Deliciously Dave

Project365-5

2010-02-20T14:35:00.001-08:00

Project365-5
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

Anybody brought up in the old terraced houses should remember the coal house hatch, used by the coalmen to put coal directly into your coalhouse from the backlane. I can recall when I was kid and mothers then used to hang their washing in the backlanes (there was no chance of it getting pinched in them days) we used to listen for the coalman or the binman coming then run down the back lane shouting "missus be quick, the coalmans coming" enabling them to get their washing in before it got marked from the coal van. We often used to get rewarded for this with the occassional homemade biscuit and if we were lucky an old penny, I know it doesnt sound much but it was a lot in the last 50's

Project365-4

2010-02-18T01:55:00.001-08:00

Project365-4
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

Yesterday I visited South Shields Roman Fort where they had a snakes day. This is the Royal Python they had on display.

Python regius (Royal Python) is a non-venomous python species found in Africa. This is the smallest of the African pythons and is popular in the pet trade. No subspecies are currently recognized.

The name royal python (from the Latin "regius") is based in part on the story that Cleopatra supposedly wore the snake around her wrist.

This species is particularly revered in the traditional religion of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria. It is considered symbolic of the earth, being an animal that travels so close to the ground. Even among many Christian Igbos, these pythons are treated with great care whenever they happen to wander into a village or onto someone's property; they are allowed to roam freely or are very gently picked up and placed out in a forest or field away from any homes. If one is accidentally killed, many communities in Igboland will still build a coffin for the snake's remains and give it a short funeral.

Project 365-3 Bruno

2010-02-17T08:48:00.001-08:00

Project 365-3 Bruno
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

I had my day 3 photo all planned out for today and had actually been out and taken it. Then along came my friends and his Boxer dog Bruno. After he finished eaten my slippers, which was rather painful as I had them on at the time,out came the camera to capture this playful pup. Bruno is only 5 months old and still in his playful pup stage, hopefully I can capture so more of him later in my 365.

Project 365-2 - South Tyneside Hospital

2010-02-16T02:50:00.001-08:00

Project 365-2 - South Tyneside Hospital
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

South Tyneside Hospital orginally started live as a Workhouse. The orginal South Shields Workhouse was build in German Street (just off Ocean Rd). By the 1870s, the German Street building was proving too small and in 1875 it was decided to build a new workhouse at a site on the edge of Harton Moor. The foundation stone for the new building was laid in September 1877 by the Chairman of the Board of Guardians, Mr WM Anderson JP. The architect for the scheme was Joseph Hall Morton who was also involved in the design of the nearby workhouse at Gateshead. Construction of the building cost £43,361 but the total cost including the purchase of 17 acres from the Church Commissioners was in the region of £55,000. The new workhouse started admitting paupers in 1878 although the building work was not finally completed until early in 1880. It initially accommodated 700 inmates and comprised an entrance block, main building, infirmary, and schools.

Successive additions were made to the site and by 1910 it was estimated that the cost to date had been £94,750 with the workhouse now able to accommodate 1,200 inmates excluding those in the separate lunatics' block at the south-east of the site.

South Shields workhouse has now become associated with the name of the novelist Catherine Cookson (1906-1998). Born into a poor family at Tyne Dock in South Shields, Catherine left school because of ill health before she was thirteen and followed her mother into domestic service. However, she began to try and educate herself through reading and night classes. At the age of 18, she obtained a job in the South Shields workhouse laundry.

Orginal Workshops and Laundry Block

Chinese New Year

2010-02-15T02:55:00.001-08:00

Chinese New Year
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

Yesterday was the Celebrations of the Chinese New Year in Newcastle, along with a group of togs from Flickr we went along to capture the festivities

Dancing dragons and firecrackers marked the start of the Year of the Tiger, with crowds packed in at Newcastle’s Stowell Street to get a glimpse of the festivities.

Accompanied by flags, cymbals and drums, a green dragon worked its way through the crowds of people who had come to celebrate alongside the Chinese community.

It was followed by lions that danced in front of a group of Newcastle dignitaries before going to each building along the street in turn as firecrackers went off to add to the excitement.

It was very hard to capture the parade with the area been so packed with people, so I decided to wonder around amongst the crowds capturing the stalls and the stage area

project 365-1

2010-02-14T09:50:00.001-08:00

project 365-1
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

Well today was my first day of my Project 365 and I managed to get up close and personal with the Chinese Dragon during the Newcastle Chinese New Year (more on that to follow). Im pleased to get the first photo in the bag. Just 364 to go :)

Im still here really

2010-02-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't know it had been that long since I wrote in my blog, so I best bring you all up to date on whats been happening. I continued to get out and about with my camera till about November time when my health took a turn for the worse. I was admitted to hospital after having a bad angina attack, after spending the night in hospital, I had to go and see the heart specialist and have a scan. The results of the scan weren't good with 2 of my main arteries closing up again. I was scheduled in to have an angiogram so he could see better what the problem was. The angiogram is a slightly painful procedure but gives the surgeon a clear view of where the problem lies. The surgeon came round later that day and informed me I needed an angioplasty and he would try and fit a couple of stents. Surgery was arranged for the beginning of December, but as the date was getting nearer it was postponed due to me still having swelling in my arm. It was rearranged for Mid-December. I duly turned up at the Freeman Hospital all prepared for the procedure. I was scheduled to go down just after lunch. I made it to the theatre only for there to be a major power cut in Newcastle, although the hospital has emergency generators there was not enough power to go ahead with the procedure. After waiting for another hour or so the surgeon decided to cancel the rest of the operations for the day. So I returned home without having the procedure. As Christmas was approaching I got a phone call from the main surgeon at the Freeman, he had a cancellation and could I come in on the 23rd for my procedure, could this be 3rd time lucky. Again I was scheduled to go down just after lunch. This time I was lucky and the surgery went ahead as planned 2hrs later I was back on the ward. I had 3 stents fitted to to my main arteries around the heart. My Wrist was still damaged from earlier surgery, so they had to go in via my groin, the only problem with this entry is you have to lie perfectly flat for 5hrs, so an overnight stay was required again. Christmas was quite and I couldn't do much having to rest up for a week afterwards. The weather was terrible in the North East so I didn't get out much. After visiting for my post Op Care with the cardiac nurse I was informed I had slight Post Operative Depression, apparently this is quite common for patients who have had heart surgery. I have just signed up for Project 365, where you take one photo a day, I though a challenge like this would get me out and about again and get the creative juices flowing again. Hopefully it will give me something to blog about as well. The Project starts on 14th Feb, I should get off to a good start as I am planning to go to the Chinese New Year.

Studio Course Day 1

2009-10-12T23:38:00.001-07:00

Studio Course Day 2 cropped version
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

On the 8th and 9th of October, I attended a Studio course with Tom Charlton Photography in Wallsend. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was one area of photography that I wanted to explore. The first thing that surprised me was the size of the studio, although not overly large it was surprising big. At one end of the room was all the backdrops and the lights, the top part was a large table with a lot of equipment laid out. The first hour of the course was spend going through the equipment leaning what each one was and what function it did. Next we went down to the studio part as I was introduced to the various backgrounds and the lights. After nearly 2 hours still not a shot taken in anger. At last we picked up our cameras and set them up to work with the studio lights, for the technically minded we shot in Manual mode with a shutter speed of 1/125 and an aperture of f8. The first few shots were used with the on camera flash to demonstrate how harsh the flash can be and the sort of shadows it casts.

After a few shots using a plain white background and the on camera flash at long last we moved into the studio area to use a blue background. Fitting a Radio Flash trigger to the camera, we set up the first shot. A single light with shoot through umbrella and reflector. Before shooting you need to use a light meter to set up the light so it is in sync with your camera. Again we took a few practice shots

Still not perfect and a horrible shadow in the background. This time we added another light to the right had side and fitted a snoot to it. A snoot is like a long tube, which you use to create a hair light.

A definite improvement, The next set up we took away the hair light and set up a light just behind the model and fitted a honeycomb grid, a honeycomb grid controls the overspill of light similar to the way a snoot would, but on a much larger scale, an interesting note here when you are adding and taken away lights you have to keep on checking with your light meter to make sure all the lights are in sync with your camera.

As you can see this is a good portrait, but we didn't stop there with the colour background, we added another light fitted with a silver reflector umbrella, so now

we were using 3 light and again each one had to be set.

A nice evenly lit portrait. We put away the coloured background to prepare to work on a black background. We were back to using one light again but with a softbox fitted this time. The main light needs to be higher than the camera.

For the next part of the background set we added some diffusers to the softbox and added a hair light to the right of the model.

For the last setup of the day we introduced a trireflector, as the name suggests its 3 reflectors in one, this was placed underneath the models chin and about chest height.

So that was the day finished, if anybody says that taken photos of models in a studio is easy, its not. Its enjoyable but hard work, and I still had tomorrow to go, where I would learn how to use 6 lights together.

A Stroll in the Park

2009-07-07T19:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-03T00:38:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-02T01:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-01T01:14:00.001-07:00

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.

up close and personal

2009-06-30T14:06:00.001-07:00

up close and personal
Originally uploaded by CrazyDave53

What a day I had trying to capture this little beauty. I originally came down into South Shields to go and capture some images at The Armed Forces Day in Bents Park after scooting around taking photos of bikes and anything else of interest I headed over to Marine Park. I had notice on the way down that the gardeners had redone all the flower beds, so perfect for a couple of Macro shots. As I got to the end of the park I noticed this bee flying around gathering pollen, and I thought OK lets try and capture it. If anybody has ever sat and watched a bee buzzing from flower to flower will understand this next part. I was literally jumping from flower to flower following this bee around snapping away in the hope of getting the perfect shot. I'm not sure what other people thought, who was gazing over at some amusement at such a spectacle that was been played in front of their very eyes. Approximately 20 shots later after both the bee and myself were totally exhausted, I checked my camera to find I had done it :)

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