Celia Bartlett Photography @ Design Essentials

Bear with me whilst I take you back through a few recent images...

Day 20 August Challenge 14

Day 22 August Challenge 14

Tour de France 7th July Police presence

Tour de France 7th July Race leaders

Carnival Procession 

Carnival Procession

You may or may not recall them, so why have I picked these out?

Well, they just happen to be a few that created quite a bit of interest when they were posted online over the past couple of months, and I am delighted of course. However, what would make me absolutely delighted would be for you to join me when I put these and a whole selection more of the 'Summer in Uttlesford' images on display in Design Essentials during September. There will be framed pictures, prints, greeting cards and books all associated with The Carnival, The Tour de France and of course, my latest work, The August Challenge.

Do remember of course, that the August Challenges were set by you, so this is also YOUR exhibition!


Without further ado here are the details:

Monday 1st September to Saturday 27th September

Design Essentials
13 Market Hill, Saffron Walden, Essex

If you can, join me for a chat and complimentary glass of wine on the special viewing evening...

Thursday 4th September from 7pm

See you there!!

Tour de France - Souvenir Book

Seeing as today is a bicycle day within the progress of my August Challenge, it seems appropriate to do a second post.

*Warning* I am about to do a bit of shameless promotion of my new venture into publishing!

Following the amazing day when the Tour de France came to town and the subsequent posting of the images from the day on my blog, I had so many people stop and say how wonderful they were (thank you everyone) and ask if they could buy a copy or two, and even several suggestions of "Are you going to turn them into a book?" I didn't think anything of it to start with but I did mention to a few more people that the idea had been suggested to me.
"Great! - you've got to do it!!"
Really? I thought about it and then realised that perhaps it wasn't such a mad idea after all. At first I wanted to do a lovely coffee table book but looking into even the 'self publication' production costs, it was going to be a bit of a tall order to 1. Find a sensible producer. 2. Turn the whole thing around in the space of a few days before I was due to set off on my own 'Tour of France'

With much encouragement from those around me and from the wonderful folk in the Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre I quickly re-adjusted my goal and set upon a souvenir booklet that would be affordable to everyone. With that decided, the next step would be to produce the artwork (putting on my other hat as a graphic designer) and find a printer. Thankfully, what I needed was right on my doorstep. Harts Design and Print came up trumps with the print solution and I left it in their capable hands as I set off to our Gallic neighbour.

Publication day, and I wasn't there to see my first book in print. I felt a little sad but also anxious and I have to admit, a weenie bit excited. Thankfully the lovely TIC folk were again kind enough to handle affairs until my return.

Now, I would just like to sell the books that everyone encouraged me to produce!
Twenty pages, full colour A5, limited edition adaption of my blog from the 7th July, with extra unseen images. They are available from the Tourist Information Centre in Saffron Walden for just £7.95.
If you can't get there to buy one in person, then you can order one (or as many as you like!!) from my Website

Even got a little plug in the local press!!

A big thank you to Mark at the TIC and also Rachel for doing fab tweets.
And a thank you to Eve and her team at Harts.

...and a biiiiig thank you to all of you for your support with the sales - I know I can count on you... ;-)

Day 9 - August Challenge 14

Challenge - "Cycle network"

Suggested by - Joey

"Hiya Celia... I have one which is probably quite easy to capture..:) "Uttlesford's extensive Cycle Network" ... go interpret that how you will :)"

After braving the torrential downpours of yesterday evening to capture the shot for day 8, by contrast, the morning of day 9 was glorious! Sunshine, blue skies, puffy white clouds...the right sort of day to go out on a cycle ride - and that is just what himself did. Well, at least until a message came through to home at about 8.30 am that a puncture had put paid to the ride and could someone please rescue him? (I'm grateful to S-i-L for being on green flag duty).

We are very fortunate to live in such a lovely rural area where there is a criss-crossing of lanes ideal for exploring by bicycle. This has already been recognised with the well marked Route 11 passing though a delightful little corner of Uttlesford near Littlebury and Saffron Walden, and is a little backwater that I often pass through on my way to my favourite local walking spots. When we have taken outsiders along these lanes, they are so often surprised by this beautiful hidden away spot. It was no surprise to me though, to find Route 11 being well used on this beautiful morning, with several bikes passing through whilst I was there. On a leisure ride from Cambridge to Saffron Walden, the lad (who just happened to appear in my picture) stopped to ask me if he should continue on the route or cut through another way. There was, of course, only one answer for that.

So here were two examples of riding for pleasure. What about riding for essential purposes such as going to work? The one thing about being a peaceful rural town and yet only one hour by train to London, means that there are many who will do the daily commute. For those in Saffron Walden, the nearest station is Audley End, but is about two miles away from the centre of town. Many will drive and park, some will use the local bus service to get there but there are those who prefer to cycle and even walk to the station. Unfortunately, the two miles along a country road is not an easy two miles for the latter two. It is a narrow, unlit road, where the commuter vehicles often don't respect those using pedal power, so it is no wonder that there is a long running campaign to create a suitable and safe route to the station.

With the Tour de France having passed through Uttlesford just a month ago, it left a small legacy in its wake for resident cyclists, in the form of selected roads having been resurfaced - a safety benefit, and some cycle bars in the town centre - a security benefit. However, wouldn't it be wonderful to see the Wenden Road issue being addressed as the biggest legacy of the 'summer of cycling'?

Tomorrow, Day 10

"Nautical"

Stage 3 Tour De France Starts Here...

One month today!

The spectacle known as the Tour de France is coming to our area.

Starting in Cambridge on the 7th July, stage 3 will wind its way through the South Cambridgeshire countryside, before dropping into the 'desireable' district of Uttlesford and the Town of Saffron Walden where I will be 'on duty' as the peloton sweep past my virtual door. Although it will only take a matter of minutes for all but the stragglers (and hopefully there won't be many of those) to cover the couple of miles through the town, the whole place will be in lock-down for the all of the day. There will be no crossing over between the two sides of the course route and certainly no traversing by car. This means all arranging of movement has to be planned well before the day itself. I intend to stay on the south side of the town, which will give me access to shoot off after they have passed and on to cover another section of the race in South Essex. After that, it makes its way into London and the end of the stage, where the will no doubt be far more fuss and coverage than on our bits in between. But hey, someone has to cover it!

Here's hoping they will have a nice dry day, such as it was when I dropped by the start place beside Parker's Piece in Cambridge last week. I suspect there may be more than just the one bicycle in July too.

Tour de France 2014 - Countdown 1

Almost every day I negotiate this particular patch of road as I take mutt for her daily walk.
I negotiate the traffic, using the Pelican crossing, mutt dutifully waiting with me for the bleeps (as she has been trained to do). We then both have to negotiate the potholes that appear with serious regularity in this over-used used patch of road at the bottom of our High Street.

It was just three months ago that we learned with some interest (and excitement) that the 2014 Tour de France will be passing over this very spot on Monday 7th July.
Nearly 200 of the worlds elite cyclists will be negotiating the right-angled turn from the High Street into George Street (right to left in this image).

However, I feel there will need to be just a tad of time and investment given to this spot before then (and indeed, others along the route) if we are to avoid any embarrassing pile ups which are not of the cyclists making.
I have every confidence it will be done.

There are only six months to go!



I will be covering this event. Contact me (using the link at the side) for details.