Amsterdam

A week ago I flew off to a city I had last visited around 15 years ago, and was delighted to be making a return visit. This was to be a pure indulgence visit - not shooting for work but shooting for pleasure, and it was also be an opportunity to meet a lovely Dutch friend of similar situation who is also an enthusiastic photographer with a keen eye.

Leaving the sunshine behind in the UK, I landed into some wintry weather, giving rise to some shots I had not expected to see during my visit.

However, by the next morning, the sun had caught up with us and we spent a fascinating day people-watching in Dam Square and the environs of the De 9 Straatjes.

Here's Looking at You. 1

Here's Looking at You. 2

Here's Looking at You. 3

The Kiss. 1

It was impossible not to find shops with traditional Dutch souvenirs, including the typical blue and white Delft ware which came in all shapes and sizes. Appropriate too that this kissing couple was mirrored for real on the Kees De Jongenbrug - Kees De Jongen (Kees the Boy) being a famous Dutch novel about a boy and his first love, Rosa. However unlike the pottery couple who keep their hands to themselves, this modern day Rosa needed to hang on! (Someone give her a couple of Yellow Pages too!)

The Kiss. 2

The Kiss. 3

Now, for a couple of Dutch cliches...

Bike on the bridge

Bike in the window

In the saddle

Then there were the selfies - loads of them.
Not any of me I might add, I'm rubbish at them.
But everyone else busying themselves with their selfies, oblivious to what was going on around them.

...iiiits selfie tiiime!!! 1

...iiiits selfie tiiime!!! 2

...iiiits selfie tiiime!!! 3

In fact, I got so engrossed with people taking selfies I'm going to dedicate another blog just to the phenomenon.

It also turned out to be a weekend of
Planes...

Schiphol...check-in

Trains...

Amsterdam Centraal...checking out

...and Automobiles.

Fiat 500...checking up

And why not finish off with some tulips from Amsterdam!

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"

Tour de France in Saffron Walden

The build-up was long - over months, days and hours and yet the main spectacle was over in less than five minutes.
On the 7th July 2014, the Tour de France came through Saffron Walden.

Thanks to riders Jan Barta (Cz) and Jean-Marc Bideau (Fr) who had forged out ahead (and had held that lead until the last two miles) we had a slightly extended show over and beyond the three minutes which had been anticipated for this Stage 3 event.
But what an event!

Preparations had begun early on this glorious summer morning with the keenest amongst us out to bag our spot ahead of the barrier contractors, who completely threw our group of togs, by placing more barriers in front of our carefully chosen spot, thus instigating a quick change of plan. All was not lost though.

  

Also out early were the French Tour de France merchandise sellers, who literally rocked up, music blaring, in their precarious back-of-the-van retail outlet offering packs of all-yellow Tour products. Several early spectators were keen to show their support of this once-in-a-towns-lifetime event by donning the bright t-shirts. Also displaying their delight were the pollen beetles, in fact they were too delighted, with the myriad of yellow garments becoming a magnet for their attention. No sooner had these t-shirts been put on than they were swiftly removed in an attempt to be rid of the unwanted hitchhikers.

Not all pre-race preparations were so fraught with hazard, at least not today. The empty road provided the perfect canvas for chalky messages.

Then came the waiting...

The crowds began to fill out.

There was more waiting and then...

...came the bizarre spectacle of the 'Tour Caravan' - ten minutes of assorted whacky vehicles which in customary French flamboyant style; bemused, boomed and bounced their way over the mini roundabout in front of us.

However, we Brits are known for our own unique sense of humour and entertainment and surely, the award has to go to the police officer 71791, who performed for the crowds along Hill Street, running, soaring and weaving along the empty impromptu stage before instigating an Oggi-oggi-oggi shout-out challenge with the opposing crowds.
Best warm-up act I've seen in a long while!

Anticipation was building, and the arrival of three police motorcycle outriders indicated that cyclists were imminent. News was circulating that two riders had gone out ahead of the peloton and very soon, the arms of the crowds began to rise - flags, hats, cameras, iPads (iPads? - and pink ones at that!!) were being pointed in the direction of the first two riders.

Appearing as if in tandem, I knew there would be a short window of opportunity to document this landmark event, and before I knew it, the two riders had passed in front of me, taking the right-hand line past the hump of the mini-roundabout.

Having now had 'they will be swift' suspicions confirmed, the joyful crowd had just under two minutes before the peloton would whizz past.

And whizz they did, even with many teams being beneficially bunched, it was possible to pick out the odd rider, here being UK rider Geraint Williams of Team Sky Sport. However, was one of the riders wearing a yellow jersey? If there was, I'm afraid I didn't spot it!

Post script - Found him!
Knew he would be in there somewhere.
Vincenzo Nibali

With the tail-end-charlie passing my spot, it was only a matter of minutes before all the team support vehicles, loaded with spare bike frames and wheels had also gone past on their once-only route. It dawned on the Tour Makers that that was it and the happy crowds surged to the crossing points, eager to get back to where-ever. The hours of build-up and waiting was dissipated in just a matter of minutes - almost as fast as the passing of Stage 3 of the Tour de France.

With the pavements now emptied and the roads still closed, one last intrepid wheeled spectator took the opportunity to bask in the imagined cheers that not long before had filled the spot for real.

Tour fever was over...but not in our memories.

I am delighted to announce, that due to popular request, I have produced a souvenir book of these and more images, which is available from my website and Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre.

200

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.

Lighting up the Way

It was already a cold old evening when I left home at around 5.30 to go to a meeting in Cambridge on Tuesday. A huge disc of a yellow moon was rising in the clear sky, lighting up the way.

As I had my camera gear with me anyway, and without setting anything up, I grabbed a hurried but timed shot of this striking moon from the side of the road, whilst the evening homebound traffic streaked by. My haste created nothing but a frustrating burnout.


As I drove on towards my destination, gritting lorries passed me. It really was going to be cold, typically just as I was embarking on an outdoor shoot.

The 'Big Switch On' in Cambridge had been on Sunday but as the lights wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, I wasn't too worried - I could catch them any time. And so I did as I ambled through the market square and past the quaint Rose Crescent, the newly illuminated Christmas displays lighting up the way.

My purpose for the visit was to search out a new feature on Christ's Pieces. I wasn't quite sure where it was located but took a moment to capture some of the lights over the path way. With the leaves still hanging on, (a couple of frosts will see them off for sure and thus change the ambiance) the trees were bathed with a warm light from the street lamps, contrasted with the clear blue punctuation of the garlands of seasonal lights. During the long exposure, the flashing bicycle light added another string of dynamic punctuation to mirror those above, all together lighting up the way.

Finally, I found what I was looking for.
At the far end of Christ's Pieces is a world first - and on Tuesday night, it was being rather shy. Overcome by it's sodium cousins, it struggled to shine. For this was a glow in the dark path. I had had to look hard to find it. It didn't jump out at me as I thought it may have done, it was purely the reflective glint of some of the surface particles that gave the game away.

I struggled to find a place or a way to capture the unique surface, which has been on trial for the last month in this public space. On the face of it, a surface that can absorb energy during the day, to give out as light at night, sounds perfect but it was proving less than perfect on the evening I visited. Was I disappointed? Yes. I had hoped to be drawn along a totally way-out glowing path, something to make the brain buzz. Instead I found just a few remaining excited blue particles, desperately trying to light up the way.

VMCC Banbury Run 2013

After the buzz of the TT post the other week, let's go right back to the beginning with motorcycles all built before 1931.

Over the past thirty years, I have been to watch these old machines at a particular summer event on a number of occasions. This has mostly been due to the fact that himself has a passion for two wheels. So, coupled with the fact that we haven't been for a number of years, and the newest member of our family also has a passion for two wheels, it seemed a perfect reason for us all to set off on Sunday, picnic-in-panniers, to watch the annual Vintage Motorcycle Club 'Banbury Run' take place, starting from the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire.

It is amazing to think that enough of these old bikes are still road-worthy enough to be able to get together to make such an event but nearly 600, mostly British, veteran and vintage motorcycles took part.
With almost a complete lexicon of all the old manufacturers names,
from Ariel...

...to Zenith,

riders could choose to be competitive...

or just social and for the fun of it.

From traditional tweed-clad riders...

...to those in a mixture of old and new, the riders lined up the bikes in batches of five, ready to be waved off at minute intervals, to cover one of the three circular routes.

 

With such clouds of smoke and a succession of bikes queueing for the electric rolling road to coerce the aged machines into life, it was questionable as to whether some of them would actually make it all the way round their designated route.

All knew what lay ahead.
Cue the moment to hop back onto our own two wheels and head over to Sun Rising Hill.

................

Situated on the A422 Stratford to Banbury road, Sun Rising Hill is the long, winding road from Warwickshire up over the wooded Edge Hill escarpment into Oxfordshire. It is notorious for the best wheels, let alone those belonging to this ageing band of motorcycles. It isn't any wonder that spectators gather on the hill to watch as these machines pop, wheeze and bang their way up the hill, with some seemingly covering the route with little effort.

Others get caught out for any number of reasons.
But can you imagine the possible embarrassment of being overtaken by a cyclist?!

Hats off to this cyclist though for riding non-stop up a road where many spectators walked just a small portion, and wheezed worse than some of the old motorcycles!

Countless machines expired just in sight of the top of the hill, relying on the VMCC volunteers and sometimes, spectators to give a friendly push to the top, whilst other motorcycles just plodded on past.

As machines went by, there was always the hope of that distinct whiff of Castrol R to confirm that the event was indeed running old and not modern machines. We didn't need the proof though.

Where else might you see purple motorcycle and sidecar outfits like this?

Some machines 'flew' up the hill but not necessarily quite as planned.

For others, touch-down would be imminent.

Whilst there were those with a long taxi back.

Sun Rising Hill. Sorts the men from the boys. There are those that can and there are those that can't but by one means or another, they all still have to get to the top...

 ...but there will always be one straggler.




Post script

Judging by my blog stats, it appears there are loads of you out there dropping in to have a look at this post
- and thank you!
Would be lovely if just one or two of you might leave a comment too. (Don't be shy!)