good. I think I can consider the day a success.

The photographs currently uploaded represent about 4% of the total photographs taken; I may upload more if the collection proves popular.

As far as distribution goes I am prepared to supply copies of the files to crews and clubs free-of-charge, subject to the following conditions:
1) In the interests of online protection, Junior Crews must get a parent, guardian, or club official to contact me, and I will supply the photograph to them, rather than to the crewmember directly. This is just as much for my protection as the crew's. All other crews are free to contact me directly.
2) In the interests of saving myself time and bandwidth, I will supply photographs of crews to one crew representative only. I would ask that the representative forwards the photographs onto remaining crew members, where applicable.
3) When contacting me please supply a crew number, or the photograph number (the last 4 digits of the filename), if already on the site. This will aid me in finding photographs.
4) I will supply copies by disk (within reason) to club officials on request, once I have completed the documentation and indexing of the photographs.

A link can be found on the home page of this site to contact me.

After some deliberation, I decided not to return on the Sunday, mainly to allow me concentrate on the Saturday photographs. I apologise for any disappointment I may haved causd by this decision, but as I'm not a full-time photographer, I felt my time would be better spent with the existing photographs rather than adding more.

Photographs from the second Evesham Vale 10K race, in which I was the official stills photographer (there was also video photographers present). Most of the photographs in this collection were taken at the finish line.

I took 506 photographs in total, and with 700 or so runners, means I don't have photographs of all runners, although I did manage to photograph both first and last runners to finish this year. I didn't have quite as unrestricted view as I did last year, but that did have the effect of producing more varied angles, and a greater range of emotion on the runners that I did manage to photograph (although I have a lot of photographs of runners looking at their watches).

The photographs in this collection are a sample of those taken during the day. With the aid of the race records I've now revised the identification scores as follows:

481 runners photographed in total
480 identified
1 unidentified - I don't believe this runner was actually listed in the finishing order, which is why I cannot make an ID in this case.

However, some runners are sharing a photograph, and some are in the background of others. I've now added names and times to the photograph descriptions(as the race info is available freely off the Evesham Vale Running Club website, I see no reason why I can't make use of it here). Unfortunately, my research so far has not uncovered any of the runners who have enquired but where I couldn't find them in the photographs.

A copy of the photographs is now with Colin Tether, the race organiser, who I hope can make them available to the Evesham-based runners. I am willing to upload further photographs to this collection, to a maximum of 72 in total in the collection on a first-come, first-served basis. If any club or group contacts me with a contact address, I should be able to supply a disk with any runners I have photographed to them. Finally, I would ask that any junior runners ask a parent, guardian, or club official to contact me rather than doing it themselves please. This is in the interests of mutual online security. A link to contact me can be found on the right-hand side of the homepage of this site (please feel free to contact me if your photograph is in this collection, but I've not sent you a copy - I would love to hear from you, and I will sort you out with a copy).

I would like to thank Colin Tether for this opportunity; I found the experience to be extremly rewarding despite less-than-perfect conditions, and I hope to return in this capacity in 2010. I'd also like to thank those people who have made purchases from this collection; I think I can now safely award the catagory of "Most Successful Collection" to this one.

Photographs taken on the Evesham Vale Light Railway, a narrow-gauge railway sited in Evesham Country Park, just north of the town. The photographs in the collection are compiled from visits made between 2007 and 2009, and are thus a combination of 35mm and digital.

Featured locomotives:

312 "St Egwin"
103 "John"
32 "Count Louis"

A gathering of various vehicles of a vintage nature, that took place just outside Evesham over the Easter 2009 weekend. Various items were exhibited and I have placed a selection of the photographs I took ( approximately 25%) in this collection.

The photographs are arranged in the order I took them, rather than in exhibit number order, but I have provided the exhibit number in the description (I will not be uploading any items where I cannot supply an exhibit number, but the event brochure has been useful w.r.t identification).

[Photographs of the other two Ashdown Farm events of 2009 can be found in my "Evesham Vintage Steam Rally" and "Wartime in the Vale" Collections"]

In the interests of security, I have also blanked the registrations of any road vehicles shown, but I can supply versions showing the registrations to the owners of the vehicles upon request. My normal policy on distribution applies.

Photographs from the 2009 Evesham Vintage Steam Rally. These were taken on the Saturday, the 8th August. Although this is not a new event to Evesham, this is actually the first time I've been to the August Rally.

As well as the various vehicles on the site, there was a dog display team and a dog show as part of the event; photographs from these activities have been uploaded to the "Dogs @ Evesham Vintage Steam Rally" Collection.

I did manage to photograph most of the steam vehicles on site, but I failed on the Stanley Steam Car, as I didn't realise what it looked like until it turned up in the arena at 3pm, at which point I was tied up with the dog show. I then spent another hour trying to find it, but failed, and left at around 4pm. I did consider returning on the Sunday for another go, but decided against it in the end.

Because I only managed to photograph a small minority of the exhibits, I've decided that I will only distribute those photographs in this collection to the owners of the vehicles, as I suspect I will end up writing a lot of negative emails otherwises. If your vehicle is in this collection (and I may add more later on), and you wish for a copy of the file, please contact me via the "Leave a Message" link on the home page of this site (as with the previous Ashdown Farm events, I've blanked road vehicle registrations for security purposes, but can supply versions with the registration showing). My normal policy to supply copies of all photographs to the organisers still applies.

A collection of flower photographs, generally taken at close range. Unfortunately my knowledge of botany is next-to-non-existant, and I apologise for the lack of identification in some of the photographs.

I'd like to thank my brother, who trained as a landscape architect, and worked in the horticulture industry for several years, for his assistance in identifying some of the flowers. Links to his Fotopic Galleries can be found in the "Links" section on the left side of this site's home page.

[This collection was formerly "Close-up and Macro Photographs]

These are photographs of Jerry, my pet chinchilla. Most of the photographs are digital, as it is not easy to keep him in one place long enough to compose a photograph, although I have managed to take some 35mm photographs.

In general, he doesn't mind having his photograph taken; in fact the first photographs taken of him were in the pet shop I bought him from (these photographs weren't taken by me, so I cannot put them on this site).

Photographs of the Landscape and Architecture of the county of Dorset in England. I've spent two weeks in Swanage, one in September 2008 and one in May 2009, and this collection contains photographs of the town, the surrounding area and Lulworth Cove.

Photographs of Landscape and Architecture taken in Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean. I have a particular interest in the railways of the Forest of Dean, so the features of the dismantled lines tend to feature in this collection.

This section covers landscape and architecture of Worcestershire. I've transferred the Upper Arley photographs back to this collection as, after referring to maps of the area, I've realised the village is not in Shropshire (as I had been led to believe by a railway publication) but in Worcestershire.

"Just because something, or someone, is here today, it doesn't necessarily mean they will be tomorrow."

Photographs from the Master of Midshires Grasstrack Meeting at Cleeve Prior, near Evesham.

This is a new event for me, prompted by an article in the "Vale Magazine". Originally intended as a joint project with both me and my father involved, it ended up with just me in the end, as other commitments meant that my father was not available on the day.

I admit I know next-to-nothing on this subject, and the fact I couldn't get an event brochure didn't help. As a result, I've found it difficult to fully document this session and I'm not sure what percentage of bikes I managed to photograph (I suspect it's somewhere in the region of 40 to 50%). Rather than have to disappoint a good percentage of people enquiring about photographs, I will only release the images on this site to the riders on request (if you want a copy use the "Leave a Message" link on the homepage to contact me with the bike number and I will supply you copy of the file - juniors should get a parent or guardian to contact me please). If the collection proves popular, I may add more images at a later date. The organisers can have a copy of all photographs if they wish, but they will probably be undocumented unless someone can get let me have a copy of the event brochure (A PDF version is fine; please contact me via the "Leave A Message" link on this site's homepage if you are willing to help me with this).

I set the camera for speed rather than quality; most photographs were shot at ISO 1600, with ISO 3200 being used towards the end of the meet. Shutter speeds were between 1/2000sec and 1/4000sec (the fastest speed the camera is capable of). I used the 200mm lens; I did consider switching to the 300mm lens, but as the light was somewhat variable during the day, I decided to stick at 200mm, and recompose in PSP.

I chose to work from the southeast corner of the track as I felt that this would make best use of the light. This meant that I didn't capture any of the "spills" on the north side of the track as I was just too far away. However, on balance, I think I made the right decision; although I've had to recompose most of the photographs in PSP to make up for the shortfall in lens length, I've only adjusted three photographs for lighting. In fact, having now examined all the photographs taken during the day, I think this is some of the best work I've ever done.

I took 376 photographs in total, giving this collection a 6% coverage. At the moment demand doesn't really justify adding any more photographs, but I may re-consider if things pick up.

Photographs taken at night (some items from "Landscape and Architecture" have been moved into this collection).

Pictures from the West Midland Safari Park, Longleat Safari Park and (new for 2009), the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

In 2008, it was agreed that redoubling of sections of the Oxford to Worcester line, mainly from Moreton-in-the-Marsh to Evesham, would be undertaken during 2009 and 2010. This collection aims to document this process, across several locations in the Evesham area.

The first stage took place early in 2009, with a mass clearance of lineside vegetation. This created some new views for photography, especially in Offenham Cutting.

The second stage began on the 18th July 2009, with the line being closed for re-alignment to permit a second track to be laid. This was completed over the next six weeks, with the line re-opening at the end of August.

The third stage, re-installing the second line, and re-signalling is scheduled for 2010.

In a change from my normal operating methods, I've given a major event at a preserved railway its own collection (at least for the moment anyway) rather than upload photographs into the relevant locomotive collection. These photographs were taken on the first day of the Autumn Gala (I try to avoid the Saturday and Sunday if I can help it, as, in general, the number of people in attendance is lower on the Friday).

My plan for the day followed my usual method of operation for the SVR; I took a train from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, and then worked my way back to Kidderminster via two intermediate stops (in this case Hampton Loade and Bewdley). Lighting conditions during the day were variable and resulted in just about every ISO setting on the camera being used at some point, especially at Bridgnorth where I resorted to a polarising filter for many of the photographs taken there.

I was on the line from just after 8am till just after 4pm. Originally I had planned to stay further into the evening, but I was offered the chance of some photographic work in Evesham on the Friday evening and I felt that work would be of more benefit to me in the long run, so I abandoned my original plan of some evening photography.

With 6100 "Royal Scot" not in attendance as originally proposed, my primary targets for the day were 43106 and 41241, which completed my collection of Ivatt designs (my first ever steam trip was behind Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 no. 46521, and I was rather upset when it left the SVR), and in a stroke of luck, both locomotives worked the first service from Kidderminster to Bewdley (which I was on). However, I also managed the GNR 0-4-2T no. 1744, and GWR "Hall" class no 4936 "Kinlet" Hall, as well as three of the SVR's resident locomotives.

Steam locomotives designed and built by British Railways (BR).

Featured locomotives:

Class 7 no. 70013 "Oliver Cromwell"
Class 8 no. 71000 "Duke of Gloucester"
Class 5MT no. 73050 "City of Peterborough"
Class 5MT no. 73096
Class 4MT no. 80078
Class 4MT no. 80079
Class 4MT no. 80104
Class 9F no. 92203 "Black Prince"

These are photographs of steam locomotives either built by the Great Western Railway (including constituent companies), or to a Great Western design by British Railways.

Featured Locomotives:

15XX class no. 1450
3440 "City of Truro"
4575 class no. 5521
4930 "Hagley Hall"
5029 "Nunney Castle"
51XX class no. 5164
56XX class no. 5619
57XX class no. 5764
6024 "King Edward I"
66XX no. 6696
6960 "Raveningham Hall"
57XX class no. 7714
7802 "Bradley Manor"
7812 "Earlstoke Manor"
7903 "Foremarke Hall"
57XX class no 9642
57XX class no 9681

Pictures of steam locomotives from the London and North Eastern Railway, its constituent companies, or locomotives built to LNER designs.

Featured locomotives:

A3 class no 4472 "Flying Scotsman"
V2 class no 4771 "Green Arrow"
A4 class no 60007 (LNER 4498) "Sir Nigel Gresley"
A4 class no 60009 (LNER 4488) "Union of South Africa"
A1 class no 60163 "Tornado" (the A1 class was originally an LNER design, therefore I'm putting "Tornado" photographs in this collection).

Pictures of steam locomotives built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) or constituent companies, or British Railways locomotives built to an LMS design.

Featured locomotives:

Class 4P no. 1000
Class 7P no. 6201 "Princess Elizabeth"
Class 7P no. 6233 "Duchess of Sutherland"
Class 5F "Crab" no. 42765
Class 5F no. 42968
Class 5MT no. 45110
Class 2MT no. 46443
Class 3F 0-6-0T no. 47493
Class 8F no. 48773

Photographs of steam locomotives of the Southern Railway, its constituent companies, and British Railways locomotives built to a Southern Railways design (I am also going to include Bullied Pacific rebuilds in this section, although it can be argued those are actually British Railways designs).

Featured locomotives:

30053 (SR no. 53) M7 class 0-4-4 Tank Engine
34028 "Eddystone"
34070 "Manston"
34081 "92 Squadron"
35005 (SR number 21C5) "Canadian Pacific"

The Blind Lemon Band was the second band to feature at the 2009 Evesham River Festival. They did two sets during the evening, and these photographs were from the first set. At this point in the day, the rain started to re-assert itself, and, unlike the Bucket Band photographs, I ended up deploying the flashgun.

In hindset, I wish I'd stayed around for the second set, and unlike the Bucket Band, I didn't really have the excuse of being required elsewhere in the Festival. I'd wanted to get home to try and upload some photographs, but that took some doing, and I don't think I gained that much benefit in the end.

The Blind Lemon Band are:

Mark Pearsall : Lead Vocals
Danny Koisser : Drums
Rob Allen : Keyboards
Nick McCarthy : Lead Guitar
Rich Morgan : Bass Guitar
Tim Pickering : Sax

Again, I enjoyed their music greatly; the opening rendition of "Baker Street", one of my favourite songs, won me over immediately. This is another band that I hope will cross my path again.

[If the band would like copies of the photographs, please contact me via the "Leave a Message" link on the right-hand side of the home page, and I will sort you out with a disk]

The Bucket Band were the first of two bands to play at the Evesham River Festival, and the photographs in this collection were taken during the last of the three sets that they did (unfortunately, the first two sets clashed with boating events and I didn't get to see them, something I now regret somewhat).

The Bucket Band are :
Karl Craddock (Guitar, Banjo, Harmonica, Mandolin, Piano and Drums)
Glenn Craddock (Bass, Accordian, Whistle)
Emily Grainger (Violin - I nearly got caught out here by a lineup change)

The group are based in Bridgend, South Wales, but appear to get around quite a bit; apparently they appeared at this year's Glastonbury Festival. Their appearance at this year's Evesham River Festival has got them at least one new fan (me!), and I hope to be able to catch them again in the future.

[I've dispatched copies of the photographs I took at the River Festival to the Band]

Photographs of trains in the landscape, where I'm trying to photograph more of the train, rather than just the locomotive. This is something I'm trying to do more of, now that I've gone digital.

[in order to give the collection order some logical pattern, I'm now using the filename convention to state the location that the photograph was taken at.]

An exhibition of Wartime Vehicles (and a few other vehicles as well), in a similar fashion to the Evesham Vintage Easter Gathering, and at the same location, Ashdown Farm, between Evesham and Badsey. These photographs are from the Saturday; I took 174 photographs in total and this collection currently represents 14% of the total photographs taken. As with the Easter Gathering, I have blanked road vehicle registrations for security, but can supply versions with the registration showing if required.

I did this primarily for practice on a moving airborne target, in this case the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's C47 "Dakota". However, disaster nearly struck as I forgot to pack my spare battery, and I only realised its absence when I came to change batteries at around 2pm. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze enough power from the current battery to cover the simulated mortar attack and the Dakota Flypast, and with the battery just about depleted I returned home.

The lighting was somewhat variable during the day, especially in the morning, when it was somewhat overcast, and the ISO settings vary somewhat on this photographs. The mortar discharge and the Dakota flypast were done at a high ISO setting as I chose speed over quality, and was using a long lens.

I have supplied the organisers of this event with six photographs from this collection; at present they do not wish for a full set, so anyone with a vehicle in this collection can contact me via the "Leave a Message" link on the home page of this site, stating which vehicle is required, and I will supply them with a copy of the file.

[More military vehicle photographs can be found in my Bovington Tank Museum collection. More vintage vehicles can be found in the Evesham Vintage Easter Gathering and Evesham Vintage Steam Rally Collections. Photographs of the BOBMF Lancaster can be found in my Evesham River Festival 2008 collection]

Photographs in which water plays a prominent part

"Whalebone" performed live at Evesham Arts Centre on the 23rd October 2009, and as Arts Centre Photographer, I was on hand to record it. As I took more photographs in this session than normal, I've decided to give it its own collection, rather than put into the main Arts Centre one.

I was given permission to photograph during the first set. I apologise if this spoilt things for anyone, but I feel that musicians really should be photographed at work if possible, as otherwise there is little to distinguish them from the audience. This is probably a one-off situation; I don't normally stay for the performances, but I had a feeling I would enjoy Whalebone and I did.

I wouldn't say this was my best work; the conditions I was working under weren't ideal and were pretty much the opposite than for the River Festival bands. I will also admit I still need to work on taking control where I can; there's one photograph at least where I should could have altered the conditions for a better shot, but didn't. I have reworked some of the images in Paint Shop Pro, which has improved some of them to a limited degree.

I haven't heard anything from "Whalebone" about copies, but am quite happy to supply them to the band if asked.