A Stroll in the Park

Newcastle Cosplayer's
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

On Saturday I had a most enjoyable day working with the Cosplayers from Newcastle

Wikipedia describes Cosplay as follows:

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), a contraction (or portmanteau) of the English words "costume" and "play", is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, Japanese movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume.

Ian (Digitalrevolution) and myself followed them around Newcastle capturing the event on camera. It was a fun day walking round the streets visiting various shops before all heading towards Leazes Park.

Both Ian and myself enjoyed the day and it was different from taken the usual landscapes and floral shots. I look forward to working more with the Cosplayers in future.

Links:

Newcastle Cosplayers My Space Site

North East Cosplayer Deviant Art

Animeleague.net

Millennium Bridge

Millennium Bridge
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne in England between Gateshead on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The award-winning structure was conceived and designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and structural engineers Gifford. The bridge is often referred to as the 'Winking Eye Bridge' due to its elliptical shape and its rotational movement.

Its the world's first and only tilting bridge!

Interesting Facts:

* Featured on a first class stamp in 2000.

* 36,000 people lined the banks of the River Tyne to watch the bridge tilt for the first time on 20th November 2000.

* Contains enough steel to make 64 double decker buses or 16 Chieftain tanks.

* Cost £22m to build.

* Each opening and closing takes four and a half minutes.

* Cleans up its own litter – anything dropped on the deck automatically rolls into special traps at each end of the bridge each time it opens.

* Can withstand a collision from a 4,000 tonne ship travelling at 4 knots.

* Has concrete foundations stretching to 30 metres, anchoring it to the river bed.

* Is powered by eight electric motors – enough power to run more than eight Ford Focus cars.

* Sits on 19,000 tonnes of concrete.

* Stretches 126 metres across the River Tyne.

* Was lowered into place by Europe's largest floating crane – Asian Hercules II.

* The very top of the arch stands 50 metres above the River Tyne when in its normal state.

* Weighs more than 800 tonnes.

* Is adjacent to an area called Baltic Square: an open-air performance space which has been host to a number of high profile events such as the first ever TOTP outdoor event in July 2004, Orange Evolution music festival 2005.

* Has been used in numerous television, film and media projects such as 55 Degrees North (BBC), the national football film GOAL! (GOAL Productions) and on the front cover of Bentley magazine.

Armed Forces day

Armed Forces day
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

100's of Harley Davidsons roared into South Tyneside at the weekend to pay respect to the thousands of servicemen and women fighting on the front line in battle zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Organised by the Badlanders Motorcycle Club, based around North East England, more than 100 bikers made their way to South Shields coastline to celebrate the first Armed Forces Day.

The bikes parked up on the field of Bents Park and visited the various stalls set up by the Army, including paint-balling activities.

The free open day, organised between 205 Battery and the nearby squadron 324 Air Cadets, featured various Army-style activities throughout the day, including field craft demonstrations and drills.

And people got the chance to see an Army rocket launcher up close, while the kids found out how to apply camouflage face paint from professional soldiers.

A Musical Interlude

Newcastle Shootaboot
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

Last weekend I had a shoot in Newcastle with Ian and Vee, Vee is with the Flickr "Shootaboot" group and is based in Milton Keynes. Although the weather was terrible with it constantly raining, but it certainly didn't dampen the spirits. The first place we called into was Central Arcade an elegant Edwardian shopping arcade built in 1906. For years the arcade was used by Buskers as the acoustics it provided was amazing. Moving across Grainger Street we next called into the Grainger Market.

The Grainger Market is the City's largest traditional market, situated in an elegant, classically styled building in Grainger Street near Grey's Monument. This under-cover market was the largest in Europe when first built in the 1830's. It sells mainly meat and vegetables with a good variety of game available. There are many other stalls, each with its own particular character. Hidden within is the unique "Marks and Spencer Original Penny Bazaar", the world's smallest Marks and Spencer store. Some Great photos were taken, not just of the market but some of the characters that work there.

We left the Market and headed down Grainger Street towards Newcastle Central Station. The Central station is the mainline railway station and is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line. It opened in 1850 and is a Grade I listed building. The railway station is connected to the adjacent underground Central Station Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro. Whilst in the station we met up with an interesting group of youth who did cosplay.

Cosplay, short for "costume roleplay", is a type of performance art whose participants outfit themselves, with often-elaborate costumes and accessories, as a specific character or idea. Characters are usually sourced in various Japanese and East Asian media, including manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. They were pleased that we actually came over and asked if we could take some photos as a lot of people just try and take sly photos of them. A few of them got into poses. We are planning to go again when they have their next meeting so we can take more organised photos of the day.

Moving out of the Station we headed down towards the Quayside, one of the most photographed places in Newcastle. At this stage we had to taken shelter as the heavens once again opened with a vengeance. We took a lot of photos in this area, not just on the Newcastle side but the much forgotten Gateshead side We headed back into the Centre of town for a much needed rest and a beautiful meal in a Sicilian Restaurant, here we had time to have a laugh check what photos we had already taken and relax.

No Visit to Newcastle is complete without a visit to the Flickr Wall:-

A TYNESIDE alley has been transformed into a beacon for urban artists. Bell’s Court is a narrow pathway, dubbed Newcastle’s Secret by chalk artists, which branches off from Pilgrim Street and has become home to a growing mural of drawings and poetic messages.

Contributors to the mural run a dedicated page on image-sharing website Flickr where they post photographs of their latest chalk creations.

The web page has been running for more than three years and has a cult following of members who have added markings to the wall over time to transform it into a pocket of colour in a concrete street.

From the Flickr wall we headed back down towards the Quayside to take some photos of the bridge in the twilight hours. Just by the Millennium Bridge was these two musicians, entertaining the crowds that gather on the Quayside visiting the various clubs and pubs in the area.

The Day, despite the weather was a great success, it was great to meet Vee and would love to meet up again for another "Shootaboot". Fort anybody else reading this and they fancy a shoot around in Newcastle just drop me a line, Im always willing to meet us with fellow togs.