However being England and the good old British weather being true to form, it turned grey, wet and miserable. Not the ideal conditions to get what I wanted.

Not to be outdone by this setback I decided to hit the streets and market place to see what was about and shoot it in mono, which lends itself to this kind of weather.

Although I didn’t get what I originally set out to shoot I still enjoyed my day, it was just nice to get out and about and shooting for fun without any agenda is my favourite kind of photography outing.

DON’T LET THE BAD WEATHER HOLD YOU BACK OR KEEP YOU IN….. JUST GET OUT THERE AND SHOOT FOR FUN AND TRY IT IN MONO.

Everything is edible, there are no bits of wood or pipe to hold this together Mr Caceboss!

This festive season has been quite a difficult one for us in the Chunbull house.

With the deaths of two very close and dear members of our respective families in the final two months of the year we have found it difficult to find anything to be happy about, however we did, and we made “the season to be cheerful” as cheerful as we possibly could.

We did the swapping of gifts, we did the Christmas dinner and drinks, we did the Boxing Day shenanigans and we did the New Year’s Eve celebration. I even went out bright and early again on New Year’s Day to go and shoot the annual North Sea swim at Whitley bay.

I didn’t do much with the cameras this season but I have compiled a slide-show of some of my favourites that I did shoot….enjoy

This year the organisers didn’t want to take any chances so they scaled the event down and held it inside the Gateshead Heritage Centre at St.Mary’s Church.

The problem is they didn’t make it obvious to visitors where the event was actually being held and a lot of people, me included, were walking around the outside of the Sage, where it was held last year, looking for the stalls.

I was asked by a number of people where the event was as they couldn’t find the stalls and I asked the security person on duty and he directed us to the inside of the church.

A beautiful setting for the event and a lot warmer. However I have no doubt that numbers will have been down due to the downscaling and lack of directions for the public.

The Reindeer were a hit again this year, even though they had been cut back to just 3 animals.

The image that Gateshead council used to promote the event on their FaceBook Page did nothing to inspire people either. It looked as if they had got someone with a point and shoot compact to go out to a pen somewhere and grab a quick shot. It was dull and lifeless. Come on Gateshead Council make a bit of an effort! I even tried to supply you with an image you could have used FOC but nobody in the Communications department could do anything as the one person who deals with it was off!

Anyway, below are some shots of the event, let’s hope the Enchanted Parks at Saltwell is a little more inspiring.

• Download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware from here
  If you are unable to do this from the infected computer directly, transfer the file from another computer.
• Download the mbam-setup.exe to your desktop.
• Then launch mbam.exe in order to install Malwarebytes’ Anti-malware
• Once Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware is installed, run the program and if prompted to update do so.
• Once the program has loaded and updates were downloaded, select “Perform Quick Scan“, then click Scan.
• The scan may take some time to finish,so please be patient.
• When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
• Make sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When disinfection is completed, a log will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart, so please allow MBAM to restart.
• The log is automatically saved by MBAM and can be viewed by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM.

For My Sister

It really would be wonderful

To be with you each day…

To laugh with you,

And talk with you,

And pass the time away.

But since that isn’t possible,

The next best thing to do,

Now that we are so far apart

is to say that I love you.

God bless Pauline

1954 – 2011

For those of you who haven’t heard or seen it the Daily Shoot was a group of people from around the world, at last count it had 2065 members, that took part in a randomly chosen assignment each day and then posted their pictures to the group via Flickr, Twitter and the main Daily Shoot website.

This was a clever use of social media allowing the creators, Duncan and Mike, to get some great exposure for themselves and also all the people who took part benefited from that same exposure.

Some 50,000+ images were created and entered with outstanding quality from both amateur and professional alike.

I noticed quite a few people complain about assignments repetition, however when you think that these assignments were randomly chosen by a computer it’s no surprise that some were repeated.

These 2 guys did something off their own backs to help other photographers improve their skills or just simply motivate those who had lost their way. They introduced a whole world of people to each other and set up life long friendships between like minded people.

I for one will miss the site although, for the time being, the Flickr group is still going and the members are intending to continue in some form or another. I hope it doesn’t end up as just a dumping ground for all the mindless crap that some idiots feel compelled to force upon us all.

Anyway, I am going to look back at the assignments over the last 2 years, some 690 of them (including the repeats), recreate some of them and put them on here just for fun. You can view the page here. Make sure to bookmark it and visit regularly to see any new images.

The temperatures and sunshine are being attributed as the only explanation as to why these men died.

It is a very sad loss and my thoughts go out to their families and friends.

I must admit that today was the busiest I have ever seen the emergency services along the course in the years I have covered this event. Only a few years ago the event was moved to a later date in the year to avoid the heat after runners had died or collapsed with exhaustion. Maybe we will see this event moved further back still, into October maybe.

I captured one runner, Nicholas Longworth, just after he had come across the Tyne Bridge, in last position, and was amazed that he was running in a full suit of medieval armour! He looked positively worn out and seemed as if he was ready to give up. I have checked the official BUPA website to see if he made it to the finish but there is no record for him in the list of finished runners.

I have found him on Facebook and have sent him a message to make sure he is ok, if and when I hear from him I will update this post.

Update: Nicholas has posted on his Facebook page that he did 3 hours and 5 and a bit miles.  He’s feeling a bit sore and bruised but in good spirits.

He plans to do it again next year with a walking buddy to feed him along the route.

I for one look forward to seeing him succeed next year and will certainly make a donation to his chosen fund, I might even walk the course with him and catalogue his progress, if he’ll let me.

All the best Nicholas and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Nicholas Longworth Bupa Great North Run 2011

The weather was perfect for the event with broken cloud and sunshine all day long and an atmosphere that was electric.

The acts and fun came thick and fast with DJ’s Henry Montunno and Alx Alfaro, The Sage Gateshead’s Youth Ensemble “Rhythm Nation”,  Paco Bethencourt, Mary Adine Bethencourt and Lluis Lleo Oller Gallegos.

DJ Montunno gave a fun for all Salsa dance class and a very entertaining “pass the baton” game set to some great Latin American sounds.

The very talented Paco Bethencourt, Mary Adine Bethencourt and Lluis Lleo Oller Gallegos held a Flamenco dance workshop that had everybody up and getting involved. After this they invited the children in the audience to come and play some instruments with them and a chance to sing with Mary.

Food was provided and cooked on-site  by McKenna’s Restaurant of Newcastle. I tried the Paella and have to say it was one of the best I have ever tasted in this country.

Another great success for the ¡VAMOS! team who put their heart and soul into this festival and arrange a whole series of fantastic events around the region.

The next event I will be attending will be “Roots Rhythm” on Thursday 7th July 19:30 – Midnight at the Cumberland Arms, Ouseburn, Newcastle where, amongst others, Rumba NE will be performing. For full details visit the event’s Facebook page and for details of the rest of the festival, including the finale at South Shields, visit the main iVAMOS! programme

Here’s a taster of the day, the rest of the images can be viewed on my Flickr set.

We had just had a shower and then the sun came out. Lurking in the pot plants were these tiny little mushrooms and the sunlight was hitting them just right.

Ah well, back to my students