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

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, 108, 143, 166, 175 & 180

Photographs from the morning launch on the 7th June. This is the first major session with the Sony A200.

This is why I wanted to go digital properly. These photographs were taken at around 7am on the 7th June, and by 9am, they had been uploaded to this site (helped by my "karma" automatically approving the collection). The link was sent to a local newspaper , along with one image as a sample (unfortunately, I wasn't selected for publication). The organisers also had the link emailed to them.

This was the first time I'd properly photographed the balloon festival; I mistimed my visit in 2007 and all I got were deflated balloons (although I got a few birds of prey as a consolation - for legal reasons I can't use them on this site). This time I got up early and went to the Saturday morning launch. The lighting wasn't absolutely ideal for the situation in my opinion, but I was still able to get some good photographs.

I had planned to revisit during the remainder of the weekend, but I was so impressed with the results of this session, I felt it was a case of "Job Done!", and I had other things I wanted to try the camera on.

The 2009 festival was called off due to bad weather, but may be rescheduled to August.

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.

This was a new event for 2008, as the original plan to do one in 2007 was cancelled due to the flooding during July of that year. The idea behind this for the emergency services to demonstrate some of the skills needed to deal with emergency situations, especially relating to rescues from the type of floods the area experienced in 2007.

The demonstrations included Water Rescues, Road Traffic Accident Rescues and demonstrations of fire extinguisher use (an area I received training on a few years back from my employers). There was also a flypast by a Sky Watch Spotter Plane.

One of my objectives was to do an evaluation on how my Sigma 70-30mm lens functioned with the Sony. The conclusion I drew was that, in spite of being designed for 35mm use, it performed well with the Sony, and I don't immediately see the need to replace it (I've augmented the lens collection with a 55-200mm lens instead - less bulky and can do a lot of the work that would have been assigned to the 300mm lens)

Please note that all "victims" in these photographs are played by members of the emergency services, and no one was hurt during these demonstrations.

If anyone from Evesham Emergency Services wishes copies of my photographs (250 photographs in total taken of the event during the day, giving this collection a 7% coverage), please contact me via the link on the index page and I will provide a copy free-of-charge.

The 2009 Safety Day was called off due to bad weather; I have no idea at present if it will be rescheduled.

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 last year's 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

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.

I hope to publish my policies on photographing the 2009 Festival (10th - 12th July) shortly. I have outlined a couple of points to Hazel at this point, but I need to give a matter a little more consideration to try and ensure no misunderstandings about what I can and cannot provide in the way of services.

This collection is likely to remain in place for someafter the 2009 River Festival. I haven't decided exacty when it will be removed, but I suspect that I will remove it after the 2010 festival.

[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.]

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.

The inaugural Evesham Vale 10K race. Approximately 500 people signed up for the race in the end, and I took 369 photographs in total, most at the finish line. The photographs uploaded therefore represent 5% of my total work, and there is no way I could have obtained this level of coverage using 35mm film.

Why I did I take so many photographs? Well, as I waited at the finish line (I had what I consider to be a prime position with the light in my favour and couldn't see any other "serious" photographers in the area), I was approached by Colin Tether, the race organiser who thought I might be an official photographer, and as he wasn't sure where the official photographer was, asked me to give him my details once the race was over. Unfortunately, he was busy when I left, and I had an prior engagement to get to, which meant I couldn't hang around. So, with interest from the race organiser, instead of taking a few photographs and leaving quietly, I took 369 of most of the runners (some did slip through, I'm afraid)..and then left quietly. However, Colin is a friend of my father, so I was able to track him down later on, and he now has copies of all photographs I took on the day, at no charge to him or to any other party connected with the race.

The 2009 race is now confirmed for Sunday 12th July, and I have been asked to provide my services again by Colin as official photographer, and we are currently in discussion over a plan of action for the event. Anyone interested in entering can find links to Evesham Vale Running Club on this collection's index page and on the home page of this site.

[I've decided that the 2008 photographs will be replaced by the 2009 ones]

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).

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.

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.

[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 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 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 in 2009. 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. I hope to return to this collection later in the year, when the existing line is re-aligned to permit laying of a second track.

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"
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"

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"

Photographs from the first of the two "Severn Coast Express" tours of the 30th May, hauled by A1 class no. 60163 "Tornado". Trip 2 was from Bristol to Minehead and the West Somerset Railway, but I did not participate in that trip.

This was an opportunity not to be missed; "Tornado" on a tour from Gloucester to Bristol via Cardiff and the Severn Tunnel. I had attempted something similar with "Nunney Castle" some years ago, but never made it through the tunnel, due to a route change after I booked the tour. Also for once, I was not alone; may parents came too (in fact, I owe them a great deal of thanks; they paid for the tour and we went First Class, something I've never done before).

We got a three-hour layover in Cardiff, part of which I spent on the station photographing the passing trains (some of these photographs have been uploaded to the "Diesels" collection). I would take the opportunity to point out that, despite recent adverse publicity regarding attitudes to photography on stations, no one gave me any trouble and I was allowed to to carry on freely. In fact, talking to some locals who turned up, it seems some of the station staff went out of their way to help the enthusiasts.

To conclude, this was one of the best tours I've been on. The tour ran to the route advertised, with the locomotive advertised, and pretty much to the timings advertised. In my experience it's usually a case of "Pick Two". The weather was brilliant as well, which rounded off a great day out.

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.

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" (we are due to get the BOBMF's Spitfire and Hurricane for the 2009 River Festival). However, disaster nearly struck as I forgot to pack my spare battery, and I only realised its absence when I came to change it at around 2pm. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze enough power to cover the simulated mortar attack and the Dakota Flypast, and with 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 am prepared to make the files available to vehicle owners and organisers, if asked.

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

Photographs in which water plays a prominent part